Let’s be clear. Before I saw this movie,
Edge of Tomorrow
was, by far, the best movie of the year, but this film clearly surpassed even
that.
Here’s why:
This is the first movie of the year to focus on the
eponymous NONHUMAN characters (unlike
Transformers). We get to see the ape society and real
character dynamics between the apes, mostly between Caesar, Blue Eyes, and
Koba. Blue Eyes, Caesar’s son, is introduced in this installment of Apes, which
is set 10 years after the first film. He is a capable individual who sometimes
gets ahead of himself in the heat of the moment.
This was revealed in the first scene of the film when Caesar
led the apes on a deer hunt. As the hunt drew to a close, the he and his son
were separated from the group. Caesar told his son to be still, but he went
further astray and crossed paths with a huge bear paw. His father comes to his aid, but to little
avail, as the bear inches closer with its power paw swipes. Caesar then roars
for help and his “general,” Koba responds. Caesar tries to “get big” with the
bear, but the bear reciprocates, ready to deal the final blow. Just at that moment, Koba spears the bear and
kills it. Caesar is thankful, and Koba tells Blue Eyes that his new scars are
signs of strength.
This is possibly the greatest “opening image” of a film when
compared to the events to follow.
A large part of the conflict comes when humans wander into
ape territory while attempting to repair a hydroelectric dam. Caesar trusts
that the humans will not disturb his ape family, but his right hand, Koba,
hates Caesar’s attitude and sees it as weakness. This disagreement drives a
wedge between the two as the story develops. Koba was experimented on during
the events of the first film, and these traumas poisoned him with hatred for
ALL humans. His body is riddled with scars from the scientists testing,
including his trademark eye scar.
Through the course of Koba’s boiling hatred, he collects
several automatic rifles from the humans’ armory and recruits Caesar’s son,
Blue Eyes, into his devious plot. His conflict with Caesar comes to a head when
the two fight at the dam over how to deal with the humans. Koba loses, and
neglects to tell Caesar of the guns he now controls.
As Koba exits, the humans get the hydroelectric power going
and there’s a moment of relief.
In the cover of night, Koba attacks one the humans who shot
at Rocket’s son, Ash earlier in the film. Because of this man’s behavior, he
was ordered to wait in the truck until the other humans returned.
Koba, now enacting his plan, uses a rifle to shoot Caesar
from an unnoticed position. The leader falls to his apparent death, and
meanwhile, a fire set earlier by Koba blazes out of control.
Koba takes charge amid the confusion and panic and orders
the apes to attack all humans. The apes rush to the human city where they seize
the armory. After this the go to the main gates and start all wild shootout
battle with the humans. The humans keep the apes at bay for only so long before
Koba hijacks a tank and rolls through the front gates. The apes then overpower
the humans and cage them all, along with Caesar’s former ape council.
This attack is the absolute climax of the film. Everything
that everyone believes in collides in a violent fashion as Koba’s, Caesar’s and
the humans’ wills go from cerebral disagreements to visceral destruction.
Koba then orders the capture of humans who escaped the
initial assault, and even kills Ash when he refuses to kill a human because
“Caesar wouldn’t want this.” Koba’s tactics strike fear into the apes, which is
the opposite of how Caesar chose to lead.
The humans at the apes’ home emerge from the forest and
stumble across a wounded, but living Caesar [obvious ‘Caesar lives’ imagery].
The humans drive Caesar to his home from the first film, and then plan to go to
the ape-controlled human city to get tools for Caesar’s injury. One of the
humans run’s into Blue Eyes, who doesn’t want to continue Koba’s incursion, so
both go back to Caesar.
After the Caesar group gets back together, they go confront
Koba on the large tower in the human city. Unbeknownst to the apes the tower is
rigged with explosives, thanks to the human leader.
This takes us to the showdown on the tower: Caesar versus
Koba. Their battle is vicious and interrupted when the bombs are
detonated. With a chance to save Koba,
Caesar instead drops him to his death at the bottom of the tower.
The ape’s human allies warn them of incoming human forces
that can wipeout the apes and tell them to flea. With the ape society in ruins,
Caesar decides the apes will stay and fight.
The film ends with the apes bowing before Caesar in
preparation for war. This will take us to the next installment, which is under
the working title Planet of the Apes.
My only complaint in this film is that there is no gorilla
character. There is an orangutan, bonobo, and several chimpanzees, but no ‘Attar-like’
character (since Buck was killed in the previous film) to ‘hold it down.’
