Review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

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Did we really need another Planet of the Apes movie? The simple answer is “No, no we didn’t,” but I don’t want to be too hard on a movie that displays such care in crafting its digital ape characters and that offers a few peaks of world-building. Unfortunately, screenwriter Josh Friedman is not able to supply Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with a narrative that feels like an urgent or essential continuation of the storyworld. It’s an admirable film in many ways, but I felt uninvolved in the story.

I’m not surprised the storyline feels inessential though. After all, it’s astonishing that Pierre Boulle’s 1963 science fiction novel about a planet where humans and apes inhabit reversed roles has spawned such a successful and long-lasting franchise, including 10 movies and two television series, stretching over half a century. I think the original 1968 Charlton Heston movie is great science fiction, and I enjoy parts of the four sequels from the early 1970s (such as, of course, the subterranean mutant humans in 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes). Tim Burton’s 2001 remake is lackluster, however, and I didn’t like the reboot series enough to watch the third film in the trilogy, even if Andy Serkis’s super-intelligent chimp, Caesar, is a compelling creation.

Taking over from Matt Reeves (who went on to darkly reboot Batman), director Wes Ball continues the approach of the most recent films: high-end special effects combined with grim, self-serious storytelling. The mouths of the rubber ape masks in the 1970s movies might not have been able to believably shape words, but at least those films had a sense of fun with the whole scenario. The reboot series takes the opposite tack. Everything is deadly serious and moves slowly, seemingly to allow the audience to bask in the marvels of its creation.

But make no mistake: there are marvels. The CGI apes are impressive; in fact, they’re among the most convincing special effects I have ever seen. I frequently bemoan the substitution of fake-looking CGI animals for real-life animal performers, but, in this case, it’s the right choice, as the digital creations achieve performances you couldn’t get from real chimpanzees. I was impressed not only by the lifelike hairs on the backs of the apes, but also by the way their ape mouths look like they’re actually forming words. Following the example of Andy Serkis in the previous reboot movies, the voice actors here speak in a way that is choppy and guttural enough that it sounds like it’s coming out of those ape mouths and chests. 

The main success of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that the bodies and faces and eyes of the principal ape characters convey individual personalities. The young chimpanzee protagonist, Noa (Owen Teague), is a worthy creative successor to Caesar, although Noa is more of a thinker and a dreamer. The ape-king Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) is enjoyably villainous. “What a wonderful day!,” he roars to his slave-devotees, manipulating the crowd like a cult leader. Even though he’s the bad guy, Proximus offers welcome moments of levity. Peter Macon’s Raka, a kind of travelling friar of the ape religion, takes on the role of the wiser, older character who supports Noa on his journey.

The ape characters are such an achievement that it’s disappointing that the story is only adequate and that the few human character performances are almost robotic. Freya Allan, who was boring in The Witcher, is boring here as Mae, a human whom Nova and his companions team up with. Mae’s motivations as a character remain vague, even after we learn her secrets. Allan’s performance lacks charisma, conveying less with her eyes and facial expressions than the digital apes. William H. Macy, who shows up later in the film as a human collaborator with a nice library, needed to be let off the chain. We need a bit more crazy and fun injected into this kind of supporting role.

So the humans are boring but the apes are compelling, as are the ape cultures and their environments. Noa’s clan raises eagles. Early on, he and two friends have to venture into the old city to each collect an eagle egg for their initiation rite. I was particularly amazed by the forests growing out of the remains of skyscrapers, with the eagles nesting high up. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes offers one of the more compelling onscreen visions of a late-stage fallen metropolis, one almost entirely consumed by nature’s greenery, perhaps inspired by Alan Weisman’s 2007 non-fiction book, The World Without Us.

In terms of narrative, rather than visual, world-building, Ball and Friedman take some time to explain the religion that has built up around the person of Caesar after his death. As mentioned, the big orangutan character Raka is of a religious order, while the villainous Proximus distorts and exploits the figure of Caesar for his own benefit. The internal conflicts that beset ape society are also thematically rich, as the film depicts the violent transition from small tribes and clans to a centralized monarchy.

The narrative takes a common fantasy-epic structure. The idyllic village is attacked by fearsome raiders. The hero is left behind, and must go on a journey to recover his family. The hero will discover that the enemy has some quest or goal that must be disrupted, along with the rescue that must take place. None of this plays out in a novel or surprising way in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Thrown into the mix are some haphazard references to the original Planet of the Apes. We see scarecrows similar to those that border the Forbidden Zone in the first film. John Paesano’s musical score contains echoes of Jerry Goldsmith’s percussion, particularly midway through when we first see the scarecrows. There’s a crying doll. Mae is eventually called Nova, and revelations about her have parallels to moments in the original story. None of it really serves much of a point other than to offer the obligatory nods to the original film, in the self-referential manner that all franchise reboots have to adopt today. Once again, a franchise reboot literally inhabits the visual remains of its predecessors.

I hear this is meant to be the first of a new Ape trilogy. If so, the filmmakers should have taken the chance to reorient their approach. If they continue, they should take the self-seriousness down a notch, inject some more humour, and keep the story tighter. For all the visual craft, we don’t need to watch these apes for more than two hours at a time.

5 out of 10

Directed by Wes Ball; written by Josh Friedman, based on characters by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and the novel by Pierre Boulle; starring Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy.

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