Ruk Ranks Every Movie he Saw in 2017- Top 10 Incoming!

[Plain Old Tele]

^^ Haven't seen MOLLY'S GAME, but that teacher sounds dodgy.

[rukaio101]

56. Blade Runner 2049

 

 

Boy, first Dunkirk and now this? I'm just shitting all over the forum favourites on this list, aren't I?

 

Seriously though, the original Blade Runner has always been a movie I respected more than I actually enjoyed. I respect it for its excellent style and visuals and for more or less pioneering neo-noir visually, but as for the movie itself, I found it slow, kinda confusing at points and, while having some truly great moments (like Tears in the Rain), never really lived up to its reputation as a classic. And yeah... I kinda feel the same about Blade Runner 2049. I respect it. I really do. But I also can't really say I enjoyed it that much.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to love about the film and I entirely get why other people do love it. Visually, it’s absolutely gorgeous, with great sweeping shots of futuristic city blocks stacked upon one another. The actors do an excellent job and the story itself has a number of interesting themes and twists and turns that I thought worked really well in subverting your expectations. I can entirely understand why a lot of people ended up loving it so much.

 

So why didn’t it work so well for me?

 

Well, for one, the running time was probably too long. It takes a very skilled movie to keep people’s attention for a full 160 minutes without them drifting off and this was not that movie. It doesn’t help that a lot of that run time is made-up of sweeping visual location shots which, while an impressive work of CGI, is something I’ve never really found all that appealing, even with visually gorgeous futuristic cities. But even then, I couldn't help feel that something about the cinematography here felt really... sterile. Which is weird because I can tell Villeneuve is very passionate about this movie and its world, but his shots always feel cold and distant. 

 

Admittedly, there’s a decent chance a lot of this may be my own personal foibles. I alluded to this briefly when I talked about Arrival last year, but Villeneuvre’s style, while I can appreciate its technical brilliance, has always left me feeling rather cold, even in his previous critically acclaimed features. Something about his muted colour pallet and drawn-out style of storytelling has always left me feeling rather bored. I can never quite get into the atmosphere he creates, but whether that’s a fault of the filmmaker or just plain simple incompatibility is up for debate.

 

As for the story itself, it's very slow-paced which, while working to help create a palpable mood and atmosphere, can sometimes end up making things feel unnecessarily drawn-out and make the relatively interesting plot feel sluggish and unmoving, which can easily frustrate if the atmosphere isn’t working for you. The acting is fairly solid across the board, Ryan Gosling doing a good job and embueing a fairly stoic part with some life, Jared Leto's mugging actually serving a purpose and Harrison Ford actually giving a shit about a part for once is all good. I also really enjoyed the ultimate conclusion of the whole Joi subplot which, while I wasn't all that fond of the character or relationship at first, really threw for me a loop and made me appreciate much of it in hindsight. Honestly, there's a lot of really strong storytelling and themes woven into the movie which is part of the reason I respect it so much. But while I can appreciate the storytelling for what it did, nothing really managed to knock me out of my growing boredom and keep me engaged with the movie. 

 

Overall though, again, while I can appreciate this movie's technical brilliance, it just didn't hit me as much as it did other people. It's still a good film, I can admit that much, I just didn't find it to be the knockout classic everyone else claims it to be. But hey, I threw out any hopes of not pissing off most of the forum when I ranked Dunkirk so low (which, fyi, is a movie I don't respect as much and I'm think largely only got the level of acclaim it did because Nolan's name was attached and fuck you all I've already burned all my last remaining bridges so I might as well go all the way with this.)

 

 

(On a related note, if you think this is the last forum favourite I'm going to shit on in this list, you are all sorely mistaken...)

[rukaio101]

19 minutes ago, Telehilation said:

^^ Haven't seen MOLLY'S GAME, but that teacher sounds dodgy.

Technically it was teachers plural (since I had multiple markers), but nah, trust me, they were entirely right on that one. On re-read, it was pretty obvious I had way too much dialogue in that script. 

[rukaio101]

55. Lego Batman

 

 

Hey, remember how at the beginning of the year we all thought that this was going to do gangbusters and that LEGO was going to be one of the next big franchises? Man that dream sure died fast.

 

Anyway, for me, this movie was kinda like the middle ground between the LEGO Movie and LEGO Ninjago. Sure, it wasn’t as infuriatingly annoying as the latter, but it was a bit too hyperactive and not quite funny enough to be the former. Especially towards the third act. I didn’t actually have any kind of issue with all the different villains showing up, but it kinda crossed the point where the movie stopped being an interesting commentary on Batman and his character/mythos as a whole and just turned into a ‘Friendship is great’ thing. Plus the ‘Joker as romantic relationship’ joke got really hammered into the ground.

