Apes on horses. Was there ever any doubt this would be great?
Matt Reeves did fantastic with this installment. He set the tone from the very first shot. We saw the apes on horses, in the jungle, hunting for food. And then the apes were climbing up trees and whatnot, there were like hundreds of apes that filled the screen and they looked fantastic.
And then one of them, Koba, the right hand ape of Caeser, jumped off a cliff with a spear in hand while every sound in the background was muted; I knew right there and then this was going to be something spectacular. But even that didn't prepare me for how awesome this movie would be.
The writing team of Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Mark Bomback outdid what Jaffa and Silver accomplished previously on Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. But what they continued to do so wonderfully was letting the apes show the humanity side of things. From what Caeser represents and who he wanted to be or stay true to himself, to his relationship with his son and then his unconditional trust to his fellow apes; the conflict of all that was told so beautifully through the writing and through Reeves direction.
Another thing Reeves accomplished so successfully was letting the audience feel for the apes. So much so that when we saw the apes getting killed in the middle of the war between them and the humans, you can't help but feel so much more for them even though we can relate to the human's side and that dystopian world they have to live in.
And the antagonist (which I shall leave unnamed in order not to potentially spoil this movie) was one of the most scariest and dangerous being created for the big screen. He was ruthless and cruel and driven, and at the same time one of the most intelligent ones out there.
Every character, be it humans or apes that have some focus on, had layers and layers to their character. And I loved how Gary Oldman was used in this movie. Though he's not one of the main characters, but even he got his own arc that we could feel for him.
A couple of things that I wished to have seen were how the apes treated their horses. The horses came into play only when they were needed. I would have liked to see if the apes treated them like friends or pets. And also the humans motivation for the seeking out the dam in the forest were not emphasised enough and it didn't feel as dire as it actually was.
Another point here was when Jason Clarke, Keri Russell and their team got to the dam, they didn't bother with communicating their progress with Oldman's side. So these left me questioning the movie and also why I didn't give the movie a perfect score.
The score also suited the tone perfectly. It was quiet but effective. The pacing was brilliant, and at just over 2 hours running time, I couldn't ask for more.
Lastly, the messages throughout the movie, about existentialism and being a human being (which ironically came from the apes) all were so poignant and beautiful.
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And, spoiler alert!
My favourite line came from Caesar, when he was in pain, injured, and struggled climbing to the top of the stairs and having to face Koba in a fight to establish leadership; Koba said to Caesar, "Caesar... weak." And even amidst all that he was going through, Caesar taunted him, "Koba... weaker!" I was going ballistic in my mind.
And those final words to Koba, which I was so happy Caesar said it, "Koba not ape." I just cheered.
And, if you notice, we never really saw Koba died. Sure he plunged from hundreds of feet high, but his fall was so quickly broken by a metal bridge of some sort and that could potentially kept him from breaking too many bones upon impact. We could still see Koba return in the next sequel...
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