War For The Planet Of The Apes
(12A)
JJJJ Despair at humanity’s collective cruelty and hubris has always been at the heart of the Planet Of The Apes movies, so it’s no surprise that the current iteration of the long-running franchise has been one of the more intelligent blockbuster revivals of recent years. Arriving in cinemas after some pretty significant political shocks, War For The Planet Of The
Apes feels perfect for the times, largely because the times feel terrible and the prospect of rooting for another species to replace our own seems entirely natural. Returning director Matt Reeves picks up the action a couple of years after the last film concluded with the apes, led by talking chimp Caesar (Andy Serkis), facing a new threat in the form of a megalomaniacal military commander (Woody Harrelson) who seems intent on making his corner of America great again by enslaving the apes in a bid to simultaneously reassert human dominance and build a walled compound that will keep external threats at bay. More philosophical than the average summer blockbuster, this still delivers the spectacle of a war movie. But it’s the motion-captured simian characters that count. These apes feel like our best selves.