Let’s just say it up front: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes doesn’t match the considerable heights of Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. Director Wes Ball does a commendable job maintaining the atmosphere and empathetic approach established by Reeves (and Rupert Wyatt before him, in Rise of the Planet of the Apes), but Kingdom isn’t operating at quite the same dark and tragic tone as those films. Nonetheless, it’s still pretty damn great on its own.
To be clear, there are stakes and loss and ever present danger, and that’s great, but this is a bit more of a road movie and adventure story. Set hundreds of years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom follows a chimpanzee named Noa (Owen Teague) as he sets out to rescue his clan from the aspiring ape tyrant Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Ball works well in the arena of tense action sequences, and he shows a deft hand with character interaction. Noa’s quest alongside the orangutan Raka (Peter Macon) and the human they dub Nova (Freya Allan, playing a character whose name now has double meaning to Apes fans) provides plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Ball’s upcoming Legend of Zelda movie.
Noa isn't as layered as the previous trilogy’s protagonist, Caesar, and he goes on a more straightforward hero’s journey here. Still, he’s likable and easy to root for, and Teague is quite good in the role, conveying the character’s suspicions and eagerness to make sense of the ominous stories he’s heard about humans (or “echos” as his clan calls them) and the actual human he’s now traveling with. Allan does a lot with what’s initially a fairly reactive role, and Macon is terrific as the warm and kind Raka. He's doing his best to carry on the teachings of Caesar all these centuries later, even as Proximus perverts the ape revolutionary’s message to justify his violent actions. (Mere weeks after his wonderful comic turn in Abigail came to theaters, Durand is perfect as the self-assured and ever-threatening Proximus.)
Screenwriter Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has some clever tricks up his sleeve: Our first impressions of Kingdom’s characters can be deceiving, and Noa’s sense of his world is frequently tested with new and conflicting information. His limited knowledge of how things worked before he was born is a strong throughline, and makes great use of Daniel T. Dorrance’s modern-structures-reclaimed-by-nature production design. This includes an exciting third act rooted in Proximus’ true goal, along with some obvious sequel setup whose unanswered questions manage to elicit curiosity rather than frustration. There’s also a nice touch of worldbuilding in the significance eagles have to Noa’s clan – they’re not called the Eagle Clan for nothing! – and how those birds figure into the story. We don’t get all the details about how these practices came to be, nor do we need to – it’s all presented in immersive and genuine fashion.
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An opening scene that makes a gratuitous attempt to link Kingdom to its predecessors misses the mark – it’s unnecessary, and doesn’t really pay off. Similarly inessential is a second human character, played by William H. Macy, who we meet as the film goes on. He's a distraction, presenting a perspective that could have been included in a different and more succinct manner.
Overall though, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a worthy continuation of a series that’s now 10 films strong and more than 50 years old. The geniuses at Wētā continue to work new marvels in bringing digital apes to life, aided in no small part by the talented cast and the highly physical on-set work they do in motion-capture suits. These are fully believable characters who look realistic and completely plausible mimicking the actions of humans. The details on the apes are simply incredible, from the depth and emotion in their eyes to the spit you can see in their mouths.
