War for the Planet of the Apes

Dir: Matt Reeves

2017

***

At this point in the remake/reboot Planet of the Apes franchise I’m afraid I have little enthusiasm. That said, I found War for the Planet of the Apes to be a great popcorn film and I was entertained throughout. I couldn’t remember what had happened in the previous film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and can only really remember what had happened in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Essentially, it didn’t feel like it mattered too much as these films were really only remakes of the last two original films; Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle of the Planet of the Apes, both of which I remember well even though it has been many years since I first saw them. None of the film needed to be remade and lessons should have been learned from Tim Burton’s rather woeful remake of the original. I think the real problem I have with the new three films is that why should I care? It is the twist ending of the original film that really started the need to know more about the Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes should have killed off the franchise there and then. I absolutely love Escape from the Planet of the Apes though and there is also a lot to be said for Conquest and Battle that followed a few years later. If Rise, Dawn and War were to fill in the gaps then fair enough, but as these are remakes, we are essentially in a new Ape universe where none of the cool stuff we liked about the original have happened, so again, why should I care? They don’t really bring anything new to the idea and after three films, there still hasn’t been anything as near as interesting as the last thirty seconds of the original. However, I digress, War for the Planet of the Apes is easy viewing, much of the story has been formed already in the first two films, so at least the story can progress without much delay. What I really liked about this chapter is that it is almost entirely Ape led. The humans come into it later, but essentially this is the first 100% Planet of the Ape film from the Ape’s perspective – not counting Escape from the Planet of he Apes which is a different sort of film from the rest. Returning director Matt Reeves and writer Mark Bomback have said that for the third film of the reboots (the ninth Planet of the Ape film in the franchise) they watched thousands of movies, ranging from westerns to war films, and even a bit of space sci-fi. You can certainly see the western and war film influence and it makes for a much more interesting film. Most of the film sees Andy Serkis’s Caesar on horseback, wandering the land with his posse looking for answers – which is classic western. The finale is a combination of captive and battle themed war films, with many classics being obvious influences. It incorporates many elements seen in previous Planet of the Ape films but essentially this is a war western with monkeys instead of cowboys or solders and I have absolutely no problem with that. It is what it is. The special effects are what they are, I’m no less impressed than I was the first time we saw them but they are now nothing new. What I did like was the references to the earlier Ape films. The little mute girl they find is called Nova, just like the mute slave girl from the first film played by Linda Harrison. This isn’t the same character as there would be around a thousand years between them but it was a nice touch. The giant ‘X’s that the humans use to tie up the Apes are the same as seen in the original film and I also liked the way the rebelling group of humans were called Alpha and Omega, like the bomb that was worshiped underground in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I expected references to the original but I would have thought Beneath the Planet of the Apes was the one film of the franchise that would have been swept way under the carpet. Steve Zahn’s Bad Ape character opens up many possibilities within the franchise but I hope the story continues with Caesar as the central point and that it doesn’t open up the idea, expanding the Planet of the Ape ‘universe’. Three sequels and four reboots is quite enough and more than the original deserved, as good as it was. This particular story-line needs to keep everything in focus and shouldn’t stray too far from where it is. If it does however, it should go all out and be a musical or should take place in space (or both). Apart from the impact of the original film’s twist, what the franchise really lacks is the warmth that Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter) brought to it in the originals. They are the characters that made me fall in love with Planet of the Apes and what they had is what is missing. It’s a great action film with monkeys, probably my favorite of the reboots so far, but that’s about it.