War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

I like to watch films without too many distractions. Unfortunately, when War for the Planet of the Apes (pithy title) started, I had a couple behind me who thought they were on Gogglebox, a man setting next to me who had boundary issues, and then to top it all off the guy sitting across from me decided to start rustling and eating very loudly.

So about twenty minutes into the film, I decided to move - the front row (where my seat was located) was empty aside from Boundary Man and Rustling Guy.

Despite the distractions, the film still managed to sweep me up (at least once I didn't have everything else competing for my attention. Its central performance by Andy Serkis (playing Caesar) is possibly one of the best pieces of acting that I've seen this year - and that's from a CGI chimpanzee. Not that you could tell  - the CGI seemed to be flawlessly integrated into the film to the extent that if I didn't know that apes couldn't talk, I would have sworn they were physically on the set with the human actors.

The story is solidly constructed. It feels like a bit of a throwback to older films - a mix of Vietnam War movie meets Biblical epic - and there's some influences from classic Westerns thrown in for good mix. It's a worthy follow-up to the previous film and in keeping with the shifting balance from the human story to the ape story, this one is told almost completely from Caesar's point of view.

I'm not sure if it's better than the second entry in the trilogy (and this film gives us a clear ending - at least of this chapter of the story) - I'll probably have to rewatch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to make that decision - but it certainly holds up well as a worthy successor to it.

Now I need to go back and see this again - hopefully without the distractions this time.