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.
