War for the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2017
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Gabriel Chavarria, Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer, Toby Kebbell, Andy Serkis & Steve Zahn
Runtime: 140 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 18/03/24
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Gabriel Chavarria, Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer, Toby Kebbell, Andy Serkis & Steve Zahn
Runtime: 140 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 18/03/24
Warning: This review contains spoilers for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes
Development on a third entry in the Planet of the Apes reboot films was already underway by the time the second film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, was wrapping up. Matt Reeves was set to return as director, and Dawn ended on somewhat of an ominous note with an army of humans on their way to eradicate Caesar’s ape colony. It’s strange then that War for the Planet of the Apes released with relatively little fanfare in 2017 and grossed only a little over half of what Dawn did and only slightly more than 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. So, what happened?
For two years Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his colony of apes have been fighting the human militia ‘Alpha-Omega’ led by ‘the Colonel’ (Woody Harrelson). Caesar seeks peace, maintaining that this was not a war he started, and one he hoped to stop by killing the human hating ape, Koba (Toby Kebbell).
When the militia strikes the apes home, killing Caesar’s family, it is decided that the apes will journey to a new home away from former sites of human civilisation where they will be safer. But as Caesar grapples with the grief of losing his family, he seeks revenge on the humans and places the entire ape colony in danger.
For two years Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his colony of apes have been fighting the human militia ‘Alpha-Omega’ led by ‘the Colonel’ (Woody Harrelson). Caesar seeks peace, maintaining that this was not a war he started, and one he hoped to stop by killing the human hating ape, Koba (Toby Kebbell).
When the militia strikes the apes home, killing Caesar’s family, it is decided that the apes will journey to a new home away from former sites of human civilisation where they will be safer. But as Caesar grapples with the grief of losing his family, he seeks revenge on the humans and places the entire ape colony in danger.
Dawn drew heavily from 1973’s Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and so it would be natural to assume that War treads new ground seeing as Battle was the last entry of the original Planet of the Apes film series. However, War actually is also heavily influenced by Battle. Where Dawn was more concerned with a challenge for the position of alpha among the apes, War is more concerned with conflict against a dying humanity, which was honestly the least interesting part of Battle for the Planet of the Apes. It’s really quite impressive that Matt Reeves has managed to make two films that exceed two hours in length out of one film that barely pushed an hour and a half. My sentiments for Dawn were that it was the film that Battle should always have been had it been given a larger budget and a longer runtime, my sentiments for War however are less favourable. It’s by no means a bad film, roughly on par with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s definitely a significant step back from the heights that Dawn achieved.
A lot of War’s runtime is rather unsurprisingly devoted to action sequences. They are good ones, particularly the finale, but it definitely leaves you craving some of the more thought-provoking material from Dawn. There are very few moments where War takes a more philosophical approach that the franchise has been built on. The only one that really stands out is Caesar’s internal conflict over his newfound hatred for humanity. But it’s not really explored that much, and it feels like such massive character assassination because Caesar has always been able to separate emotion from the equation if required, but here he refuses to see anything but his own personal feelings.
One of the films more interesting elements is Nova (Amiah Miller), a mute human child whom Maurice cares for following the death of her father. Whilst Nova herself isn’t given all that much to do, it’s the implication of her character that is interesting. It’s revealed that the Simian Flu, has evolved and begun attacking the brains of anyone who catches this new strain. In the case of humans that catch it, it starts to return them to a more primal state, losing higher cognitive functions such as speech. It’s a great way to illustrate how ape continues to dominate man, but also nicely sets up how future generations of ape will see humans as just dumb animals as was portrayed in the original Planet of the Apes.
But I do take one major issue with it, and I’ll have to dip into spoiler territory here.
Late in the film Nova gives an imprisoned Caesar a doll she has been carrying around with her which is then discovered by the Colonel and confiscated.
The next time we see the Colonel, which is only supposed to be a few hours later, he has contracted this evolved Simian Flu and has lost the ability to talk. How has this affliction taken hold of him so quickly? Nova’s father wasn’t affected, so does this new variant only affect certain individuals? To me it seems like plot convenience to get the Colonel out of the way easily and make the humans vulnerable for the final battle.
A lot of War’s runtime is rather unsurprisingly devoted to action sequences. They are good ones, particularly the finale, but it definitely leaves you craving some of the more thought-provoking material from Dawn. There are very few moments where War takes a more philosophical approach that the franchise has been built on. The only one that really stands out is Caesar’s internal conflict over his newfound hatred for humanity. But it’s not really explored that much, and it feels like such massive character assassination because Caesar has always been able to separate emotion from the equation if required, but here he refuses to see anything but his own personal feelings.
One of the films more interesting elements is Nova (Amiah Miller), a mute human child whom Maurice cares for following the death of her father. Whilst Nova herself isn’t given all that much to do, it’s the implication of her character that is interesting. It’s revealed that the Simian Flu, has evolved and begun attacking the brains of anyone who catches this new strain. In the case of humans that catch it, it starts to return them to a more primal state, losing higher cognitive functions such as speech. It’s a great way to illustrate how ape continues to dominate man, but also nicely sets up how future generations of ape will see humans as just dumb animals as was portrayed in the original Planet of the Apes.
But I do take one major issue with it, and I’ll have to dip into spoiler territory here.
Late in the film Nova gives an imprisoned Caesar a doll she has been carrying around with her which is then discovered by the Colonel and confiscated.
The next time we see the Colonel, which is only supposed to be a few hours later, he has contracted this evolved Simian Flu and has lost the ability to talk. How has this affliction taken hold of him so quickly? Nova’s father wasn’t affected, so does this new variant only affect certain individuals? To me it seems like plot convenience to get the Colonel out of the way easily and make the humans vulnerable for the final battle.
Another thing that disappointed me slightly with War is that the visual effects don’t seem quite as spectacular as Dawn’s do. This might have something to do with Dawn being a significantly darker film than War is, managing to hide the limitations of the effects better. But the character models for the apes in War do feel slightly more reminiscent of those from Rise, with them standing out like a sore thumb against real actors and environments.
The performances themselves remain exceedingly strong, particularly from Serkis, but the actual quality of the animation itself appears to be somewhat lower than the previous outing.
With all of these issues it’s unsurprising that War for the Planet of the Apes didn’t attain the same level of acclaim that its predecessor did. From the weaker story, and the focus on action over intellectual themes, to the lower quality special effects, War is all round a weaker film than Dawn was. But I would say it still succeeds at being entertaining, and as far as modern blockbusters go, the Planet of the Apes franchise is certainly one of the more unique ones out there. The series would go quiet for some time following the release of War, but here’s hoping that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is another stellar return for the long running franchise.
The performances themselves remain exceedingly strong, particularly from Serkis, but the actual quality of the animation itself appears to be somewhat lower than the previous outing.
With all of these issues it’s unsurprising that War for the Planet of the Apes didn’t attain the same level of acclaim that its predecessor did. From the weaker story, and the focus on action over intellectual themes, to the lower quality special effects, War is all round a weaker film than Dawn was. But I would say it still succeeds at being entertaining, and as far as modern blockbusters go, the Planet of the Apes franchise is certainly one of the more unique ones out there. The series would go quiet for some time following the release of War, but here’s hoping that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is another stellar return for the long running franchise.