A BRAND NEW WORLD // A FILM REVIEW OF “KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES”
BY MATEO MORENO
It’s a world without Caesar, but we definitely still feel his presence in KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, the latest installment of the “Planet of the Apes” reboot series. Wes Ball steps in for Matt Reeves and Rupert Wyatt and takes us several years in the future after the events of War For the Planet of the Apes. Caesar has died many moons ago, but has left behind quite the impact. He’s now revered as a legend, even by those apes who twisted his actual words around. Apes are now the dominant species and humans are still living among them, but in far off places. The Apes are again performed by the motion capture effects that so stunningly were introduced by Andy Serkis in the previous films and they still look breathtaking. We begin with a trio of friends, Noa (Owen Teague), Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Soona (Lydia Peckham) as they climb up some mile high trees in order to secure eagle eggs for a clan ceremony happening the next day.
All three successfully find an egg, but that evening a human (Freya Allenb) sneaks into their camp and Noa catches her. He chases her away, but breaks his ceremonial egg in the process. As he goes off to find another egg, the villainous Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) and his crew (wearing creepy masks in the process) attack Noa’s home camp, burning it to the ground. They claim to fight and pillage in the name of Caesar but have twisted his message so much that it’s not recognizable at all. Noa’s father is killed and others are kidnapped, including his mother.
Noa heads off to try and find his clan and meets up with an older orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), who knew Caesar when he was younger and shows Noa the actually teaching of the now famed ape. Together they come across Mae, the human who broke into Noa’s camp. The three of them end up as a odd-thruple team against the madness of Proximus Caesar and his army. I don’t want to spoil much more, and at nearly 2 and a half hours, there’s a lot of ground to cover, but Noa’s team head into the belly of the beast, discovering far more than they bargained for (including a human played by William H. Macy working with Proximus). Director Wes Ball does a fantastic job with this newest installment, and dazzles with a truly impressive world building scope. The new characters are compelling and the action and effects are stunning. The first three of this newest Apes series were all spectacular, so Kingdom has a lot to live up to. And it mostly does. The running time is a bit long and there might be a bit TOO much world building. But that’s a small complaint for such a spectacular action spectacle. Caesar would be proud.
GRADE: A-
WRITTEN BY Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver DIRECTED BY Wes Ball STARRING Owen Teague, Freya Allen, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, Lydia Peckham, William H. Macy, Eka Darville NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE