If a time traveler from a hundred years ago were to suddenly land in a theater showing “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” they would most likely either faint or exclaim something like:
“What the $%#! You’re telling me apes can talk now!? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN????”
The CGI and motion capture technology, and the brilliant voice work by the unseen actors, are that impressive. From the moment we settle in for director Wes Ball’s overlong but undeniably entertaining standalone sequel to “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017), it’s no effort to buy into this world in which chimpanzees and orangutans have evolved to the point where they converse in articulate English and regard humans as filthy, stinking, feral, primitive creatures.
So it goes with the people and the apes over the course of a franchise that has grown to 10 films overall, starting with the 1968 classic. Sometimes the apes are in charge, sometimes the humans are in charge, sometimes they try to co-exist. And we know that’s never going to work out, as we’re served with metaphors about racism, social mores, runaway viruses, weaponry, authoritarian regimes, police brutality, etc., depending on the most pressing concerns of a given era.
There are times when “Kingdom” is thuddingly heavy-handed with its particular brand of messaging, and the dialogue is cornier than a 1950s action epic, but there’s always another exhilarating action sequence around the corner, and the visuals are never less than stunning.
After a brief prologue, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes us to a world “many generations” after the death of the great Caesar, whose legacy and philosophies have either been forgotten or twisted by most ape clans. In a thrilling opening sequence, we’re introduced to the young chimpanzees Noa (Owen Teague) and his best mates Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) as they participate in a ritual climb in search of eagle eggs. Turns out they belong to the peaceful and community-oriented Eagle Clan, headed by Noa’s father Koro (Neil Sandilands), known as the Master of Birds. This isolated and idyllic existence is soon shattered when the troops of the fascist and utterly terrifying leader Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) — a character we don’t actually meet until later in the story — swarm all over Eagle Clan, burning it down and either killing or capturing nearly all of its inhabitants.
Noa survives. Determined to find the surviving members of his clan, he embarks on a classic adventure-movie journey that will be Fraught With Peril. Along the way, he reluctantly teams up with the wise and quite talkative old-timey orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), one of the last devout followers of the Caesar’s true teachings, and a feral human who comes to be known as Mae (Frey Allan), who has her own agenda for tracking down Proximus Caesar and invading his costal kingdom. (Mae is initially given a name that is a callback to Linda Harrison’s character in the original “Planet of the Apes.”)
With a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, “Kingdom” sags a bit in the middle stretches, but once we reach Proximus Caesar’s kingdom, with its distinct echoes of ancient Rome and other past ruling civilizations that eventually fell, it’s a spectacular adventure on the grandest scale. Director Ball and writer Josh Friedman deliver some satisfying notes of conclusion while also setting up the next chapters in a planned trilogy.
Something tells me that no matter what direction the story takes, the apes and the humans will have a hard time getting along, as will apes with other apes, humans with other humans, all the combos. It’s been that way since Charlton Heston fell to his knees on the beach in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
