Saturday, August 5, 2017

War for the Planet of the Apes : "An Obvious Allegory"


   Have you ever really enjoyed a movie but still rolled your eyes at some of its more heavy-handedness with its message? Oh, you’ve watched every Marvel movie ever? Good, we are all caught up. Well, last weekend I went to see War for the Planet of the Apes, and I found myself in this exact position. In fact, I spent more time thinking about how obvious the message it was sending was, then about whether I was enjoying the movie. The movie was decent, but certain parts kept it from being as good as its predecessors, regardless of what the critics say.

    But before we dive in, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my blog journey so far. As of last Thursday, it has been a year since I started this blog. In celebration, there is a lot of cool content to look out for on the blog this week. First, tomorrow or today depending on when you view this, I will be posting a rant blog about the recent harassment going on in this season of Big Brother. On Monday, Big Brother coverage continues with the posting of the most recent podcast I recorded. Other content during this week will include: my thoughts on the Bachelorette finale and a review of the new Dark Tower movie, so keep an eye out for all of this coming up on this special anniversary week of the blog. Now, back to the review.

  As I said before, this movie was decent. There was a lot going for it. The visuals were absolutely stunning as usual and the acting for the most part was top notch. Woody Harrelson in particular relished every second of his being the villain. He was by far the best part of the movie. In my opinion, the movie’s only real complexity came from his storyline. Without going too much into spoilers, the movie spends a lot of time considering whether or not his actions compared to the apes are moral. And while he was clearly evil, I appreciate the fact that it is also made clear that his motivations aren’t wrong, and that his reasons for committing the atrocities he does are based on a fear that ends up coming true. 

   However, that’s really the only exceptional part of the movie. Perhaps my hopes were too high considering how much critics liked the film. They cited its “message” as particularly insightful. However, even a blind individual could see the message. Similar to how its predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was somewhat of a retelling of the story of Julius Caesar being betrayed by Brutus (fitting considering the main ape’s name), this film played out as a retelling of the Holocaust. We have the villain (Hitler), who believes that the only way to save the human race (Aryans) is to defeat who they believe to have caused all of the problems, the apes/jews.  It is an easy way to get an audience emotionally invested through the parallels, but also feels cheap. The past two movies worked because there was no clear way for the humans to deal with the apes. Everyone’s actions, even if they were misguided, were reasonable. In this movie, it’s made abundantly clear that we are to sympathize with the apes and only the apes. That takes away any chance to have real discussion over the issues presented and instead makes it seem like a generic popcorn flick, when interviews with the producers make it clear it wasn’t supposed to be.

  Overall, I’d give the film 3 out of 5 stars. It is a decent film, but don’t go into it expecting it to be incredible. One last note to touch on that explains why I gave this film a higher rating than my comments above might have suggested: if you know anything about the movies that this is a prequel of, it is worth seeing. There is a subplot in this film with the child in the movie that explains how humans end up the way that they do in the original films. I found it interesting to follow once I connected the dots as to what it all meant, and this subplot in particular is how you are able to realize that the villain might be right in all of this. If you have no idea about anything in the originals, then the child will likely feel added on and her scenes will lack gravitas if you can’t make the connection as to what she alludes to. If you are fans of the originals, you should definitely check this movie out.

  May Andy Serkis move on to another Oscar worthy portrayal of an animal in a blockbuster franchise. He honestly could make me like anything. Except snakes. I will never like snakes.

  If you like the idea of me doing spoiler-lite reviews of movies when I see them, comment on this video, my Facebook post, or let me know how I’m doing in person. If enough people like them, this could become regular content on this blog and I can even dive into my thoughts on some older releases.

  Thanks and have a great day,
   Julia.

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