 

I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to like about the movie. Will Arnett is second only to Kevin Conroy as best movie Batman, Michael Cera was surprisingly endearing as Robin and there was a lot fun, yet searing digs at some of the wider conceits surrounding the Batman character and universe that I’ve honestly thought about myself. But overall, it did feel a bit like wasted potential. It never felt quite as funny as the LEGO movie, nor as sound storywise and it never followed through on the interesting ideas it raised.

 

So yeah, overall it’s not bad. Just not quite as good as I was hoping for.

[rukaio101]

54. Fireworks

 

 

~Hold me like a fliend, kiss me like a fliend, say we'll never end, searching for the colours of the raaaaainbow~ ...fuck, Engrish be damned, that song is way too catchy.

 

Anyway, this is a recent Japanese anime film that'd I'd not really heard of before and only ended up seeing because it happened to come to my nearby cinema. It's an adaptation of an acclaimed TV drama called Fireworks, Should we See it from the Side or the Bottom, that I suspect was adapted because it's a romantic teen drama with time travel and Your Name made like all the money in Japan in 2016.

 

That said, it didn't surprise me to learn that this was an adaptation of a highly acclaimed drama because it definitely feels like something that has a lot of potential... that isn't really quite achieved here. I mean the romance is cute enough, the characters are somewhat developed (if not a bit brattish) and there are a lot of nice visuals and music, but it also seems like it's missing bits. We never really get that much of a satisfying look at the character of the main heroine which, considering her issues are pretty central to the story, is kind of disappointing. And there's a painful lack of a conclusion as well, the film choosing to end on an open-ended note that really does not work well for it.

 

That said, even if there are much better foreign animated movies out there this year, there's still a decent amount to enjoy here. As mentioned, the visuals and music are nice and it's competently told enough. It's just lacking that extra spark to make it really good.

 

Now all that's left is for me to find a way to get that damned main theme out of my head. 

 

~Hold me like a fliend, kiss me like a fliend, say we'll never end, searching for the colours of the raaaaainbow~

 

 

[rukaio101]

53. The Hitman's Bodyguard

 

 

Stupid but fun. This movie more or less survives solely on the comedic chemistry of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson and they basically carry the entire movie on their backs. But hey, they do a good job of it, it’s a delight watching them onscreen and they shoulder the otherwise bland direction, action and story just fine.

 

Basically, it's a movie sold on the idea of funny Ryan Reynolds and funny Samuel L. Jackson interacting and it gives what it delivers, no more no less.

 

...Well, okay, Salma Hayek was fun too.

[rukaio101]

52. The Man who Invented Christmas

 

 

Much like The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s only survives by the strength of its main comedic duo, this a movie that really only really works because of the central performance of Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens. Dan Stevens is one of those actors who, for me at least, is a delight to see in almost every movie and this is one where he really gets to show his chops.

 

The story itself is a (presumably mostly fictional) account of how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol and, in that regard, it’s mostly the sort of cutesy ‘Oh, your name is Blebenezar Blooge? Why that gives me an idea!’ sort of stuff that you’d expect, with a few messy attempts at having an emotional undercurrent. But the movie is entirely made by Stevens’s performance and it’s magnificent. He’s energetic, simply bubbling with enthusiasm and ideas and while I thought most of his writing techniques in the movie were silly and cheesy, Stevens still manages to entirely sell them to you solely through his performance. It really is top quality stuff.

 

That said, overall, it’s basically an A-grade performance propping up a C-grade film. But, even then, said film is itself harmless enough. The making-of stuff may be cutesy and a bit cheesy, but it still kinda works. It’s not really anything spectacular overall, aside from Dan Steven’s performance and maybe a few of the side characters, but it's still not a bad watch either.

[rukaio101]

51. Power Rangers

 

 

You know, when the first trailers for this movie hit, I had two predictions. First was that they were going to try and make the movie ‘dark’ and ‘adult’ like so many other misguided reboots of classic properties. And the second was that the actual Power Ranger suits probably wouldn’t make any kind of serious prolonged appearance until the final third and the climactic action scene. And, surprise no surprise, I was completely right on both accounts. But, where I was wrong, was that I assumed both of these would be bad things. Yet, to my eternal surprise, this movie actually made it work. Yeah, I was astounded as you are, but Power Rangers 2017 is one of the few movies that I think does the darker and edgier thing actually fairly well.

