In Review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

By Tim Robins on May 27, 2024

Review by Tim Robins

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

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.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | Photo: 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios

What a wonderful time at the movies! Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a continuation of the ’Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ timeline, although there are echoes of the original Planet of the Apes and its first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

The film opens three hundred years after the death of Caesar, the leader of the ape-uprising and last seen in War For the Planet of the Apes. We meet a new generation of adolescent chimps living in an idyllic village: Noa (Owen Teague), Anaya (Travis Jeffery) Noa’s best friend, and Soona (Lydia Peckham) Noa’s friend and love interest.

While Noa is out hunting for a falcon egg as part of a rite of passage, his village is attacked by a group of vicious gorillas who kill his father and take his mother and friends into slavery. Noa sets out on a quest to avenge his father’s death and rescue his family. Along the way, he encounters a wise old ape, Raka (Peter Macon) and a human called Nova (Freya Allan). Their travels take the group through the ruins of human civilisation, until they reach the realm of Proxima, a would-be Caesar whose dreams of conquest are fuelled by stories of the Roman Empire.

Don’t be misled by critics moaning that this, that or the other part of the movie is slow. The opening act is amazing. Director Wes Ball, rightly uses the first act to establish the ape characters, allowing us time to get to know them and empathise with their eventual plight. But the CGI, particularly establishing Noa’s village, the ‘locations’ and, most importantly, the personalities of the ape cast. My eyes never left the screen.

I suspect a lot of shortcuts may have been taken with the effects, in comparison to James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) but, if so, I couldn’t tell. I became immersed, drawn in by the much better plot and the compelling rendering of the apes’ faces and the way the actors’ and CGI artists dramatise the ape’s personalities. It’s an extraordinary act of world building and I was happy to sightsee with Noa and Raka as my guides.

I was a bit worried that I’d be watching a Planet of the Apes cartoon (although I’m sure that has its place). I never felt that I was watching animation, perhaps because I wasn’t. The use of motion capture turns CGI into a kind of puppetry. The inclusion of recognisable real-world referents – landscapes and living creatures such falcons, horses and humans certainly helps- although they too are probably CGI a lot of the time.

There are commentators bemoaning the inclusion of a plot line involving the survival of intelligent humans, but I think it is absolutely necessary. I’m not sure I’d want to see a film only about talking apes. And it is the presence of humans that turns the movies into cautionary tales, as the best of science fiction so often does.

The story is intelligently written. The legacy property places the idea of ‘legacy’ at its heart. It sets up a tension between different lessons to be learnt from Caesar and the ape revolt while also pondering humanity’s contribution to the future. Proxima misunderstands Caesar’s words, perhaps deliberately. Noa’s understanding of a past world where, as Raka suggests, humans lived together with apes in peace takes a knock when he finds a children’s book illustrating a trip to the zoo.

Apes fans will spot places where the film reworks scenes from Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. The imposing coastal setting is enough to evoke Taylor’s fateful trek towards the discovery of the wrecked Statue of Liberty (not seen here, as the recent films are set on an entirely different coast).

Some critics have felt that the trailers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes were misleading, or maybe it’s the audience’s own thirst for bloody action that has led them astray. A lot of the movie is focussed on Noa’s quest and his discovery of the lands beyond a disused tunnel that has marked the limit of his world. This is all there in the trailers.

The third act heralds an action-packed conflict between our Chimp friends and Proximus’s gorilla forces (I’m sure that, in the real world, Chimpanzies are more violent than Gorillas). Kevin Durand’s performance as Proximus is really creepy. The scenes around a dining table in his home convey an air of menace without the character even needing to speak. When he does, he apes his animated ancestor – King Louie from The Jungle Book (1967). Will Nova give Proximus the secret of man’s fire power? No, no she won’t.

Rather than a war movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a Lonely Planet Guide to the planet of the apes. We get to visit strange lands and take in the flora and fauna, including a herd of Zebra, and enjoy the company of ape friends we make along the way. So saddle up and enjoy the ride.

Tim Robins

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in cinemas now

Tim Robins

A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.

His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.