War for the Planet of the Apes

Essential, and the best film to carry this name. The title is misleading in a way worth knowing about: this is not a war film. The war is largely over by the end of the first act, and what follows is a journey across snow by a small group, then a prison-camp drama, closer to a western than to anything with armies in it.

The subject is what Caesar has turned into. He begins the film choosing revenge over his responsibilities, spends most of it discovering that this makes him the same as the one ape he could never forgive, and the trilogy's final hour is about whether he can stop. Serkis's work here is the most interior of the three films and it holds a close-up for minutes at a time.

Woody Harrelson's Colonel is the best human character in the series, a man with a coherent and monstrous argument who gets one long scene to make it, shot with deliberate echoes of Apocalypse Now. The film gives him a reason that is awful and comprehensible, which is harder than making him mad.

Two additions carry the emotional weight. Maurice the orangutan has been present since the first film and finally becomes the moral centre, and Nova, a mute human child the apes take in, quietly explains what has happened to our species in a way no dialogue could. The ending is earned completely. If you watch only the modern trilogy, this is why.