Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - Movie Review
A fourth Apes movie? Well, there are plenty more Apes movies than four, but a fourth movie in this New Caesar continuity, that is to say, a fourth movie following a pretty solid trilogy, could be hit or miss. Let’s see.
So, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball, who directed those Maze Runner movies. Now he’s taking on the next chapter of apes. It’s been many generations since the events of “War for the Planet of the Apes,” in which we have a new protagonist ape named Noah. He’s on a quest to get his tribe back from a group of not-so-nice apes. We’re using Caesar’s name in vain, which I’m pretty sure goes against one of the 15 original commandments.
Okay, visually, the movie looks remarkable. The apes, the land – it really messes with your mind. We’ve seen a lot of what we’ll call trash CGI. I like to call it incomplete CGI, knowing that the VFX department probably didn’t have the time or resources to actually finish it or get it done. We’ve heard the stories, and the stories suck. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” shows you don’t have to be James Cameron to make impressive modern-day CGI. Some of the apes when they’re moving around look like, well, that does look CGI. There are some other close-up moments where I was like, that looks real. Also, following Andy Serkis and the character Caesar, whom we got so attached to in the previous movies, I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I did. Following that is no easy task.
A New Protagonist: Noah
It kind of reminds me of the Lunar games. Some people say Lunar could be Lunar. I say Lunar One is by the end of Silver Star, you’re attached to Alex and his crew. Now you’re about to play Eternal Blue, whole new protagonist, whole new crew. Am I going to be as attached then? Yeah, heroes are great protagonists. Suppose I could have used Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross for that comparison, but Lunar is so underrated, so I figured, why not? The point is, Owen Teague plays Noah in this movie, and I thought he was a great protagonist. He’s going through his coming-of-age phase. He’s heartfelt, he’s relatable, he’s likeable – just into this situation where he’s like, I’ve got to get my family, my clan back. Also, I thought Proximus was a good antagonist. Granted, he doesn’t come into the movie until about halfway through. Between an hour and halfway through – the movie clocks in about two hours, 20 minutes. But there was something about him that made me sit up in my chair, and I was like, oh, here we go. He was a solid antagonist, a religious, even cult-like leader. Kevin Durant continues to crush it. That Proximus was menacing.
Apes and Religion
That’s right, apes have found religion now, and they’re killing themselves over it. Apes and their higher consciousness are closer to being human now than ever, which is kind of a bummer when I feel like the movie’s kind of at war with what perspective it wants to tell here. There are moments like that where it’s clear everyone’s on board. Everyone knows they’re telling a human story through apes, which is what the previous movies did. Also, then you have a human character in here named May. At a point, it starts splitting time as to who is the main character here, and the answer is simple – Noah, of course.
Balancing Ape and Human Perspectives
I don’t know about you, but I’ve kind of accepted the fact that these Planet of the Apes movies are seen through the eyes of the apes. There are moments in this movie where it’s like, well, not so fast. We need to see it through the eyes of a human. It was frustrating in its execution here because I didn’t care about her story. I cared about Noah getting his family back. They were playing the balancing act well enough for the most part, until at a point she kind of felt like a human in a Transformers movie. It almost feels like someone’s like, well, how are the humans watching the movie going to connect with robots? It’s because, well, the human stories you’re telling should be through the Autobots, the Autobots should be the humans, the apes should be the humans. I know you know that because you’re telling very human stories through the apes in this movie, in the apes, in the previous movies.
Looking Forward to the Next Chapter
I will say where it looks like they’re going moving forward because of course they’re going to make a trilogy out of this. I am interested to see where that goes. Granted, on the drive home I was like, wait a minute, wait, could you start thinking about it and given time to think you’re like, I kind of called some bullshit. I have questions. Hope they answer that in the next movie. And at a point when the climax of this movie is popping off, shut up. When the last act, the big conflict, the master plan’s going down, it was entertaining. The second part of that statement leading up to it was kind of a snooze. I mean, you do have great visuals. The setup of this movie, the camaraderie with Noah and his friends – I thought that was great. If we keep him with his friends and now, they’re gone, they’re separated, but we’re just we’re essentially walking through the land. I’m not above enjoying a movie with a lot of walking and Eagles, but I’ve got to be more engaged with the world.
A Fine Addition to the Series
This movie heavily relies on the audience’s ability to go, oh hey, those used to be buildings, that used to be a baseball field. How cool. Oh, a bridge. You know, we used to drive across those. I couldn’t help but think if Noah and his friends, whom they built up together in the beginning, and you saw the camaraderie with them, if they had stuck together and they went on the quest to get the Klan back, fellowship style, it would have been much more engaging for me. This feels like the classic case of Now will make a fourth installment, and it’s not bad. It’s fine.
