Film War for the Planet of the Apes; The Journey
The final instalment shows the Planet of the Apes trilogy has continued to evolve.
It’s been six years since Rise of the Planet of the Apes and three since its sequel, so a brief recap is in order: James Franco good human. Other human not. Human imprison ape. Human get sick. Ape get smart. Ape have nothing to lose but chains. Caesar lead ape. Human kill ape, claiming selfdefence. Jane Goodall nowhere to be seen. War ensues.
Thus, a blockbuster franchise made with finesse, intelligence and a glut of political allegory has been the best series to emerge from Hollywood’ s superhero-obsessed depths since the Hunger Games. With successive pictures, the CGI apes, performed by such masters as Andy Serkis, have become a marvel of realness. Their fur turns slick and matted in the rain, coats striped with grey. Watch the eyes
too, minutely bloodshot and glistening with tears.
Far more impressive is what director Matt Reeves has done with his hairy cast, inverting the expected and making us believe these simians are naturally superior – more logical, more empathetic, more humane – to incurably violent Homo sapiens.
This final instalment’s title suggests an inevitable showdown. Caesar, wearied by years of bare survival, wants to lead his gang out of the San Francisco woods to freedom on the prairie. A Colonel Kurtz villain (Woody Harrelson, complete with Brando’s lilting, threatening tone) has less peaceful ideas. And lest we forget that we’re headed for the heart of darkness, the glimpsed graffito “Ape-Apocalypse Now” makes it clear.
Curiously, what unfolds couldn’t look less like a war picture. It begins aggressively enough, with a striking sequence of forest combat told in long tracking shots from above, bright orange tracer flecking the canopy. But then it settles into a patient and often sentimental adventure, resounding with questions of revenge, barbarity, slavery and power.
In the middle of the maelstrom, the director finds time for moments of strange bonding. Five unbearably tender minutes are spent on a nearly motionless and wordless encounter between a sad-eyed orangutan and a mute human child: you won’t find that in the next Avengers movie.
Reeves, bless him, is so in thrall to the apparent reality of his chimp creations that he risks breaking their spell at points. If we realise mid-scene that we’ve been watching a bunch of computer-monkeys act out the shadows of human emotion, it might look a little silly. Indeed, there are a few moments that flirt with absurdity: how exactly is that horse supposed to carry a 180kg gorilla? And does that gorilla really know how to reload his automatic rifle?
Of course, none of it could be as bad as Tim Burton’s rubbery 2001 remake. Rather, in War for the Planet of the Apes, we find a skilfully made conclusion to an often brilliant trilogy.
It’s an adventure, resounding with questions of revenge, barbarity, slavery and power.
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