Reeves, an instinctively visual storyteller, likes to hold his characters in extended close-up, and he is understandably eager to showcase his ape ensemble, whose expressive twitches and gestures attest to the latest advances in performance-capture technology. Under these circumstances, it’s fitting that silence should become such a powerful force in “War for the Planet of the Apes,” whose stately, never-draggy 142-minute running time features several gloriously talk-free passages.
It is in many ways a fate worse than death, and it explains the fanatical extremism of the Colonel and his followers, who are ruthless about destroying not only the apes but also the infected humans within their own ranks. Even as the apes’ language skills continue to evolve - most of them communicate via (helpfully subtitled) sign language, though several, like Caesar, have become proficient English speakers - many of the humans who survived the virus’ initial onslaught are now losing the gift of speech. The other newcomer is a courageous young human girl named Nova (Amiah Miller), who has been stricken mute by the virus.
One enemy turned comrade is a wily zoo refugee, named “Bad Ape” by his former captors he’s wonderfully played by Steve Zahn, bringing some welcome levity to the proceedings while enriching our sense of what has become of the world’s broader ape population. Naturally there are harrowing complications and unexpected meetings in store, and it is a measure of the underlying compassion of “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the optimism beneath its apocalyptic gloom, that these tense encounters tend to give rise to new friendships more often than not.
#WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES FULL MOVIE FREE SERIES#
The journey to the Colonel’s compound is paved with stunning backdrops, namely a series of snowy mountain vistas that, as shot by cinematographer Michael Seresin on gorgeous 65-millimeter film, give the movie a bleakness and desolation all its own. It’s the rare Hollywood reboot that really does feel like the product of a higher intelligence. The crucial difference here is that the series’ vision seems to have evolved in sync with the visual-effects technology, rather than being eclipsed by it. Of course, seriousness (to say nothing of self-seriousness) is nothing new on the blockbuster landscape, and these three recent “Apes” movies are hardly the first of their kind to traffic in grim allegories of oppression and xenophobia. It would be hard to overstate just how singular this picture feels in its seriousness of purpose and in its cumulative power to enthrall and astonish. “War,” co-written by Reeves and Mark Bomback, completes this progression with breathtaking formal beauty and tonal control. Reeves, after all, was the filmmaker who gave “Dawn” its unusual gravity and emotional grandeur, veering away from the high-spirited “Rise” (brilliantly directed in its own right by Rupert Wyatt) in pursuit of something altogether darker and more despairing. Perhaps that last part won’t be so surprising. Viewers expecting an epic clash between two equally vicious primate factions may be surprised - though not, I imagine, disappointed - by the eerie calm that hangs over this picture, and by the grace and restraint with which the writer-director Matt Reeves guides the story from its explosive beginning to its elegiac finale. By the often bloody and bombastic standards of the genre, this masterful third chapter is not much of a war movie at all. “Dawn” caught up with the action a decade later, amid escalating tensions between the apes and their fast-dwindling homo sapiens counterparts.Īll this is helpfully summarized at the beginning of “War for the Planet of the Apes,” whose title may be cause for still further bewilderment. “Rise,” the first in a series of prequels to the original “Apes” movies, chronicled the outbreak of a simian virus that birthed a new line of super-intelligent apes and initiated the fall of man.
Based on their titles, shouldn’t “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014) come before “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011)?Ī quick recap may be in order. A few thousand years from now, alien anthropologists sifting through the remnants of our once-proud civilization may survey Hollywood’s 21st century simian-themed blockbusters with some confusion.
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