This franchise may be the most surprising thing going in movies right now. In its original iteration, the concept descended into farce and cheesiness after only a few films—yet, in the here and now, this series keeps churning out entertaining and even thoughtful editions one after the other. You can’t help but watch this film, and its recent predecessors, without seeing right through the metaphor, but in this case that’s a good thing—it’s how you come to contemplate just what these stories of nature (ape and otherwise) and conflict mean for us primates in the audience. The performances, mostly from a cast of nobodies—it must be difficult to get stars to sign on to play these roles via motion capture and computer generation, let alone to come out of the process looking like an ape—are remarkably well done, while the settings and effects are expertly presented and feel very true all the way through. This outing, just like the previous episodes, shows an inventiveness from the filmmakers that not only delivers a quality tale here, but promises further intriguing works in the future. You have to wonder how far they can take this saga before it grows tired, but for now there’s no sign of the thing losing steam. A remarkable achievement in this world of disposable, barely good enough entertainment. Good production, writing, and ideas together strong.
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