War for the Planet of the Apes

War for the Planet of the Apes

Now that’s a brilliant finale for a trilogy that has already set high standards for itself. The best thing about the Apes trilogy is the simplicity. There’s no fuss. The third film takes this characteristic forward with visible confidence. A story of such scale is treated in the most straight-forward of ways possible. You can predict almost every event to come, but they never lack in genuineness. Thus there is never a feeling of a moment being overdone.

Ceasar’s character arc is evident right from where it all started, but the power in his stand, his very presence, both add up to a very memorable character, right among my all-time favourites. Andy Serkis’ work may have been enhanced digitally, but in the end, it was over his performance in a studio environment where he had to simply imagine the elements he was interacting with. Awe-inspiring stuff.

The theme of the trilogy is made as apparent as possible with greatly timed dialogues and an epic climax that creates and draws conclusions to threads at ease. Especially that one scene where you see the theme right before your eyes with the visuals. The setting is a war. A war that started with humans trying to get above forces that came before them. And they haven’t learnt their lesson in spite of paying in countless lives. They continue to do this, and the earth gives it back to them. This trilogy is all about what nature can do to our arrogance. We shouldn’t try to get above it. It is watching. It will come right back at you with an answer if you don’t take it seriously. If the very one-liner of the series isn’t enough to explain this, the same message is paid off in one grandly mounted sequence within the climax. I just can’t wait to get behind and look through every idea presented in this the three films, now that they’ve concluded what they were here to say.

I can now confidently say that I have absolutely loved this trilogy, start to finish. There is no lull in all of its running time. And it is amazing how it has inspired such following in spite of having pretty one-note characters. The story is predominantly good-versus-evil, but there are moments where we can see it rising above the template. Ceasar’s equation with Koba is an example. It is endearing to see Ceasar compare himself to the latter saying even he can’t take out the hate that’s brewing within him. This is how the story subtly hints at the problem with humanity. And it has been commenting on plenty of other issues right from the beginning. Mind you, it is not out to solve them. It is only presenting the same through different perspectives, in its own mellowed-down way. And this honest subtleness is what makes this trilogy an immensely respectable one.

Akilan

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