 

I think a large part of why is that, unless most ‘darker & edgier’ reboots, the makers of this movie knew exactly what they were aiming for and why that would require a darker tone. It wasn’t like MoS, where the writers/directors were clearly like “Hey, we want a dark brooding Superman!” “Great! What’s he brooding about?” “Who cares?” In this, however, the filmmakers clearly want to tell a story about troubled teens finding solace in each other, which required a darker tone, and they pulled it off genuinely fairly well. Even the ranger suits being kept to the final third worked because they set them up as a task they were working towards, that they needed to get over their issues to reach, thus making it all the more emotionally meaningful when they finally manage to morph. I actually got chills at that big moment in spite of the Ranger suits in this movie still looking ugly as shit. They genuinely managed to pull this stuff off and kudos to them for it.

 

Now, you may be thinking ‘Hey, this all sounds really positive? So why is this ranked so low?” Well, funnily enough, while the stuff I thought the movie was going to fuck up ended up being really good, the stuff I thought was going to be the fun part, aka the action and the third-act climax, ended up being, well… kind of a slog? Yeah, this movie really managed to subvert my expectation with both the good and bad. It doesn’t help that most of it was Zord action and I thought the Zords looked absolutely awful in this movie (as do the suits, to be honest, but I digress). There was barely much in the way of choreography and the action was mostly just boring explosions and CGI and the kinda crap that even Michael Bay would think was too passe. It’s annoying too because I genuinely really liked the first two thirds of the movie and to have it all crap out in the final third just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Like the taste of a Krispy Kreme donut that you've forgotten about until you find it behind your couch a week later.

 

So yeah, this was a lot better than I thought it would be but kinda let me down on the actual action stuff. Still gotta give it some credit though what it does really does right. Shame they're probably not going to make any more.

 

[somebody85]

I'm not commenting on this list but the fact that you can even remember all of these films is impressive. I saw I think 100 in 2017 and quite a few already on this list but I couldn't write this much about them because they don't stay in my memory that long unless they really stick with me.

Like Power Rangers for example. I remember certain scenes and the overuse of Krispy Kreme and a few of the plot points but that's it. I remember how slow the final set piece felt and that I think it used a Kanye West song.

And The Void. What a massive letdown after the first 20 minutes. Can hardly remember a thing about it besides the really cool practical effects, nods to the much better Event Horizon and horror game style plot which was a complete mess.

On the note of Death Note though....couldn't even make it 30 minutes through. Life is too short.

Edited February 18, 2018 by somebody85

[The Panda]

All these bad movies you’re putting above Blade Runner and Dunkirk.  Sad.

[SchumacherFTW]

On 16/02/2018 at 9:01 PM, rukaio101 said:

58. Lu Over the Wall

 

 

Okay, unless you’ve been keeping a close eye on the Best Animated Feature race, chances are you’ve probably not seen or heard of this recent animated film from Japan. If you want me to sum it up... basically, it’s Ponyo on acid. Which, yeah, is pretty damn awesome.

 

This movie is kind of the opposite for me of Beauty and the Beast (2017) in many ways, in that it definitely has a lot of problems and is kind of flawed up to the wazoo. The main story is ostensibly a coming-of-age film about an emo teen befriending a cheerful mergirl, but the main male character is such a whiny, annoying shit, the main plot is such a drag, most of the human characters aren't that great and the story doesn't really do a very good job of handling or even really explaining the male protagonist's emotional issues. But, where BatB directed quality material in a dreary, half-assed way, this makes up for most of its problems when it gets really going, by being so utterly insane and colourful and imaginative and just plain fun!

 

Director Masaaki Yuasa is someone I've only fairly recently been introduced to in regards to animated films, but he has a such a distinct and crazy style that it's almost impossible not to fall in love. The animation in this movie is energetic, weird, bright, colourful and off-model in the most delightful ways and every time to movie decides to get crazy, it's just tons of fun to watch. Okay, sure the movie fails to reach the levels of dull competence that Beauty and the Beast (2017) had but, like I said, when it gets going it's so imaginative and fun that it blows that movie out of the water. If only the main plot/male lead wasn't so crap, this would be much much higher up on the list. 

 

Also, Business Shark Dad for Best Character of 2017. Seriously, just look at this guy. He's amazing.

 

Not even Yuasa's best film of the year

[rukaio101]

14 hours ago, The Mad Panda said:

All these bad movies you’re putting above Blade Runner and Dunkirk.  Sad.

