War For the Planet of the Apes (Dir. Matt Reeves, 2hs 20m)

The Planet of the Apes is one of cinema's most interesting franchises, from its nightmarish beginnings, complete with iconic and much copied revelation that, "it was earth all along" (to quote The Simpsons), through a b-movie but nevertheless interesting critique of politics and the very concept of humanity set of sequels, and now to this trilogy, following the progenitor, saviour and hero of the highly evolved apes, Caesar's backstory.
Beginning in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with Caesar one of the first intelligent apes, thanks to scientific experimentation, raised by a human who teaches him how to communicate up till a point where his advanced intelligence allows him to speak, and more importantly to lead, raise an army and escape to the wilderness, the franchise then shows the downfall of humanity, due to a virus carried by the apes, to the extent that by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, humanity is dwindling, embattled and fearful of the apes, and despite a brief period of co-operation, a vengeful and tortured ape, Koba, inevitably sparks a war with the similarly distrustful leader of the humans, and despite Koba's death, Caesar comes to realise that open war with humanity is now inevitable.
War, however, is more than just a culmination of a trilogy of excellently made, nuanced and thought-provoking films, nor just an above-average summer blockbuster, but a startlingly strong character study of a leader, played to perfection by Andy Serkis, who is not only one of the best motion capture actors in the world at the moment, but one of the best actors, period. War is a study of two characters bent on revenge, and the effect of vengeance upon both of them; but above all, War for the Planet of the Apes is a film that asks (and to an extent answers) a question on what it means to be human-and and what point does one gain or lose their humanity

At the centre of the film, thus, are the two central performance of Serkis as Caesar  and Woody Harrelson as the chilling, Kurtz-esque Colonel; whilst this film occasionally visually or thematically references Apocalypse Now, with the film's opening sequence of a group of humans moving through the forest Caesar has hidden the apes in, with slogan daubed helmets (the film even slyly alludes to "Ape-Pocalypse Now" in daubed graffiti), at the heart of the film, the narrative of a leader driven by revenge, owes as much to Moby Dick as it does to Vietnam.

Yet, despite the similarities between them, drawn by The Colonel in the duo's encounters with each other, the Colonel is a man who has thrown away his humanity, attempting to simply act as a last stand to destroy the apes, a man of pure instinct amidst a human race debilitated and becoming dumber, in charge of what is, in essence, a macho suicide cult pulled into one final stand against human and ape alike, whilst Caesar's sparing of the colonel's men early in the film, and his compassion for a small girl his group are forced by events to adopt, marks him out as more human than many of the humans.

It is these emotions that drive him to revenge, the actions of the Colonel setting him on a collision course with humans, and Caesar's revenge for his loss is as points highly charged, his temper on a trigger and his actions against humans often violent; as Harrelson snaps at Caesar in one scene: "stop being so emotional". Over all of this hangs the shade of Koba, who appears, almost as Duncan to Macbeth, reminding him of how emotion and revenge started the war, and reminding him of his own actions and violent past-yet, the film's denouement returns to the key aspect of Caesar-as a leader and as a merciful one at that, in the Colonel and Caesar's final encounter.

Both Harrelson and Serkis are stunning in this film; Serkis, having already made Caesar a freedom fighter and a embattled leader, now turns him into a elder statesman, struggling to do the best for his family and followers, and every moment, every reaction, every emotion, is brought across by Serkis perfectly-as many have commented, this may well be the role that brings motion capture its first Oscar nomination. Serkis's physicality, showing the age of Caesar, as well as his ever-growing humanity, despite his chimpanzee body, is best seen in his scenes with Harrelson, both seemingly fascinated with the other. Harrelson, for his part, is more than a match for Serkis; whilst there's more than a little of Kurtz, his Colonel is more nuanced, and scenes between himself and Caesar bring these to the surface-one could even argue there is more than a little of the Messianic in Harrelson, as though he is a human reflection of Caesar, twisted and distorted out of focus; whilst Caesar is a man who mixes with the apes that follow him, The Colonel is detached, overseeing at many points, and Harrelson only occasionally lets this mask slip in his performance. Both, above all, compliment each other perfectly.

As with many of the other films in the franchise, War also has several emotive points to make, many of them pinned to Caesar or The Colonel, not only in the way they think, but in their individual character arcs. This film, for example, is rife with Christian symbolism, not only in a scene where Caesar is tied to a cross in bitter cold, or in the alpha and omega symbol that adorns Harrelson's men's equipment, but to the Moses story, with Caesar determined to bring his people to a promised land away from human enslavement-in short, War mythologises, and raises Caesar to that of a legend, and the film is in no doubt that this is the Caesar that would later become a storied figure of reverence in the 1970s films. The visual style only adds to this, with Reeves himself clearly taking influence from biblical epics; everything about War is grand, with sweeping visas, a snow-filled showdown that calls to mind The Revenant's climatic ending, and even the battles between apes and humans have a sword-and-sandal epic feel to them.

The film is also stauchly political, not only critiquing the current political climate, with the Colonel using ape labour to build a wall, and framing the war against the apes in terms of cultural annihilation, as though human existence has built to this final battle, but also in terms of being staunchly anti-war, evident from the opening shot of a savage battle between gun-wielding soldiers and spear wielding apes, with explosions tossing bodies into the air. The film's crux, the moment that sets Caesar on his path of vengeance, is a particularly cold and expertly cut scene, Reeves building and inter-cutting to bring the scene to its shocking finale-against this, the final few scenes, where peace reigns, and the apes seem to have escaped humanity, are cathartic.

And thus Caesar's journey comes to a close, not only with the end of his character arc, but also in his journey from the first test subject to a revolutionary to a soldier to a stateman-warrior; Serkis has not only made this character a key example of a perfect synthesis of technology and performance, but also made him utterly human, utterly relatable and most of all, someone who gives us an insight to the other side of the Planet of the Apes series-this is a nigh perfect series, and War is, if anything, better than its two predecessors-a stunning tour-de-force of a film.

Rating: Must-See