Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves direct Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Toby Kebbell, James Franco, John Lithgow, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Woody Harrelson in this sci-fi prequel trilogy where primates gain greater intelligence and freedom while the human world dies off from disease.

We care about Caesar and Caesar suffers. Orphaned. Rejected by the human society that raised him. Escaped from cruel bondage. Losing friends and family members. Suffering a coup that almost kills him. Driven to murderous vengeance. His tribe captured and put to slave labour. Fighting for freedom one last time. You tell me of a human character that endures so much? You tell me of a human character that develops so much? It is an unprecedented 3 movie arc. All delivered by Andy Serkis in oft convincing mo-cap drag.

The movies themselves aim for a relative realism within the epic. After the sunny yet superior first entry these are dour, wet, sodden movies. You feel the elements, the cold. For something largely CGI reliant it proves a very tactile universe. So when bridges become battlefields or avalanches destroy armies there’s a real world psychics and a real world threat that binds with the emotional connection. The set pieces wallop with both feels and spectacle.

The first entry holds up as one of the finest, if most unlikely, tentpole blockbusters of the 21st century. There is no fat to Rupert Wyatt’s storytelling pace, he moves at a tremendous yet successful narrative clip. The second film, which I loved at the cinema, drags a little in the third act and doesn’t feel wholly necessary to move the story forward despite Koba’s predictable villainy. When War For The Planet Of the Apes came out I was a smidge disappointed that Reeves leant so much in on obvious references to other landmark epics from cinema history. The jukebox nature of the homages does seem to be his raison d’être (his ‘Batman goes Fincher’ if in doubt). Yet it is an ambitious concluding chapter. Woody Harrelson’s military dictator makes for a terrifying final form of humanity. And the apes eventual exodus feels hard fought for and mightily satisfying. A fantastic big budget trilogy.

10 / 8 / 9

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