3.5 stars out of 5
Highly enjoyable summer flick. The best of the rebooted series. But I am simply not giving more than 3.5 stars to a talkin’ monkey movie, so there.
Interestingly, for the second time in a row, the filmmakers stress the emotional side of things in what is ostensibly a sci-fi action flick. And by god, it works again. We genuinely feel for Caesar and his ape followers. Even the bad guy gets some of our sympathy.
The movie successfully borrows from a wide variety of sources. It’s a revenge-story western, with Caesar as Clint Eastwood leading a rag-tag crew across the snowy wilderness. Then we get some Spartacus. Next it’s Caesar as Jesus, complete with crucifixion and WWCD. And toss in a little Hogan’s Heroes and The Great Escape for good measure.
Sure, there’s action: horse chases, shooting, explosions, general monkey mayhem, all nicely filmed.
Acting-wise, well, there’s again so much CGI that acting is kind of an after-thought. That being said, Woody Harrelson does a fine job as the Colonel, who is the villain here, a natural born killer, a power-hungry dude who wants to be build an ill-thought-out wall. (Huh?) I suppose Andy Serkis is in this as the brooding Caesar. Judy Greer is not in this, I don’t care if she says otherwise. And I usually find Steve Zahn annoying; he is very annoying here as a comic-relief monkey.
The film drags its knuckles a bit in the second half, and a generally satisfying conclusion has a too-neat wrap-up. Still, the good far outweighs the bad. We get much solid stuff regarding loyalty, and not letting personal rage haunt us.
They don’t need to make another sequel after this one, but they almost certainly will, and I’ll keep seeing ’em. What can I say, I dig monkeys.
Jack Silbert, curator