*shrugs* Ain't my fault that the rest of the forum has bad taste.

 

10 hours ago, SchumacherFTW said:

Not even Yuasa's best film of the year

I know. Trust me, that one has it's own special place on this list. 

 

[rukaio101]

50. Ancien and the Magic Tablet/Napping Princess (Seriously, which is the goddamn English title?)

 

 

Ah… Now, how exactly do I describe this movie to a newcomer? Imagine Inception, except that the dream involved has a significantly more fairy tale/fantasy bent, mixed with a corporate political thriller and a huge dollop of anime tropes, including giant robots and school girls.

 

That feels like it might be a start to describing Ancien and the Magic Tablet.

 

The movie, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is about a young schoolgirl named Kokone who has a tendency to drift off and get caught in her own dreams. In said dreams, she is a sorcerer princess named Ancien, battling against a Colossus that threatens her kingdom, via use of a magical computer tablet. However, when Kokone’s father is arrested in the real world and corporate thieves attempt to steal his personal computer tablet, Kokone is sent on the run, drifting between dreams and reality in an attempt to find out the truth behind all these goings-on. 

 

Now, when I first walked out of the cinema after having watched this movie, honestly, I really wasn’t entirely certain how to feel about it. There was some things I really liked about it, other things not so much. I definitely wasn’t too fond of the movie at the beginning, as it felt confusing, bland and I wasn’t particularly engrossed with the worlds or characters in neither dream nor reality. But, as the movie went along and pieces started to slot together, I started to get more and more into it, leading to a climax that I actually really kinda enjoyed… almost.

 

See, the thing is, Ancien and the Magic Tablet is a movie that I don’t think quite realised how brilliant its own premise was.

 

Now, that may sound like an odd statement, but let me explain. (Note: I’m going into minor spoilers here.) The thing is, partway through this movie you come to realise just how much Kokone’s dreams reflect reality. Indeed, many of the fantastical characters and elements in Kokone’s dreams are actually symbolising real-life characters and events from Kokone’s life/past. And this all culminates in a big finale where fantasy and reality comes together and you get to see the real-life events play out through this exciting fantasy dream lens.

 

And that’s honestly a really awesome idea. Seriously, I had a blast watching the finale of this movie, theorising what each individual element represented and how the story was playing out in real life. It was a brilliant and inventive intellectual exercise and like nothing I’d ever watched before. I’ve always been a sucker for these sorts of films that can blend fantasy and reality together (probably why I’m such a big fan of Mamoru Hosoda) and this was a unique and fascinating take on the concept.

 

At least it was at first. Because then it turned out I’d been entirely wrong about what the movie was doing and we learned that 50-60% of said climax was entirely fictional and had no actual equivalent in the real world. I’d simply been reading too much into it the entire time.

 

That was kind of a bummer.

 

And that’s also kinda why I think the movie didn’t quite realise how smart it was. It has a brilliant and unique idea for its grand finale but, rather than take it all the way, it almost feels like the filmmakers went ‘Hmm, maybe this is a bit too far’ and ended up scaling it back instead. Which was entirely the wrong move. The idea was fantastic. The movie just needed to follow through on it. It also didn’t help that the movie insisted on shoehorning in a small subplot of ‘maybe Kokone’s dreams are actually secretly real magic’. An idea which was already somewhat ridiculous, forced and unnecessary and becomes outright laughable in the finale when they demonstrate it in a single throwaway line that just feels completely out of place and is never referenced again.

 

But, all that aside, would I recommend Ancien and the Magic Tablet? Honestly, kinda yeah. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot of flaws and rough edges. The protagonist is somewhat bland and ends up feeling like a side note for a lot of the movie. The antagonist is just a laughable, moustache-twirling villain who is obviously evil from the go. And also, like I mentioned before, it takes a while before it really gets interesting.

 

But, once it does get interesting, there is really quite a lot to like about it. The story is actually really interesting and compelling once you begin to see how the jigsaw pieces of the plot, there are some moments of genuinely really good drama scattered here and there, there are enough mysteries to keep you engaged and, like I said before, the climax is actually a really interesting and unique idea, even if I’d prefer for it to have gone all the way. Plus, the animation is also fairly good, albeit nothing spectacular for an anime film.

 

To sum up, Ancien and the Magic Tablet is definitely an interesting ride. It might not be for everyone and there are certainly quite a few problems here and there but, for me, the positives make it worth checking out at least once. 

