War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) Review

War for the Planet of the Apes Review

Director: Matt Reeves

Screenwriters: Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves

Producers: Peter Chemin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver

Starring: Andy Serkis and Woody Harrelson

Composer: Michael Giacchino

Cinematographer: Michael Seresin

Editors: William Hoy and Stan Saifas 

Production Company: Chemin Entertainment

Part I: Introduction

I was pretty excited to see the third iteration of the Planet of the Apes reboot. In my opinion, I think the new Planet of the Apes movies have been very good. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was decently good. I didn't think it was that great of a movie, especially compared to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which is a great movie. So, how is War for the Planet of the Apes? War for the Planet of the Apes is a FANTASTIC film (probably even better than Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).

Part II: Plot Synopsis

Caesar, played by Andy Serkis, and his apes are dragged into a war that was caused by Koba in the last film. Caesar must protect his family and fight an army of soldiers led by a man known as The Colonel (Woody Harrelson).

Part III: Direction & Style

Direction
The direction here is great. I loved how the director decided to approach the narrative here in a more mature light. Matt Reeves did a good job setting up a more mature and realistic depiction of....the war for the planet of the apes.

Style
The style here is good. Even though it lacks flare, I don't think this type of movie needs visual flare and style for it to work. This movie has a more dark and mature tone to it and it works here.

Part IV: Visual Presentation

Cinematography & Framing
The cinematography by Michael Seresin is great. There were definitely a lot of shots that I liked. Uses of lighting and framing were also spectacular. Lots of variety with different landscapes and environments that really caught my eye.

Camerawork
The camerawork is also pretty good. No complaints for that.

Acting
The acting here is spectacular. Woody Harrelson did a very good job playing the role of the Colonel. I'll get into the motion capture work later in this review, but Andy Serkis' performance, in my opinion, is arguably Oscar-worthy. He sells it as Caesar. The human characters should also get Oscar nominations for not laughing when there's a bunch of dudes running around in Spandex and motion capture suits. Jokes aside, the acting is good here.

Editing
Editing here is solid here. Also no complaints for that.

Visual Effects & Motion Capture
Let's talk about the visual effects, especially the motion capture animations and effects. Usually, when I talk about good movies, they have some sort of main strength to them (or a "gimmick"). Like Baby Driver's main strength is the musical composition. The main strength of War of the Planet of the Apes is its motion capture work. The motion capture work done here, in my opinion, would easily earn an Academy Award nomination. This is some of the best motion capture animation I've seen and War of the Planet of the Apes has maintained that from its predecessor.

Part V: Sound Design and Musical Composition

Sound Design 

Sound design is great. The sounds coming from the apes sounded great. Everything else coming from the sound design is also pretty solid.

Score

The score from Michael Giacchino, who composes every movie apparently, is great. I loved his score in this movie. There was one part I didn't like about his score, but I'm not going to talk about that because I'll get into spoilers. And I won't really blame him for this little pet peeve I have with his score because I think that was more of a directorial choice. But who knows? It was just a small pet peeve. The score was good and I loved it as usual from Michael Giacchino.

Part VI: Screenwriting & Character Composition

Script & Screenwriting

The script is spectacularly written. There is a lot of depth here in the story. The storytelling in this movie is good. I liked its mature depths and how morally complex it is. I liked how they didn't just approach this in some generic fashion. Like, if humans just attack apes for no reason or vice versa. No, both sides have valid reasons why they are at war with each other. I'm not going to explain what those reasons are because, obviously, that's a spoiler but each of them had reasoning that basically boiled down to them just wanting to survive and they had no other choice.

Character Composition

I think the character composition is the weakest part of the movie. At the same time, it isn't because there is a lot of good characterization in this movie. The dynamic between the Colonel and Caesar is excellent. Okay, let me explain. Usually, a lot of the time, movies establish what I call an "audience character". This character is usually the comic-relief type character to deliver funny lines or jokes to get the core audience's attention in case they get bored. Well, there was this character called "Bad Ape" voiced by Steve Zahn. I'm not going into spoilers, but I just didn't like this character at all, especially the lines he made. Most of what he said wasn't really funny to me. The audience in my theater laughed, so maybe many people will get a laugh out of him. But, I didn't like how this character was characterized in the film. He didn't need to be a comic-relief type character and sometimes it ruined a bit of the tone that was established in certain scenes. I'm not saying this character ruined the movie for me. Fortunately, he doesn't show up very often. But, it was just pretty obvious that the reason they had this character was so they can keep the audience from being bored.

Pacing

The film is well-paced. I didn't really catch any glaring issues with its pacing. Is it perfect? No. For example, the second act to the third act, in my opinion, went a little slow. However, it's good enough that I can accept its slower pace in that portion of the film.

Part VII: Verdict & Conclusion

War of the Planet of the Apes, if you haven't guessed already, is an amazing film. I'm really hesitant to give it an A+. Man, it's so close to an A+ in my mind. If not, then this is a really strong A for me. This is a prime example of treating a pre-existing franchise justice and properly expanding off of it. The motion capture work, the morally complex and interesting story, the dynamic between Caesar and the Colonel, and the score are amazing. This all comes together to make a very well-made film. You know what, forget it. I'll just give this movie an A+ because, one, I'm dying for a movie to get an A+ from me already and I think this movie deserves to be the first movie, this year, to achieve an A+ from me. For some reason, whenever we get a trilogy, the third movies usually come up short. This time, War of the Planet of the Apes is one of those rare movies where the third movie is actually the best in the trilogy. 

Score: A+