Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. The Planet of the Apes franchise is something very near and dear to my heart. I love all of the original five entries and consider the recent Caesar trilogy to be one of the best film trilogies of all time. The only movie in the series that I could not get into was the Tim Burton 2001 one-off with Mark Wahlberg. Turned off that garbage 30 minutes in. Regardless of that one movie, I absolutely adore this franchise, its relevant themes, its characters, and the vast world building that comes with it. War for the Planet of the Apes ended on such a conclusive and emotionally satisfying note with Caesar’s death that I was perfectly content with it being the final Apes movie ever made. Going into this latest entry, I definitely had serious reservations about whether or not it would be a pointless cash grab or a retread of familiar story beats we’ve seen countless times before. Wes Ball from the Maze Runner movies steps in to replace Matt Reeves in the director’s chair and although I kind of liked the first Maze Runner installment, I was sort of hoping for a higher caliber director to take over the reins from Reeves. No doubt, there are big shoes to fill here.
That being said, I am happy to report that even though Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes never quite reaches the levels of sophisticated storytelling or deep emotional complexity of the previous trilogy, it is still a worthy entry in the saga that builds upon Caesar’s legacy in a logical way while also opening up a new chapter in this world. Taking place around 300 years after the death of Caesar, we are introduced to a post apocalyptic world where most of humanity is gone and apes are now the dominant species. This movie has a 160 million dollar budget and it looks better than most 300 million dollar plus over budgeted superhero blockbusters that have come out in the last few years. Even though Andy Serkis is not in this film, the motion capture work is once again superb, with such impeccable detail on the apes that each and every movement or facial expression looks strikingly realistic. Another thing I really appreciate on the technical side is how many of the landscapes and abandoned buildings were done with combining practical effects and CGI to make for the most visually interesting shots and beautiful scenery. This time around, our protagonist is a young ape named Noa, played by Owen Teague. Noa is naive yet also a very big risk taker, and Teague does a great job capturing that. He tries his best to earn the respect of his father, and once his village gets obliterated by a neighboring group of apes, Noa sets out on a quest to find his family/clan members and bring them home.
While Noa is certainly no Caesar, he is still fairly relatable and has a knack for questioning everything he’s learned about his life and the history of the world around him. On his journey, Noa stumbles upon perhaps the best character of the entire film in Peter Macon’s Raka, an orangutan who follows the true ways and teachings of Caesar. Raka is wise, funny, and almost instantly became my favorite character in the movie. As Caesar’s legacy permeates throughout this movie, there are also those who have twisted his teachings for cruel and selfish reasons, which is where the villain of Proximus Caesar comes in. In the grand scheme of antagonists in this franchise, Proximus is one of the most charismatic, energetic, and humorous villains yet. Unlike the always grim and angry Koba, Proximus has a much more playful and joking side to him and Kevin Durand is exceptional as the character. Despite not being introduced until the second act and not having as much screen time as he deserves, Proximus Caesar is definitely one of the more interesting and entertaining villains of the saga. There are only two human characters in this film, with one of them being Freya Allen’s Mae and William H Macy in a mystery role. I thought that Freya Allen turned in a solid performance as the seemingly primitive Mae, but I don’t really know how I’ll fully feel about the character itself until the next movie or a rewatch of this one. I can’t get into Macy’s role because that would be spoiler territory, but for what he had to do in here, I appreciated seeing this human with a far different perspective from most humans in these movies.
It’s very clear that the apes in this film have evolved to be extremely intelligent and quick witted, with some having a human-like acute sense of humor. Wes stages some very impressive large scale action set pieces, with one of them being an intense jungle chase involving Noa and Proximus’s henchmen fighting over Mae. The movie captures Noa’s relationship with his mother, family members and Mae in a fairly heartfelt way and as the film progressed, I really bought their whole dynamic. In terms of issues, I would have wanted more screen time for Proximus and the beginning takes a little bit to get going. I also do not think that this film is quite able to capture the heavy emotions or rich thematics of human/ape coexistence as well as the previous trilogy. Obviously, that was an impossible task, but it does a good enough job for me to forgive those shortcomings. The last thing that I wasn’t crazy about was the soundtrack. It’s not bad or anything like that, in fact it’s pretty serviceable, but coming off of the beautiful scores by Michael Giacchino, this didn’t remotely have the same level of memorable orchestral cues as his did.
The film’s ending opens the door for future sequels, and it may divide some viewers depending on their expectations. I for one am very intrigued as to where this franchise is headed, so I welcome the cliffhanger ending with an open mind. Like I said before, I really had no expectations whatsoever for this movie. As a massive fan of this series, I was perfectly satisfied with the ending of War for the Planet of the Apes and wasn’t asking for more sequels. Lo and behold, I found myself quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this new installment. It’s not a retread of stories we’ve seen before nor does it disrespect integral elements of its predecessors, something that many current Hollywood franchises can learn a thing or two about. Overall, even though it never quite reaches the levels of sophisticated storytelling or emotional complexity of the recent APES trilogy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is still a solid entry to the series, expanding upon the legacy of Caesar with strong new characters, layered world building, and one of the saga’s most entertaining villains yet. It stands alone pretty well, building upon the mythos of its predecessors while setting up even bigger sequels to come.
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