War for the Planet of the Apes

It's been a while since I saw this but I reckon I've made up my mind about it. It shouldn't have taken so long to decide that it's not bad, but there you have it. Of the trilogy, it's probably the weakest in my opinion. None of the character building of ROTPOTA (apes, of course, not humans) and none of the power struggle between Caeser and Koba in DOTPOTA. And for all its nicely shot vistas and the odd battle here and there, the Golden Gate Bridge sequence in Rise is still the best thing across the trilogy. One of the best action sequences ever, I'd venture.

But I said this was not bad so some credit must be given. It goes without saying the CGI is first class, improved yet again from the previous two films. As seen in Rogue One, getting humans out of the 'uncanny valley' is still a hefty task but they've got the apes sorted with this one. There's an interesting way of getting to the Charlton Heston Planet of the Apes. Cornelius and Nova (characters from the original film) are introduced, though the timelines are way out. They're either planning to rejig said timeline of they're just nerd references. Towards the end it goes all Great 'Ape' Escape and anything that pays homage to The Great Escape gets a few free hits.

On that, War shows its influences fairly overtly - a bit of revenge western, a touch of Apocalypse Now but the main touchstone is the biblical epic - Caeser as a Moses/Jesus hybrid (Jemoses?) leading his people to the 'promised land' and sacrificing himself for them as well. I'm not sure if they started out making a biblical allegory for this trilogy but that's where it's pretty much ended. So, 'War' in the title is a bit misleading, as it's much more of the above than a pure war film. Not a lot of battling going on, at least between apes and humans. Caeser's inner conflict with Koba, that stretches back to Dawn, is the main antagonist here, even if Woody Harrelson's Colonel wants a piece of the action. Harrelson comes over all Kurtz, shaved head and maniacal stares, and his ending is nicely done but the simians are the stars here.

Apes together. Strong.


I thought I'd start something new here. Films that are similar or have some connection to the posted film. Let's see how it goes.

See also:

Aside from the ones mentioned above, there are a couple of John Wayne films that share some threads with War for the Planet of the Apes. Red River (1948) directed by Howard Hawks and The Searchers (1956) directed by John Ford are revenge-themed westerns and top films to boot.

Dunkirk

So I managed to sneak in a viewing of Dunkirk on Friday morning before work. Pretty happy with the decision. So far, it's the best film I've seen all year. Most of this is down to Christopher Nolan and his command of time. The way he interweaves the three strands of the plot - the beach, the sea and the air - is sublimely novel. If you're not careful, you may even be a little confused at the overlapping timelines (it took my penny a few minutes to drop). Nolan has played with time as a character before of course, in Memento, Inception and Interstellar but here he takes it one step further. The 'snowball' effect is used for the entire film - each situation is established unfussily, then the crosscutting between the 'theatres' picks up the pace until they merge at a single point. I can't remember seeing an entire film play this way. Many films do it in the final third or so (Nolan himself uses this technique) but the full film!? As a great man once said, "Well, Captain, I've got to admire your balls."

Another refreshing aspect is the dialogue, or specifically, the sparsity of it. Events unfold with only the bare minimum of spoken exposition, with Nolan relying on the vision and our historical knowledge of the Dunkirk retreat to fill in any blanks. The action (?) scenes are horrific and very watery - hydrophobes beware! - and the dread is heightened by Hans Zimmer's screeching score. The frustration of almost getting away only to be turned back or worse is hard to watch, nearly unbearable. But there are a few quiet moments amidst all the carnage. A soldier drops his gun and helmet and dives into the surf, presumably to swim to England, though almost certainly to his death. The 'I'm too tired to give a shit' looks on the faces of those watching is pretty powerful.

On those characters - I liked the fact that many of them were painted as cowards, or more prosaically, real people just trying to survive. Cillian Murphy turning his back to walk away near the end is a masterfully understated piece of film-making. Sentimentality and flag-waving is avoided for the most part, save for one sequence where the civilian flotilla arrives and Kenneth Branagh gets a bit misty-eyed. The actors are roundly fine and the mass of unknowns and extras on the beach was a clever touch by Nolan, freeing the viewer from identifying with a 'name' among the desperate hordes.

The Brexit theme (or a more general fear of the other) is illustrated well in the readiness of some soldiers to abandon the luckless French soldier to a likely death and ultimately, an actual death by drowning. And the Dutch guy? Where did he go? Branagh's commander shows where Nolan stands by making it clear he's "staying for the French".

In all, a fantastic film, in form and story-telling. I should really have seen it on a 70mm IMAX screen, as was intended for audiences. Maybe next time.
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