Movie Review: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Movie #12 of 2017:

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

So… as you may have noticed over the past few days, I kind of love the Planet of the Apes franchise. (It’s one of those sleeper cell fandoms for me, where I don’t post about it for years at a time and then a new movie comes out and I remind you that I’m obsessed.) I own all seven of the earlier canonical movies, I’ve seen each one multiple times, and I rewatched the two most recent films a couple days ago in anticipation of this new one. It’s safe to say that I had high hopes for War, even setting aside the fact that I drove three hours in the pouring rain and DC/Baltimore rush hour traffic to see it with my mom (who got me hooked on the original film series back in the day).

So keep all that in mind when I tell you that this is probably the best Planet of the Apes movie ever made. I think I need to see it one more time to decide whether it beats out Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) or not, but it’s definitely right up there with that one. It’s a gorgeously-shot snow-covered post-apocalyptic western mashed up with a war movie – and not one of those war movies that’s just endless battle scenes, but one suffused in the anguish of warfare with thoughtful treatment of occupying forces, collaborators, POW labor camps, and so much more. The plotting is nice too, with more links put in place tying these prequels to the original film and Caesar’s character arc taking an interesting turn into a dig-two-graves revenge narrative, only to come back around to his roots as a Moses figure at the movie’s end. But even with all that heaviness, the comedy lands really well too, tapping into a sense of humor that we haven’t really seen in this franchise since Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).

I think I was right to predict that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) is going to be the least memorable of this prequel trilogy, but I’m hoping that War, as great as it is, will not be the end of the road for this story. After all, there’s still plenty of ground to cover before the Icarus lands.

★★★★★

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