War for the Planet of the Apes draws on the traditions of the western and the biblical epic to give its protagonist a conclusion of tragic grandeur. Matt Reeves's 2017 picture is not a conventional war film despite its title: it is a film about endurance, sacrifice, and the relationship between a leader's personal suffering and his people's survival, built around an Andy Serkis performance of sustained emotional and moral complexity.
At a Glance
Director: Matt Reeves
Runtime: 140 minutes
Starring: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Amiah Miller, Karin Konoval
Release: 2017
Critics Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, a grave and ambitious conclusion to the Caesar trilogy)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, the trilogy's most emotionally devastating entry)
Plot
Following the events of Dawn, Caesar leads his colony in search of a new home while being hunted by the Colonel, a rogue military commander who has established a slave labour camp using ape prisoners. When the Colonel kills Caesar's wife and son, Caesar sends his people ahead and embarks on a personal mission of vengeance, eventually finding himself imprisoned in the Colonel's camp alongside his enslaved people. The screenplay by Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves draws on the traditions of the revenge western and the prisoner-of-war film to give the narrative an epic dimension that the franchise's previous entries had not attempted, and the willingness to subordinate action spectacle to Caesar's internal moral struggle gives it a gravity that distinguishes it from the blockbuster genre's more conventional finales.
Characters
Serkis's Caesar reaches the end of his arc as a figure of tragic complexity, a leader whose personal desire for vengeance threatens to compromise the values that have defined his leadership, and whose eventual transcendence of that desire is the trilogy's most emotionally affecting development. The most important decision is the consistent focus on Caesar's internal struggle rather than on the external conflict that the title promises, and Serkis communicates the character's suffering, his moral uncertainty, and his eventual resolution with a physical specificity and a depth that make the conclusion moving. Woody Harrelson's Colonel is the trilogy's most complex human antagonist, a man whose ruthlessness is driven by a concern for human survival rather than simple malice, and whose own suffering gives the central conflict a symmetry that the franchise's earlier human antagonists did not achieve. Steve Zahn's Bad Ape is the most unexpected element, a comic supporting character whose function is to provide tonal relief without undermining the serious register, and Zahn handles the balance with considerable skill. Amiah Miller's Nova, a mute human child who joins Caesar's group, is the most effective new addition, a character whose presence gives the more grave sequences a warmth and a hope that prevent the weight of the material from becoming oppressive.
Meaning / Themes
The central concern is the relationship between personal suffering and moral integrity, and the question of whether a leader can maintain his values when those values have cost him everything he loves. Caesar's struggle with the desire for vengeance is the trilogy's most psychologically complex arc, and the resolution, in which he achieves his people's freedom at the cost of his own life, gives the trilogy a conclusion of genuine epic weight. The parallel between Caesar's situation and the biblical story of Moses, which the picture makes explicit through its imagery and its narrative structure, gives the franchise's science fiction premise a resonance that elevates the material beyond its genre origins.
Direction
Reeves pitches the picture at a register of elemental tragedy rather than action adventure, a tonal choice that gives it a weight and a gravity that the franchise's previous entries had not sustained across an entire film. The slave camp sequences, in which Caesar witnesses his people's suffering and struggles with the temptation to abandon his values in favour of personal vengeance, are the most effective passages, and the visual design, with its snow-covered landscapes and its biblical imagery, gives the narrative a mythic resonance that reinforces the prevailing mood. The pacing is deliberately slow, a choice that the demands of the material justify but that requires the audience's patience.
Reeves's direction is the reboot series' most tonally consistent, maintaining the grave register across a narrative that moves from the forest to the slave camp to the devastating end with a coherence and a purposefulness that give the picture a unified character. The slave camp sequences are staged with a restraint and a moral weight that the material requires, and the final sequence, in which Caesar watches his people reach their promised land before dying alone, is the trilogy's most emotionally powerful passage. Michael Giacchino's score reaches its expressive peak in the final sequences, supporting the closing scenes with a depth and a stillness that suit the scale of the ambitions.
War for the Planet of the Apes received outstanding reviews on its release and was a solid commercial success, grossing over $490 million worldwide. Critics praised Serkis's performance, Reeves's direction, and the scale of the ambition, and it is now regarded as one of the more distinguished franchise finales of its decade and a worthy endpoint for the Caesar trilogy. Its willingness to subordinate action spectacle to character and moral complexity is consistently cited as the trilogy's most significant creative achievement.
Final Verdict: A grave and ambitious conclusion that gives Caesar a worthy ending and the Caesar trilogy a lasting legacy. Serkis's performance is the trilogy's finest achievement, Reeves's direction is the series' most tonally consistent, and the argument about the relationship between personal suffering and moral integrity is pursued with a weight and a depth that few franchise finales have matched.