The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review
A sumptuous digital extravaganza that never quite reaches the heights of the previous trilogy.
When his family of apes is abducted by a rival ape group, Noa (Owen Teague) must set out from the safety of his valley to rescue them. On the way, he teams up with human Nova (Freya Allen). They stumble across Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), an ape trying to resurrect the glory of the famed ape Caesar and take over an old human military bunker, and need to find a way to stop him and rescue Noa’s family before it's too late.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, despite its simple title, is for the most part quite a simple movie. Set generations into the future from the prior, masterful trilogy, this iteration sees a peaceful band of apes ravaged by an angry band of apes, with one left behind needing to travel across the land to find them and rescue them. That there are a few humans - or whatever the remnant of humanity is in this world - involved, means little if anything.
Indeed, there’s a lot from the digital perspective to like here. The film is wonderfully shot and quite beautiful. The cityscapes ravaged by time and encroaching nature, the incredibly realistic digital apes, and some of the action, is all very impressive.
The issues with the film predominately stem from the human contingent.
Thrust as we are into the world of ape tribes arrayed against one another, the push of humanity into their space feels most unwelcome. Freya Allen and William H Macy have roles both unsatisfying and unfleshed out, and their stories never really cohesively create a human character to root for or against.
Gone are the days of Woody Harrelson and James Franco. Instead, we get a cast that somewhat feels like it is phoning it in. The voice cast for the apes, too, never comes close to touching Andy Serkis’ remarkable performance as Caesar. This film tackles an ape trying to emulate the glory days of Caesar, and Wes Ball very much mimics this behavior.
Ultimately, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a perfectly enjoyable jaunt back into the Apes universe; just one you’ll forget quite quickly.
