When Matt Reeves concluded his prequel trilogy to Planet of the Apes in 2017 with the masterful War for the Planet of the Apes, it was basically understood that the story was ending there. It wrapped up the story of Caesar (Andy Serkis) and the apes uprising in the face of human extinction wonderfully, and, for once, it seemed like a studio was willing to let a franchise lie as it is as a narrative triumph as opposed to milking it for all it’s worth. Then, less than a year later, Disney bought 20th Century Fox, changed its name to 20th Century Studios to distance itself from the Fox name (more specifically the Fox News name) and immediately started mining every bit of IP it had because it’s Disney and they can’t let anything lie ever. Unsurprisingly, this also included doing more films in the Planet of the Apes universe. As Reeves had moved onto Warner Bros. to make his white whale, The Batman, work was being done at Disney to find his successor, of whom was finally settled upon Wes Ball. Ball, the filmmaker behind the Maze Runner trilogy of films, as well as recently signing on to direct the live-action The Legend of Zelda film for Sony and Nintendo, has big-budget experience under his belt, but following up such an unfollowable act, particularly with a filmmaker known only for one other franchise, feels automatically like a losing game when the work done by Reeves was so universally beloved before.
And yet, somehow, Wes Ball pulls it off in a way that is simultaneously familiar, and entirely his own.
Noa (played by Owen Teague) in 20th Century Studios’ KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Set 300 years after the death of Caesar, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes sees the ape population of the American west coast, the paradise oasis that Caesar led them to, living in tribes among the stunningly overgrown ruins of the long-lost human civilization before it. Amongst this new world, members of a tribe of eagle handlers live their day-to-day lives as a group of young adult apes, Noa (Owen Teague), Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery), prepare for their coming-of-age bonding ceremony where they are bonded with eagle eggs which will follow them for life. When their village is attacked by a group of brutal religious zealots, proclaiming a twisted form of the word of Caesar as they search for a human in their midst, the tribe is taken prisoner, and Noa is left for dead. Upon awakening, Noa embarks on a journey across the Pacific coast to reunite and liberate his tribe from the tyrannical Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), accompanied by Caesarian devotee Raka (Peter Macon), and the hunted human, Mae (Freya Allan).
Proximus Caesar (played by Kevin Durand) in 20th Century Studios’ KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The thing that pretty much immediately makes Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes a worthwhile endeavor is how distant it feels from the prequel trilogy. Yes, the stunning WETA Digital visual effects are as strong and familiar as ever, but, as would be expected from a shared cinematic world with a 300-year time jump, we are dealing with a significantly different landscape, both literally and figuratively. It’s ironic that Ball is continuing on with directing an adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, as this film feels like his own take on the Horizon: Zero Dawn series of video games, with overgrown ruins of the long-lost civilization as the proving ground for a young hero to make their stand. There are echoes of the former world, and the former trilogy here, but setting this film so far ahead of the original trilogy gives it the necessary breathing room to nurture its own identity as a sequel.
Stylistically, sure, there are definitely moments where Ball is doing a Matt Reeves impression behind the camera, but it’s a damn fine impression at that. I found these moments to be a successful bridging between the familiar style of the previous films, while slowly and surely leading audiences into the new style that Ball is bringing to these sequel films in the film’s second half. There’s a bleakness to the post-apocalyptic world of Reeves’s universe in Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes, as if the world we once knew was still in our grasp in reclaiming. In Ball’s world, the time for reclaiming has long since passed as the remnants of the old world have been reclaimed by Earth, resulting in a post-apocalyptic world of immense beauty and a bit of hope as there is a chance to rebuild the world we once knew with the knowledge of our mistakes, and to start fresh.
Freya Allan as Mae in 20th Century Studios’ KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
It’s not just Ball following in the footsteps of Reeves that’s a seemingly insurmountable act to follow, but it’s also that of anyone following in the footsteps of Andy Serkis’s Caesar, something that accomplished young character actor, Owen Teague (It; Eileen), in his first major leading role, fulfills with a wonderful ease. Noa is a particularly compelling new protagonist thanks in part to his stature within the world around him being vastly different than that of Caesar within his. Noa isn’t a “chosen one” figure tasked with leading his people to freedom; he is not morphing into a Christ-like figure in the same way Caesar has 300 years on from his death. He’s simply a boy, looking to reunite with his loved ones when they have been taken from him by malevolent forces perverting the word of a benevolent ape. It’s a wonderfully nuanced and touching performance by an actor finally getting his due after years of excellent supporting performances.
I did find the human characters of the film to be a bit undercooked though, particularly that of Trevathan (William H. Macy), a captured human bending to the will of Proximus Caesar as his reader, providing insight into the previous world of humans with his collections of books, and more aptly, as his court jester, providing the brutal dictator with a yes man to justify his belief of himself as a new messiah for the apes. Used as a way to explain the relationship between Proximus’s reign and humans to Mae when she eventually ends up in the grasp of Proximus, there was never anything compelling or unique about this character that Macy (Fargo; Mystery Men) provided to the role other than as a means of exposition, and he is made irrelevant to the story as soon as he is made relevant.
: Raka (played by Peter Macon) in 20th Century Studios’ KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
I did find the religious imagery of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to be significantly more effective than many films of its ilk which seek to make allusions between their world and that of ours when it comes to our innate desire to find something bigger than ourselves in the universe. Particularly, the distinctions between that of true, intrinsic faith vs. that of blind religious zeal, especially when it comes to the distortion of the words and actions of a departed messiah. It’s a very effective dissonance in how it’s been weaponized over the centuries since Caesar’s time, and even more so since we are so intimately familiar with the truth of Caesar’s life and ideals, and how easily something so straightforward can be morphed into something completely different just to support a specific narrative or separate ideal.
Noa (played by Owen Teague) in 20th Century Studios’ KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a surprising, and undeniably rousing success of a sequel film that could have easily been a soulless cash grab with far less talented people both behind and in front of the camera. The smartest thing it did was immediately distance itself from the previous films, not to dissuade comparisons to them, as those were going to happen anyway, but to give everyone involved the requisite wiggle room to really delve into something vastly different, with strands of Reeves’s DNA in its foundation to remain familiar enough for comfort. This is a stunningly crafted world with a poignant, engaging story and a (mostly) engrossing new cast of characters to carry what I hope to be a new sequel trilogy to fruition. I’m really hoping that Ball isn’t stapled into The Legend of Zelda so hard that it prevents him from completing his own Planet of the Apes trilogy, because I am now deeply invested in his vision of an entirely new world of apes.
In theaters May 10th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official 20th Century Studios Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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