Apess son of the forest review11/27/2023 It’s an uneasy truce that’s made between the two, but it comes from a shared understanding that they’re both working for the same thing - for family, for community, for the future. The two obviously have much in common, as Malcolm is also trying to protect his family (a son, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and a mate, Keri Russell) and his people. The dynamic between Caesar and Clarke’s Malcolm is another strong through line. With every sigh, every flicker of his eyes, every movement, you can feel the responsibilities that he is wrestling with, regarding not just leading his fellow apes but also taking care of his family and guiding his elder son into adulthood. His Caesar is older and wiser from when we last saw him, and he bears the weight of the world on his shoulders. Much has been said about Serkis’ mastery of performance capture over the years, which of course combines with the amazing visual effects of Weta to create the apes, but I’ll be damned if I’ve seen a deeper, more nuanced performance this year than what Serkis does in this film. What’s immediately compelling is the way in which Caesar responds to the humans, who he sees as desperate and perhaps even pitiful. They need Caesar’s help, or at least his permission, to access an old dam that will restore power to San Francisco… or what’s left of it, anyway. They represent a small pocket of survivors who were immune to the Simian Flu, and this particular group, led by Gary Oldman’s Dreyfus and Jason Clarke’s Malcolm, are out of options. This paradise is threatened, however, when a ragtag group of humans arrive on the scene. The ape children attend school, where Maurice, the orangutan from Rise and Caesar’s trusted adviser, teaches lessons such as “Ape will not kill ape.” Of course this is a notion that will have great significance as the film progresses. Caesar’s people, who now communicate through a mix of limited speech, signing, and body language - and by the way, it’s impressive just how much Reeves uses subtitles in what is, after all, a summer tent pole picture - have established a virtual paradise here, living off the land, hunting, and growing their tribe. In the forests north of San Francisco, an ape city of a kind has taken root, carved into the lush woods and waterfalls of the landscape. (Reeves depicts the end of the world as we know it in a chilling opening credits montage that ties events closely to the real world.) While mankind has suffered and mostly died off over the past 10 years, the apes have flourished. A decade has passed since then, and as was predicted at the end of Rise, human civilization has fallen in the wake of the Simian Flu - fittingly enough, the same virus that enabled Caesar’s kind to rise. Andy Serkis is now rightfully front and center as Caesar, the leader of the small group of apes who were granted intelligence, language, and eventually their freedom in the previous movie.
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