[rukaio101]

49. The Love Witch

 

 

I'll give this movie credit, I watched it all the way back in March and had no idea what to think of it. It is now nearly 12 months later and I still don’t know to think of it. So, kudos?

 

It's definitely a unique beast, a surreal colourful mindtrip that looks almost fresh out of the 1960's Hammer Horror library. And there's no doubt it kept me fascinated throughout. But I don't feel like I can rank it that high on my personal list because I don't think I quite got it? It felt like there was something I was missing, some sort of nuance or metaphor to make it all make sense that never really quite came to me. I've read other peoples interpretations and the like, but even now, I'm still not entirely certain that it matched up to what I watched.

 

That said, like Ancien, it is something I'd definitely recommend people check out at least once, just to make their own conclusions on it. It's definitely does a good job of keeping your attention and the throwback 1960's filming style is fascinating to watch. I'm just not all that sure how I feel about it overall.

[rukaio101]

48. The Florida Project

 

 

Speaking of 'I'm not that sure how I feel about it...'

 

Okay, I will start by admitting that this really isn't my kind of film, to be honest. I give it kudos for very realistically capturing that sense of being a child and childish behaviour, both in terms of sense of imagination and adventure and also kinda being a bit of a shithead as well. Plus Willem Dafoe was great, bringing a real friendly, safe, everyman sense to his character and performance. Honestly, as much as I like Sam Rockwell, I'd much prefer Dafoe to win the Oscar this year, as unlikely as it seems.

 

I also give credit to the way the movie captures the setting, this dirty, yet saccharine area, with its faded and rusted bright colours, like a sweet that it's been dropped on the floor and left to gather lint and dirt and stuff. A lot of the places and the world really become kind of familiar through the movie, so I give it definite credit for that.

 

That said, I really didn't like the mother character in this movie, probably waaay more than the movie intended me to. Yeah, I get that we're probably supposed to think that's she kind of a bad mother, but that she loves her kid and has her good points as well, but no, I was actively glad when Moonee got taken away from her by the movie's end. She was just a really awful person who I felt little-to-no sympathy for.

 

Also, I was a bit iffy on the movie's structure. It's a very fluid film, with not much of a 'through' plot, instead jumping from day to day, adventure to adventure, etc etc. And like with Boyhood, I'm kind of iffy as to how much that worked for me? I mean yes, you can definitely argue that it's very realistic as that is indeed how real life works. But, like with Boyhood, I question the idea that just because it's realistic necessarily makes it good? And it definitely felt like the first two thirds of the movie were missing a hook, if you will, to keep me interested. But chances are that might just be me, since, as mentioned, this isn't really my sort of movie.

 

That said, my personal foibles aside, I still thought it was a pretty solid film overall. Like I said, not really something for me, but it definitely had more than its fair share of good points.

[rukaio101]

47. Murder on the Orient Express

 

 

Kenneth Brannagh movies are kinda like comfort food to me. I like them just fine, but they usually slip from my mind within a week. I rarely have that much bad to say about them, but they also rarely inspire that much passion in me either. They’re just enjoyable little tidbits. Not really filling, but I won’t turn them away if offered.

 

And yeah, that more or less sums up my thoughts on Murder on the Orient Express. It’s a nice little movie that I don’t have much bad to say about (aside from a few weird direction choices) but neither do I feel all that much in the way of passion towards it either. It's just a solid film.

[Plain Old Tele]

“this isn't really my sort of movie.”

 

This is one of the most honest things to post and it’s so rare for people to say it. Across the board, most reviews here would be smart to include it. 

[rukaio101]

46. Spiderman Homecoming

 

 

Okay, I feel I gotta get this out of the way first. Sony's marketing campaign for this movie was fucking abysmal. And I'm not just referring to the shitty posters here. I don't know about you, but when I see trailers, I don't want them to give away the entire fucking character/emotional arc of our main protagonist. Seriously Sony, what the actual shit? And even if I wanted too, I couldn't avoid it because the trailer played at like half the movies I saw in Spring/Early Summer. I'd say that crap probably cost this movie about 4 or 5 places on this list because I knew exactly what would be coming and what the emotional beats would be. People give the Two Towers trailers shit for revealing Gandalf was coming back, but at least that didn't reveal most of the story arc.

 

Ahem. Okay, now I've finished ranting about Sony's inability to market a Spiderman movie, I thought this was fine. Just fine. I'm not fanboying over it like most people, but it was still mid-to-low tier Marvel, which is miles ahead of most blockbusters. I'll admit, I'll admit I've never been the fondest of Highschool Spidey, my nostalgic experience with the character was the 90's animated show, so it does annoy me a tinge that they keep coming back to the same setting, but this was a fine adaptation of that sort of story.

