THE CALL OF THE WILD Review

Director Chris Sanders, a man who has made his bones on animated features like Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods, might not seem like the first choice to adapt a novel originally published in 1903 with a story that follows a dog named Buck and contains a sentence that is described in as frank a nature as, “They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping, and she was buried, screaming with agony, beneath the bristling mass of bodies,” and yet that’s exactly where we find ourselves with this latest adaptation of the Jack London novel in 20th Century Studios’ The Call of the Wild. Though I’d never read the relatively short novel the film is based on nor had I seen either of the previous film incarnations (Clark Gable starred in a 1935 version while Rutger Hauer starred in a 1997 version) given the marketing campaign and the PG-rating I hadn’t anticipated that the source material was as brutal and unflinching as it apparently is especially when considering the fact that it’s immediately apparent that Sanders’ version of this story is one for families to enjoy and for dog/animal lovers to find the purest of entertainment in. Of course, this is mostly what I did expect from this version and so it more or less went without saying that despite much of the fuss in the run up to the release centering on the animated lead and the inherent comedy in picturing Harrison Ford acting opposite a tennis ball the fact Sanders’ background is in animation and the fact the project rung with a sense of commitment and passion for Ford more or less led to a more rewarding experience than a ridiculous one. Yes, there are still moments in which the CGI is heavily relied on and the animals look about as real as a stuffed animal, but more times than not the CGI-renderings of these wild creatures look and feel exceptionally real. This brings us to what 2020’s The Call of the Wild does well in that, despite our lead character-Buck-being a CG creation (with the help of Terry Notary), the film genuinely allows its audience to invest in Buck as a character and chart his journey as we are not only endeared to his personality, but we root for him in the sense that wherever his passions lie, we hope his strength takes him there. This, of course, is why Sanders and co. would want the freedom a CG Buck might afford them and, while likely not faithful to its source material in any true way, this Michael Green-penned adaptation conveys more a journey of growth and catharsis than it does a simple, three-act piece of family entertainment which, unlike almost everything else about the film, was completely unexpected.

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Review

It's a weird feeling, rooting for the end or at least the defeat of mankind, but that is what this new trilogy of Planet of the Apes films has done. Each of the installments has done so well at tracking the progression of how these apes, namely Andy Serkis' mind-blowing creation that is Caesar, have become more human-like in their emotions as well as their mannerisms that it has become harder and harder to differentiate between the fact that what we're technically watching is a man versus beast tale. Of course, it's easy to throw those two labels around, but who actually deserves to have the title of beast fall upon them is debatable and especially in this final installment. In the inevitable War for the Planet of the Apes we find series screenwriters Mark Bomback and director Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) bringing the reinforcements that Gary Oldman's character made contact with in Dawn to the front lines and drawing the line in the proverbial sand. Reeves, who took over for Rupert Wyatt after the first installment, has crafted two distinct, but equally effective pieces of filmmaking that are as well-crafted as one could hope for. The film hits all the marks of a masterful technical achievement while at the same time deviating story expectations by not necessarily being generic summer popcorn entertainment, but are rather some heavy and heady pieces of cinema that have plenty of thoughts jumping around inside their heads as well as layers upon layers of allusions to the point each individual viewer could potentially see and receive something different when experiencing them. That said, both Dawn and now War never display that factor that pushes either of them over the edge of good, solid entertainment into something greater. It's a difficult feeling to describe given it is also a difficult thing to come up with anything negative to say or anything that specifically detracted from the experience of viewing the film, but speaking to the emotional state you reach after said experience War leaves you with a strong impression of being truly impressive, visually magnificent, but not nearly as intellectually or emotionally stimulated as it seemed you would be about midway through the movie. War for the Planet of the Apes makes us root for its primate protagonists, but it never lends the viewer the weight it seems to desire nor does it hit with enough of an impact that it will leave you contemplating all those ideas it has floating around inside its mind in your own for longer than a few hours. It is grand without necessarily being epic, distinctive, but not necessarily special.

First Trailer for WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

And the revolving door of trailers continues as 20th Century Fox has thrown their hat in the ring with the first trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes or the the third film in their re-booted Planet of the Apes trilogy that will follow up Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. If nothing else, this week has shown what a stellar year 2017 could be for blockbusters as not only do the two Marvel offerings we've seen so far look genuinely solid, but Transformers always feels like an event, Baywatch looks like The Rock will continue his hot streak and Zac Efron will continue doing what he does best in R-rated comedies, as he also appears in the highly-anticipated eight entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, while any summer with a new Christopher Nolan film is one to be cherished. Sure, The Mummy may end up being a little underwhelming or it could turn out to be fantastic-who knows, but the point is that adding War for the Planet of the Apes to this roster only makes it look that much more impressive. I was genuinely thrilled and surprised when director Rupert Wyatt's Rise  turned out to be one of the best offerings of the summer back in 2011 and thus immediately became more interested in the mythology of the series as all I'd seen prior was the original and Tim Burton re-make. When Matt Reeves took over the series for 2014's Dawn it was easy to tell the direction they were going and how we might eventually connect the dots from one movie to the next, but that didn't make the journey any less thrilling. Though I was somewhat underwhelmed by Reeves' film there was still much to admire about it including the lush visuals and attempts at addressing larger themes (albeit this is a theme throughout the entire series). It seems the director has once again accomplished as much with this third installment as it looks truly epic in both thought and visual scale. War for the Planet of the Apes stars Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, Terry Notary, Karin Konoval, Max Lloyd-Jones, and opens on July 14, 2017.