Film threes are difficult. For every Return of the Jedi, Return of the King or Toy Story 3 there is a Spider-man 3, X-Men 3 or Terminator 3.
For Sam Raimi’s third outing with the amazing web-head, not only did the studio’s desire to stuff in characters like Venom steal focus from the villains that he wanted to include — Sandman and Harry Osborn’s the Green Goblin — the director’s extended stay with the franchise led to some of the film’s more distasteful tonal risks — dancing, emo Peter Parker anyone?
While not as widely panned, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises was, at the least, considered by most to be a step down from its previous installments. There the writer/director, whether due to a compressed production schedule or waning creative energy, failed to execute satisfactorily conclusions that were, at least, conceptually interesting.
Then, of course, there are films like X-Men 3: The Last Stand and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines — threequels helmed by directors new to their franchises and undeniably baring the marks of their inferior visions, especially when compared to their predecessors. And sometimes the first two chapters of the trilogy have simply have told the most consequential and interesting parts of that narrative, a la The Godfather Part III.
So, how then have Rise, Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes succeeded where others have failed, and come together to form a trilogy that arguably rivals the likes of Toy Story, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings?
First, the entire trilogy really is a lesson in patient filmmaking. Each chapter boldly elects to explore its own stories, themes and characters fully, embracing the deliberate pace that that focus requires.
Because of the 1968 original film, the audience already knows in which species’ hands this planet ends up. Consequently, the writers could’ve pushed to accelerate any one of their films to get to that known place sooner. Thankfully however, with each chapter, they wholly believed that there were interesting and valuable stories to be explored leading up to that time period.
As such, 2011’s Rise took its entire running time to create a sentient group of apes. Then, in 2014’s Dawn, the writers chose to strip back a majority of those creatures’ dialogue from…
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