Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review

 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a sci-fi action movie. It serves as a standalone sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes, making it the fourth film in the reboot series, but also the tenth movie in the Planet of the Apes franchise. It's produced by Oddball Entertainment, Jason T. Reed Productions, and TSG Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Studios. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is written by Josh Friedman and directed by Wes Ball.

The story is, generations have passed after the events of War, during this time apes have become the dominant species and humans have become primitive. One day ape Noa and orangutan Raka meet a human female named Mae who is nothing like the humans they know. They want to help her on her journey, but in order to do so they must survive Proximus Caesar and his army.

Initial Reaction

Now while I was looking forward to this movie I still had my doubts. Because the previous trilogy was beautifully done and had a perfect ending. So I was going into this movie 50% excited and 50% worried.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

My only slight problem with Kingdom was there are times when things can be slow. Now there's nothing wrong with that in the grand scheme of things, especially if a more slowed down moment let's us catch a breath and do things like character and/or world building. Here maybe just a tiny pick up would've helped.

Pros

One pro is Proximus Ceasar. While we sadly don't get much of him, what we do see isn't too bad. If the Ceasar part of his name isn't obvious enough, yes, he does know of Ceasar's way, but Proximus is a narcissistic cult leader. So he's taken the original Caesar's teachings and twisted them to suit his needs. It's some really good villainous behavior. Then there's the special effects. While I have taken some issues with this reboot's CGI over the course of reviewing these films to get to Kingdom, here, not too much. I think the VFX artist this time around perfectly nailed it. Now to turn the attention towards Wes Ball. I'll fully admit I didn't see a single one of his previous movies, those being The Maze Runner flicks. So I went into movie not knowing what I'd expect unless it was in the trailers and TV spots. And I gotta say Wes Ball did a really good job. There's plenty of beautiful landscapes, and there's this one shot where Noa is talking to someone in front of a destroyed bridge and the sun is setting. It's a really nice shot even if you find it very simple. The last thing I'll touch upon is the story. This was my biggest concern for this movie. I feared all it was gonna be is lazy story with the only goal being to grab some cash. Thankfully that wasn't the case, far from it actually. While the story is about Noa helping Mae, the story also has a theme of trust. Noa doesn't know if he can trust Mae and vice versa. So when these two finally meet, go on their journey, and then work together for a common goal, there's always this tension throughout. And then there's the ending. We by no means get a happy ending or even a bittersweet ending, instead you're actually left in fear of what's gonna happen next. Pretty appropriate given the story we got.

While Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes isn't perfect, I am breathing a sigh of relief that it was far better than what I thought it was gonna be.

My final rating is, Good.

That's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, May 18th, for my review of Ryan Reynolds' newest movie, IF. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.