Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Bent Out of Ape

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Less ambitious than its three predecessors (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes) and suffering from some silly touches, Wes Ball's standalone sequel Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is still great-looking, and with sympathetic characters as well as some food for thought.

It's "many generations" after the death of Caesar. Chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague) and his best friends Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) are preparing for an important coming-of-age ritual. But Noa's discovery of an intruder alerts a masked ape called Proximus (Kevin Durand) and his army, to the presence of his village. Using strange electric prods as weapons, Proximus burns the village to the ground and rides off with its people. Noa vows to find them and bring them home.

Along the way, he finds unlikely help from a wise orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), who tells Noa about Caesar. They also meet the stray human, Mae (Freya Allan), who had been following Noa. Armed with a new sense of history and compassion, Noa finds himself in Proximus's new "kingdom" of apes. Proximus declares himself the "new Caesar" and forces the Apes to work every day to break open a massive vault. And Mae seems to know what's inside.

The shadow of Andy Serkis's Caesar looms large in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and the lack of such a powerful character is deeply felt, but Noa is likable enough to carry the torch. The visual FX here are extremely impressive, and we find ourselves quickly caring for our simian friends, with their expressive eyes and faces and unhidden emotions.

The movie attempts to unpack some of the earlier movies' themes, but one of the problems is the villain, Proximus. He has supposedly taken Caesar's teachings and twisted them for his own sinister use, but he's all too clearly evil, ruling through fear, and there's no gray area to him. The Mae character is difficult to get a handle on as well; her motivations are cloudy, not to mention that she seems a little too fashionable for this post-human world.

The earlier movies managed to suggest an equal penchant for good and evil in both humans and apes, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes uses broader, simpler strokes, perhaps saving the meat of its story for future sequels. Nevertheless, it still has a sense of wonder and a genuine emotional pull. It leaves off with a suggestion of more to come, and a promise of more broadly explored ideas.