Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Starring: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Eka Darville, Travis Jeffrey, Lydia Peckham, Neil Sandilands, Ras-Samuel
Directed by: Wes Ball
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Drama
2024

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young ape named Noa (Owen Teague) is thrust into a new world when his tribe is kidnapped by an aggressive tribe intent on building a true kingdom.

Review:

Tim: I liked Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but I believe the film had a few things working against it. These aren't enough to sink the film, but this did feel like a continuation of the downward trend of new Planet of the Apes movies, since the amazing reboot in 2011. Each sequel has felt a little less effective than the previous movie, and that's the case here.

As I said, this film faced quite a few initial obstacles. This is the 10th Planet of the Apes movie overall. Rise rebooted the franchise in spectacular fashion, giving us the best film of the franchise. Dawn was a great film, too, but the newness came off a bit. War was really effective, but the end of Caesar's story started to feel a bit redundant. It came to feel expected. 7 years later, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released, with the challenge of restarting the story again, this time without Caesar in the protagonist role. In many ways, this is fascinating- let's check in on the Planet years after Caesar's reign. How has it moved forward? (or backward?) How has it evolved? This makes a ton of sense to explore and there's obviously countless more movies. However, this film can't shake the feeling of urgency or need. Why did we need this story? Why does this film exist? Did we really need to see this Apes storyline? Does it ultimately matter? I wasn't quite sure by the conclusion of the film.

I will say that I loved the character of Noa. It felt impossible to replace Caesar, but this is about as good as you can get. He's an intriguing, likeable character. He's given some baggage at the beginning and his journey is one that feels worth taking. Noa isn't as interesting as Caesar- no doubt about that. But, I liked the character and it helped immensely to go along with a new story. I wanted to see what happened to him. Transitioning the story's weight to Noa is this film's greatest accomplishment. I should stress that Owen Teague does a great job bringing this character to life. His humanity seems through the computer-generated ape and we connect with this character. That's the highlight of the film.

The supporting cast is good, but I cared less about them. The standout performance is Freya Allan. I was really impressed by her performance here. It couldn't have been easy to act around mostly people geared up for performance capture, but her performance worked. She's strong, vulnerable at times, believable in the role. I suspect we'll all see much more of Allan in the future- it's the kind of performance people notice. Kevin Durand was good, Peter Macon does excellent work. You can't really tell who they are (obviously), but their characters are effective. William H. Macy felt a bit shoehorned in, but he's such a good actor, he makes the movie better. For a film without a lot of big names, director Wes Ball gets a lot out of the cast.

This movie is definitely good- the visual effects are strong, the story has some emotional moments, and there's plenty of action. I liked the film, I was entertained. The problem that holds this movie back is that it felt like "just another Planet of the Apes movie". Sure, it moves the bigger-picture storyline forward some, but there's no really compelling aspect to this. The last two movies were about Caesar and his fight for freedom. There felt like a need to see his story through. That isn't the case here. Sure, Noa is cool and his story is interesting, but it never felt especially important. I blame that mostly on the script and honestly, just the nature of a 10th film in a franchise that doesn't currently have a crystal clear vision for where it wants to go. This movie plants the seeds at the end so you can guess where future installments will go. I'm holding out hope the films get more pressing and more effective. This might have been the new character establishment film and they can improve in subsequent sequels? Maybe. It would be nice for this franchise to at least stabilize vs. continuing the trend of each film a little less effective than the previous one.

I will say that I do place some of the challenges of this film on Wes Ball. He did a fine job with the Maze Runner trilogy, but after the first film, those movies had big challenges, too. He does a nice job with this movie and it's definitely effective, but I do believe a better movie could have existed here. He does good work, not great work. The film did do $171 million at the domestic box office, one of the bigger films of 2024. It improved on War for the Planet of the Apes' tally, so it's likely we will get future installments. I'll obviously watch them, but my sincere hope is that the next film wows us, gives us a reason to lean in, to truly care. That's what this franchise needs to reverse its downward trend.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes