War for the Planet of the Apes

Boys, girls, people of all ages, the Serkis has come to town! Andy Serkis, that is. The motion-capture professional will take the lead of the neo-Planet of the Apes franchise once more on July 14 for War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter in the trilogy. At this point, audiences pretty much know what to expect: the great clash between hostile humanity and peaceable simiankind rages onward and approaches a final reckoning, as the Serkis-played chimp Caesar wrestles with the terrible responsibilities of leadership in wartime. But before audiences can revisit Apeworld for one last battle, 20th Century Fox wants to be sure we all appreciate just how much went into this film.

This has been a good weekend for Planet of the Apes fans. Not only did we get our first look at some of the early buzz for the final film in the trilogy  —  buzz that suggest that War for the Planet of the Apes might just be the best and bleakest movie in the series yet  —  we’ve also been treated to a special Father’s Day trailer that explores the universal truths of fathers, sons, and legacy. Sentient apes or human, we’re all just trying to leave behind a better world for our children.

If we’re lucky, a few times each year we’ll be treated to a $100 million blockbuster that manages to wow critics and audiences alike. This was the case with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which managed to pull in both a 90% on RottenTomatoes  —  normal caveats about RottenTomatoes aside  —  and grossed over $700 million at the global box office. When Hollywood finds just the right balance of magic and money, we catch a glimpse at the potential of the right filmmaker with a ton of money at his or her disposal. It’s what has so many fans excited for War for the Planet of the Apes. Can Matt Reeves and 20th Century Fox team up for a second incredible blockbuster movie?

Just because War for the Planet of the Apes is poised to finish up the current Apes trilogy, that doesn’t mean it can’t introduce a few new characters into the mix. We’ve already met Nova, the mute human child that’ll connect this trilogy to the original movies, but there’s another new face joining Caesar’s crew. Bad Ape, portrayed by Steve Zahn, is a similarly altered chimpanzee who learned to talk when the Simian Flu hit and wiped out most of humanity, and he brings news to Caesar’s tribe of an ape zoo that he escaped from.

War for the Planet of the Apes marks the conclusion of Caesar’s story, and the beginning of a new world. Whether that means a world of apes or humans remains to be seen (I mean, we know, but let’s just pretend). A new TV spot invites us to “witness the end” of the series, and of one species’ tenure on a dying planet.

War for the Planet of the Apes is important for two reasons: it’s the last in this current prequel trilogy, and its events will finally catch this series up with the original Planet of the Apes by introducing another key character. You might’ve noticed there’s a young human girl in some of the trailers. That’s Nova, the mute woman we meet in the original film who becomes Charlton Heston’s human companion.

If you’d told me a decade ago that one of my most highly anticipated moments of the summer would be a showdown between Woody Harrelson and a CGI primate, I probably would have politely excused myself, driven to the local video store, rented a VHS copy of Clint Eastwood’s Every Which Way But Loose, and smacked you over the head with the cassette tape. My, how things change. Under the careful eye of director Matt Reeves, the war between primates and mankind is now one of the hottest summer tickets, and the early trailers and teasers for War for the Planet of the Apes promise one of the best big-budget movies of the year.

Those viewers of the opinion that the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise numbers among the more successful revivals in the recent deluge (and if you disagree, feel free to kindly see yourself to the e-door) tend to credit Caesar as the film’s secret weapon. The intelligent chimpanzee provided the films with a human center, ironically enough, conveying his maturation and radicalization through unprecedented motion-capture technology and acting from Andy Serkis. The upcoming War For the Planet of the Apes will form the final chapter of this trilogy, and according to the film’s producer, may hold bad news for Caesar superfans.

A cute kid, apes loading machine guns, apes throwing grenades, Woody Harrelson shouting at apes – there’s a lot going on in the latest trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes. The third (and supposedly final, but we’ll wait for the box office numbers to determine that one) installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot is an all out war between mankind and ape-kind, and it looks pretty wild.

If you’re going to tease trailers with shorter versions of the already brief coming attractions, this is the way to do it: With atmosphere, style, and intelligence. The latest War for the Planet of the Apes ad arrives ahead of tomorrow’s full final trailer, and it contains very little actual movie footage; par for the course for this kind of pre-tease. But instead of five or six seconds of flash frames and nothing else, this awesome, ominous clip pairs the voice of longtime Planet of the Apes star, the late Charlton Heston, with newsreel footage and images from the previous two Apes movies, setting the stage for “the end,” which is apparently coming in director Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes. (We’ll see about that. Apes together are pretty strong at the box office.)