About KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
What We Thought:
If you enjoyed the reboot trilogy (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes) then you’ll enjoy the latest entry into the franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. As for me I’m not a huge fan of them and think Rise is still the best of the four. I did rewatch the trilogy recently to prepare for this film and it plays better when watching them one right after the other, but I still don’t love them.
My biggest issue with the franchise is the apes are the protagonists and the humans are always the bad guy. I’m not going to root for animals over humans, ever. I understand going back to the Charlton Heston version it’s been a metaphor for different real world things, but I’m still not going to cheer on apes over humankind. With this film being many generations after War for the Planet of the Apes, most humans are gone or even worse than what they were. The teachings of Christ, sorry Caesar (again metaphor) have been corrupted with most apes not knowing much about Caesar or his experiences with humans. The new bad ape wants all apes under his kingdom and attacks the new lead ape’s village. The bad ape also wants the human girl who’s more human than what they are used to. Compared to the previous three films, this is an adventure flick more than anything else. Director Wes Ball’s The Maze Runner background definitely shows here.
My biggest issue with this film is so much time is wasted on things in the beginning that you sit there waiting for them to pay off. The cold open (after an introduction with the ending of War) is three new apes climbing to find bird eggs. One ape climbs higher than the others. Hmm, I wonder if climbing high will mean something later on? Once the new characters are established, you are shown that they are a village that raises birds. Their leader was the best with birds, but his son (the lead) wasn’t great with them. I wonder if them raising birds will mean something later on? It beats you over the head with foreshadowing while you wait patiently for it to amount to anything.
The one thing I can’t take away from this series is the top notch production. Andy Serkis may no longer be around, but the actors doing the ape movements are still amazing to me. The human actors doing the movements that are then made into apes in post will always fascinate me. This time around there are very limited human characters so the film is predominantly ape movements. The production can’t be beat and there are beach riding scenes that will remind you of scenery in Heston’s first version. I may not love these four films, but I respect the heck out of them in terms of filmmaking.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will win its opening weekend. It should open solid and do well overseas and its sequel will be greenlit shortly afterwards if it hasn’t been already. The ending leaves it open to a sequel and I can see Ball getting a trilogy out of it like he did with The Maze Runner. The MacGuffin for the third act will surely be the opening act for any sequel. I wish I got more excited for these films, but I never quite got into them. I like them, but I honestly could have waited to watch this at home despite seeing it in IMAX. But if you like the trilogy or the entire franchise then you should check it out.
The Nerds Templar 