Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

War is Hell — an equation that the concluding episode of Planet of the Apes hammers home relentlessly. Both sides of the war for Earth, aka the Planet of the Apes, have understandable reasons to kill The Other.

Their war is most assuredly hell, a legitimate, even perfectly justifiable hell, and is perfectly brought to life.

Still, this concluding chapter of the tremendously assured Planet of the Apes trilogy is far from a perfect movie. Disappointing, as perfection was expected following the really great Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Instead, chapter 3 reverts to the merely great level of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, chapter 1.

Then the issue was wan humans, especially James Franco & Freida Pinto. Now, the problem is that the reality liberties don’t add up, becoming increasingly burdensome as this almost 2½ hour movie progresses.

Writer/director Matt Reeves gives the apes a pass. It’s their movie after all. But the problem isn’t what he gives them, it’s what he leaves out. In Reeves’ world – his Planet of the Apes – apes are human, the best of us, with the compromised stuff left out: food, sex organs, waste. They rarely eat, so don’t need to hunt or gather food. They’re apparently asexual, leaving out one hell of a lotta nasty business. And they never hit the head, pinch a loaf or drain the dragon. In short, their shit don’t stink, ‘cause they don’t got any.

Reeves doesn’t stop there in creating his utopian Planet of the Apes. War for the Planet of the Apes personifies (hominidifies?) a profoundly Left Wing view of America. Hell, he uses the Star Spangled Banner as a fascist anthem. Not since a clearly American military force shot down the Twin Towers of Pandora in Avatar has a major Hollywood movie produced such seditious cinema.

Yet, meditations on war are rarely so assured as this. Throw in Brando-esque performances by Andy Serkis / WETA Digital as the leader of the apes and Woody Harrelson as the warlord of the humans, and Planet of the Apes 3 clearly meets the standards of greatness, even if it is a truly hellacious movie. Truly hellacious.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

The acting continues to be a highpoint of the Planet of the Apes reboot, Andy Serkis / WETA Digital especially, now joined by Woody Harrelson. Brando would approve, of both.

Apes – thanks to WETA Digital

• Andy Serkis’s Caesar is one of the great characters in movie history. First a Bogie like character in Rise, winces and all, then more Brando in Dawn, now he’s got a Tom Hardy thing going in War.
• Steve Zahn amuses and ultimately charms as a chimp with very poor self-esteem. He calls himself Bad Ape, a lot.
• Karin Konoval “plays” the wise, kind, and benevolent Bornean orangutan.
• Terry Notary as Caesar’s friend Rocket
• Judy Greer barely registers as Caesar’s wife, nor does Sara Canning as Lake.
• Devyn Dalton as Cornelius. Dalton previously played Cornelia in Rise.
• Aleks Paunovic as the aptly named Winter, an albino gorilla

Humans

• Woody Harrelson etches a performance deserving of mention in the same breath as Brando’s Kurtz or Duvall’s Kilgore. Woody done good.
• Amiah Miller is an affecting little girl who don’t say much.
• Gabriel Chavarria underwhelms as a soldier named Preacher.

Film - Great 4.0

Reality liberties aren’t really consistent with themselves, which leads to a certain weariness over time.

PETA approves, so there’s that.

Edge - Risqué 2.3

Reality - Supernatural 3.9

I’m choosing to rate the reality liberties as surreal, supernatural and fantasy, an ascending pattern on the circumstantial, physical and biological scales that averages out to a high supernatural, 3.9x normal reality.

Politically, see my Summary commentary above.

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