20 Best Movies Of 2017
14. War For The Planet Of The Apes
No one really thought Planet of the Apes needed a reboot when Rise hit back in 2011, and while Rupert Wyatt's Rise was a smart way of kicking the new trilogy off, it was Matt Reeves' Dawn that showcased the true potential of this reboot.
It's Reeves who fulfils that with War, a sequel that completes this as one of the century's finest movie trilogies, and so much more than your standard blockbuster action movie.
Being War, there is of course a lot of action, but Reeves' elevates it above simply being a load of CGI shots and a cacophony of noise and bullets. He foregrounds character in the action, made all the more impressive by the fact the ones we truly care about are motion-captured apes (Andy Serkis presumably won't be in the Oscar mix, but he really should be), and combines that with a dazzling spectacle and bombastic score from Michael Giacchino.
Caesar is once again at the heart of this, and it concludes one hell of a journey for him in powerful and surprisingly poignant fashion. It's a grim, morally complex tale, and all of the splendour and effects are in service of the narrative and characters, marking this as one of the year's smartest big-budget flicks. It wraps things up and yet leaves you wanting more, and regardless of what's going on with DC and Ben Affleck, will leave you excited for a Matt Reeves Batman film.