 

I mean, if there was one thing I had to give it a lot of credit for, it was that it did a pretty damn good job of differentiating itself from the previous two incarnations of Movie Spiderman and also managed to dig its own unique niche into the MCU. Holland and Keaton are both great, obviously, and there were a lot of decently funny moments. But, I dunno, something about this movie just didn't get me all that hyped compared to most Marvel movies.

 

To sum up, the movie was solid enough, if you ignore the bad marketing, but honestly I'm more interested in seeing where they go with that animated Miles Morales Spidey movie than Homecoming 2.

[rukaio101]

Sorry I missed updating this for a couple days. Blame stuff happening. I'll do 10 today to make up for it. 

 

Also, it really says something good about the quality of this year that I'm barely at the halfway point for my list, yet I'm already pretty solidly into the B/B+ movies.

 

45. The Post

 

 

Like La La Land last year, this was a movie I was probably more or less always going to like, since I'm a pretty big fan of these sorts of behind-the-scenes journalism movies, like All The President's Men and Spotlight. But I'll confess that this movie disappointed me a little. Honestly, I was expecting something more like AtPM or Spotlight, showcase the way that this story developed and grew and the hard work of the reporters behind it and etc etc and to some degree I did get that... but the movie also ended up focusing far too much on the business and the politics and the big glorifying 'freedoms of the press' moments, a lot of which felt a bit too heavy-handed and unsubtle and which not only undercut the journalistic work involved but left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm obviously for freedom of the press and in some cases hitting your audience over the head with the message can indeed be a positive (hell, Orwell's 1984 is unsubtle as fuck and all the better for it). But something about this just didn't work for me. I mean, compare to Spotlight which to some extent praised its titular heroes too. But Spotlight balanced that praise by pointing out the flaws in how so many people knew or were told about the church scandals but chose to either ignore the reports/witnesses or decided just to not rock the boat. And I felt that really balanced the whole thing and made it feel a lot more human. This, on the other hand, is clearly just glorifying the press and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's also very unsubtle and un-nuanced about what its doing and just doesn't carry that same emotional resonance as something like Spotlight does.

 

So yeah, honestly, The Post is still a fairly decent film and I did enjoy it (despite me complaining about it for most of this summary), but it's no Spotlight. But hey, Spielberg has Ready Player One coming up next and from everything I've heard from people who have read the book, the movie should certainly be..... Well, it'll exist, I'll give it that. 

[rukaio101]

44. War for the Planet of the Apes

 

 

You know, I never thought 'Not Holocaust-y enough' would ever be my main criticism of a film, but here we are.

 

Okay, I suppose a bit of context for that remark would be useful. Honestly, the recent Planet of the Apes films have always been fairly disposable for me. Which is especially odd since they’re probably one of the most weirdly and unexpectedly good blockbuster trilogies in recent years. I liked Rise just fine and really enjoyed Dawn a lot, but they’ve never really had that big an impact on me at the end of the year. And that goes more or less the same for War as well. That said, it's still a pretty damn good movie, not perfect, but pretty good.

 

Honestly, what I loved most about War was its first half, which felt like an old gritty Western, with its strong atmosphere and exploration of themes of grief and vengeance. If I was just judging this on its first half, it'd probably be right up there with the best of the year for me, but the second half, where the Apes were in the prison camp, is where it starts to lose its lustre for me.

 

Don't get me wrong, I get what they were trying to go with there, the holocaust-esque imagery of the prison camps isn't exactly subtle, but they quite frankly didn't go far enough. I don't know if it was the PG rating or what, but they never quite captured that same sense of cruelty and fear and the possibility of death at any moment that other movies like Schindler's List manage to achieve and thus the entire segment comes off as kind of a lukewarm bore. It's not harsh enough to emotionally effecting and it's too dark and depressing to be enjoyed otherwise. And don't get me wrong, while I definitely applaud the filmmakers for deciding to explore this side of war, rather than more traditional flash-bang action fare the entire segment just ends up letting the movie down.

 

Which is a shame because, as mentioned, there is a lot to like about this movie. The first half is genuinely effective as far as mood and atmosphere goes and do I even need to talk about how good Andy Serkis is in this role? It's genuinely a travesty that he gets so little recognition come awards time for these sorts of roles. But that second half weighs the movie down like a chain around its neck and drags into the levels of the decent, rather than the great.