General Information
Directed by – Wes Ball
Written by – Josh Friedman
Release Year – 2024
Starring – Owen Teague (Noa), Freya Allen (Mae), Kevin Durand (Proximus), Peter Macon (Raka), Eka Darville (Slyva), and William H. Macy (Trevathan)
Synopsis – 300 years after the reign of Caesar, Noa is determined to fight for his clan alongside a human he is surprised is more evolved than previously believed.
Review
Now, I have to admit, I was never interested in any of the Planet of the Apes movies until I saw the trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I just thought they were silly monkey movies with obnoxiously long titles. It was my boyfriend that said they were actually pretty good films. So we indulged in watching the trilogy and man were my original thoughts wrong. I fell in love with these films – how they were able to tell such human stories while not being told by humans. We start with humans being the main characters, but as the trilogy continues, the apes take center stage. By the conclusion of this story arc, the apes have taken over with their leader, Caesar, passing away. While this was a perfect and beautiful ending to these impressive films, I was excited to see how this next group of movies would take the story, and it is already off to a strong start.
Generations after Caesar’s passing, apes are the dominant species with humans believed to be mostly gone with those remaining being feral. This film follows its new protagonist, Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape who is a part of a clan that raises eagles. They are a generally peaceful group of apes that keep to themselves. As soon as the film starts, its visuals stand out. Since these movies first released in 2011, how realistic the apes look has always been a standout. With some special effects trying to be so realistic that they come off looking more fake, it is so nice to see a studio and artists who put dedication into making sure the film looks as stunning as it does. And with this film specifically, most of the human buildings and creations have been overgrown, so there are so many beautiful landscapes of jungles and beaches that take over the world. How stunning everything looks is reason enough to check out this film.
As part of his clan’s coming-of-age ceremony, Noa and his friends, Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery), have to collect eagle eggs and keep them safe until the ceremony. After the collection, Noa notices a human scavenger has invaded his clan to steal things and he tries to catch them. In their scuffle, Noa’s egg breaks and unless he gets a new one before the ceremony, he will have to wait a whole year to get his eagle. Noa decides to sneak out at night to get a new egg, but as he does that, he runs into another clan of apes who like to raid other ape clans. These apes claim to do damage in the name of Caesar and travel to Noa’s clan to destroy it and kidnap his people. When I heard them mention Caesar’s name after their killing and destruction, I audibly gasped in the theater. It just came as a shock to me because after falling in love with Caesar, I knew this is not what he would have wanted. While I think that Caesar and his legacy should stay within the original three movies, I did not mind that his ideas are still a driving factor for the war-hungry apes is a great way to transition to this new world we are exploring.
Noa, having survived the massacre and capture of his clan, seeks revenge and wants to bring them home. His journey takes him all over the beautiful landscapes the apes have created over the last 300 years. Along his trek, he runs into two individuals that would impact major aspects of his actions for the rest of the film; Raka (Peter Macon) who teaches about what Caesar’s word really meant and Mae (Freya Allen), the human scavenger who ends up not being as feral as originally believed who is also seeking the same clan as Noa. Together, they will venture in hopes to take down King Proximus (Kevin Durand) and save the clan. One of the most interesting components of this trio is how much Raka seems to do in the name of Caesar just like Porximus’ clan. But both have a completely different interpretation of what he stood for. A lot of figures in history have had their works dissected for centuries, but we will never know what the true meanings of their works are as we can never talk to them. We can assume, but in the end, interpretation is up to the individual. Both Proximus and Raka follow the words of Caesar but in two extremely different ways.
Just like the previous installments, there are so many appealing aspects to this world. The first, Rise of the Planet of the Apes had a great story that set up the premise for what would become this reboot franchise while the second and third, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, respectively, had masterful direction to tell the rest of Caesar’s story. All three together make for one of the strongest film trilogies ever created. Rumors have it that there will be a total of nine movies in this fresh take on the original story broken up into three trilogies similar to the Star Wars franchise. If that is true, this has the potential to be one of the strongest franchises of all time that deserves its flowers.
One of the most frustrating things about these movies – along with others that focus heavily on motion-capture technology – is that the actors never seem to get as much praise as the actors never seem to get as much praise as the “human” actors. Owen Teague as Noa gives one of the greatest performances of the year. There is so much naivete and hurt that jumps out during his scenes you forget it is a human being with a bunch of dots on their face in a skin-tight suit. Every ape actor has so much dedication to their role and it is so easy to tell. If anything, they have to work extra hard because they do not have the luxury of getting into a physical costume to bring the final elements of the character together. I could tell every emotion the apes were feeling and that is because of how well those actors are. Motion-capture performances need to be more recognized in the film industry.
Besides the apes, Freya Allen as the human, Mae, gives one of my favorite performances from a human character in this franchise. While it seems obligatory to have a human when I would be perfectly fine with a movie of just apes, Allen is able to show audiences in more ways than one why her species is still vital to the franchise. At this point in the timeline, apes and humans have essentially switched roles in the ecosystem. So it comes at quite a shock when Mae is actually able to speak. The best part about her is how unreliable she can be. She always gives off an aura of not knowing if you should trust her or not. Having a character like this makes for an interesting view on character development for those around them, keeping you on the edge of your seat at all times.
Noa is the clear standout amongst the ape characters, but two performances that should be overlooked are Raka and Proximus. Both of them view Caesar as a great being for their kind, but it’s their opposing approaches to him that make them both fascinating characters. Raka wants the apes to be stronger when they are working together, but Proximus wants to become essentially what humans were in history. This can be seen with what type of literature they both decide to study. It is with them how fascinatingly human they are. All of the apes are able to show the same emotions that it makes it easy to connect to any of them. It just reminds us how close we truly are to one another. Hopefully, one of these movies will have all of the apes just having a good time. But as we can tell from this film, for every Raka there will always be a Proximus.
The film’s biggest issue is its pacing. Kingdom has one of those issues where every scene feels necessary but how they are laid out makes the film drag in certain places. There is maybe one or two that I can think of that could have been cut for time, but even then everything felt necessary to have to move the story forward. This could have potentially been fixed with a little more showing instead of telling, but even in the more dialogue heavy scenes did not seem unimportant. If some scenes were pulled together tighter, it could have felt better paced. The action sequences, however, are executed perfectly with great focus on making sure we know exactly why it is taking place. The final battle is built up throughout the film that the process of it is so satisfying. There is so much thought that goes into what needs to be expressed to move the franchise to its end goal. Hopefully its creatives realize that more is not always better; just having a good story no matter how long is what the fans need.
I am so grateful that I was convinced to give this franchise a chance despite the silly long titles. All of the films tell such a human story even when humans are not the main characters. I hope this new saga continues with as much love and dedication that have been put into the first four, as it seems like we are about to get interesting very soon!
