Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The latest in this solid franchise is another worthy, transporting entry

The recent Planet of the Apes movies have been one of the more contemplative blockbuster franchises in recent memory. Starting out as pure popcorn fodder with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), they evolved into reflective studies of what it means to be a human. With the final film, War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) capping an incredibly solid trilogy, one can’t help but feel skeptical when another film with a new creative team was announced.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) is set centuries afterward the last film. The world has been taken back by nature with only faint outlines of fallen skyscrapers or beached cargo ships giving any indication of what came before. We follow Noa (Owen Teague) a young ape from a peaceful clan. When a violent group of apes destroy his village, Noa embarks on a revenge quest, encountering the wise orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), and the silent human Nova (Freya Allan) along the way.

Director Wes Ball cut his teeth making the bland Maze Runner films. However, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes proves to be an astoundingly good entry in this surprisingly resilient franchise. A focus on character and picaresque storytelling helps viewers immerse themselves in the world. A lack of blocky dialogue helps pare down over-exposition, leading to a curiosity regarding customs and cultural dynamics depicted in the film.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes clocks at over two and a half hours, yet never once did I look at my watch. Ball keeps the story moving along without rushing his character work. We get a classic hero’s journey from Noa, but also rich character studies of supporting players. Only with the human element, curiously the weakest aspect of all these Apes films, does your interest wane, with a side-plot revealed too late in the story for viewers to latch on to. With setting up his ape characters, Ball doesn’t waste a single scene, establishing decades’ worth of relationships in only a few scenes and gestures, this helps elevate the stakes for the revenge quest, which proved much more unpredictable and unforgiving than I expected out of a mainstream blockbuster.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is also an effective reflection on the dangers of twisting history for the benefit of an ideology or group. We see how the protagonist of the previous Apes films, Caesar, is used as a Christ-like icon for the manipulation of ape masses by a exploitative elite. This incredibly timely exploration helps deliver a neutral ground for viewers to see how charlatans can so easily claim knowledge and power through manipulation. It was a much deeper reflection of the intersection of power, religion, and ideology than I was expecting from a “talking monkeys movie.”

The cast in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has heavy duty to inhabit simians yet deliver expansive character arcs. Teague deliverings an astounding lead performance showcasing the growth, emotion, and dilemmas that Noa undergoes to the point that you stop seeing a monkey at all. Likewise, the likes of Macon and Kevin Durand, who plays the film’s villain, deliver scene-stealing performances with relish. Allan as the main human character is mostly relegated to being a silent plot device similar to her work in The Witcher (2019-). The human element of her story never truly picks up, so that an essential internal conflict within Noa is diluted as a result.

The leaps-and-bounds that the motion-capture technology has made over the last ten years is astounding. One forgets you are watching entirely CG characters in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, so that I was taken by surprise halfway through a battel scene in water, remembering the wet, matted fur was completely computer generated.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the type of cinematic blockbuster that studios seem increasingly shy to make. It is a mix of action, character work, brutal plot, and societal reflection that is well pulled off. While there is an intrusive human element that side-tracks some of the crucial third act, Ball demonstrates that with good writing and a clear vision, one can take any franchise as far as you wish.

7.9/10