Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review
After a quintilogy of older films, a misguided remake filled to the brim with issues, and the modern Caesar trilogy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes attempts to follow up the modern trilogy, taking place centuries down the line. Does it successfully follow up that trilogy, or does it fail altogether as a botched sequel? That is what I, Brighton Nelson of The Reel Ranker, will be doing in today's review.
The film starts really strong as we follow Noa and his two best friends, who are hunting for bird eggs that they want to hatch for their clan as part of a traditional ritual. This scene is my favorite scene in the entire movie! I love just seeing young apes have a precious friendship, and while it ends up having minimal impact on the plot, it is excellent for establishing our main character and his best friends. After this, the friends go back to their clan. However, once Noa returns to his quarters, a human scavenger follows him and attacks him, breaking the egg. This event leads Noa to search for another, but he runs into a group of morally questionable apes with weapons. These apes capture most of Noa's clan and kill the important figures, including Noa's dad.
Noa then vows to himself that he will save his clan, and, in his journey, he teams up with the wise Raka and the intelligent human Mae. Mae reveals the location of the rabid apes, but on their way, the group is captured, and, unfortunately, Raka doesn't make it out alive. Now enslaved, Noa and Mae learn about ape leader Proximus Caesar, who's making other clans assimilate and work for him to open a vault that has the key to living like the civilized humans of centuries past. They enter the vault, get a satellite key, action ensues, Noa saves his clan, Mae goes to find a human civilization, and the credits roll: that's it. Super fun.
The widespread consensus on this film is that while weaker than the previous modern films, it is still a worthy successor and a great new place to take the franchise. While I enjoyed bits and pieces of this film, namely the opening act and the intriguing idea that apes are trying to copy intelligent humans of a bygone era, everything else about this film struggled to hold my interest, let alone being anywhere near as good as Rupert Wyatt or Matt Reeves's works. While the ending does hook me in enough that I'll give Wes Ball's next film a chance, this film was a certifiable slog. The only characters I really cared for were Noa's mom and Soona, who both had minimal screen time to begin with. The plot was kind of messy, and I felt no emotions outside of a slight smile during the aforementioned egg-collecting sequence and an inquisitive gaze when Proximus Caesar revealed his un-Caesar-like plan that draws parallels to the world's skewed, myopic perspective on history.
The Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Unreel
The Reel Ranker Score: 34%
Letter Rating: D-
Star Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Frankly, this film fails to capture the action, wit, or social commentary of the previous films. While it looks pretty and has an intriguing ending, I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody except people who get paid to write about it or the most die-hard fans of the series. If you can't don the power of rose-tinted glasses for your favorite series, though? I firmly urge you to skip this film.
