Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
The Planet of the Apes films began in 1968 with the now
classic Planet of the Apes, which spawned four sequels, ending with the
lackluster Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973. The movie series
was revived with the unexpectedly terrific Rise of the Planet of the Apes
in 2011, resulting in a successful trilogy which ended with 2017's War for
the Planet of the Apes. Now we have Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,
which has connective threads to the previous trilogy, but is a stand-alone film
and possibly the first film in a new trilogy.
Kingdom takes place generations
later after the events of War, so it's all new characters and no Andy
Serkis as Caesar. The main character here is a young chimpanzee hunter named
Noa (Owen Teague through motion capture), who is left for dead when a warring
ape tribe raids his village. The leader of the marauding tribe, a bonobo
dictator known as Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), has enslaved Noa's family and
friends. The young chimp finds himself alone but is soon befriended by a wise
orangutan, Raka (Peter Macon), and is also being followed by a human, Mae
(Freya Allan). A plot involving human technology doesn't kick in until the
second half of the movie.
Kingdom is well made from a
technical standpoint. There are good motion capture performances from the
actors, the CG effects are top notch, and there are good action scenes, but the
movie, directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner trilogy), seams rather
empty when it comes to thoughts and ideas. The Planet of the Apes films
always had social and political commentary, and there are hints here about
cultism, but the screenplay, credited to Josh Friedman, doesn't examine that
idea too deeply. Plus with a running time of 145 minutes, this is just too darn
long.
However, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does
tend to work as a mild slice of summer movie escapism.
