Review of the movie Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The Planet of the Apes franchise has a special place in cinema. It is not frankly very popular, but it is hard to find something similar among science fiction. The films and TV series based on the book, which have been released for 56 years, raise issues of racial inequality, the treatment of animals and the development of civilization in general. A fresh trilogy of remakes, released in 2011, managed to add a modern approach and an adequate amount of adrenaline to these topics.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes continues the trilogy, but at the same time, this film can be perceived as a soft restart of the series, in which the authors decided to experiment with the key themes of the franchise. The result was ambiguous, even considering all the local beauty.

The film is set several generations after the end of the 2017 War for the Planet of the Apes. Intelligent apes have finally taken over the Earth, and humans have lost their intelligence. They are now called Echoes, as if to remind us of the old days. However, the apes have not yet reached the heights of the past civilization, so their way of life is reduced to tribes and communities.

The protagonist of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is Noah the chimpanzee, who is about to undergo a rite of passage that symbolizes his growing up. However, the important event turns into a tragedy when the gorilla Proximus Caesar and his henchmen attack Noah’s tribe. They take away almost all the monkeys. Now Noah has to find his tribesmen, and the human girl Nova can potentially help him in this.

Even from the short description and any footage from the movie, one can understand that the emphasis in it has finally shifted to the apes. This makes The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes similar to the 1968 Planet of the Apes. Only if the original clearly understood the role of humans and apes in its story and the overall morality of the work, the new film in the franchise does not seem to know how to deal with this role reversal.

Perhaps it’s the new director. Wes Ball is known primarily for his series of teenage films The Maze Runner. It’s not the worst representative of the young adult genre, but it’s definitely not going to give you any revelations. Each part of the series is filled with naivety, excessive drama and some illogic.

Compare this portfolio with Matt Reeves, who, before working on Planet of the Apes, had already made Let Me In and Cloverfield, and eventually reached the maximum mass level with Batman with Robert Pattinson. These films are full of nuances and interesting directorial decisions. Therefore, even at the level of the director, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was in a losing position from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, Ball was unable to dispel fears about himself. The biggest problem with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that he doesn’t understand how to work with the conflict between apes and humans. It was the contrasts between the two species that developed in the plots of the remake trilogy that riveted the audience. Monkeys gradually learned the depth of human meanness, and humans seemed even bigger animals against their background. But for every rule, there was an exception or at least an interesting realization.

There are almost no humans in the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but the apes try very hard to be like them. At the same time, the role of humanity in the local history is very insignificant, except as a pledge for a potential sequel. As a result, we spend most of the film watching the apes, but at the level of concept and motivation, they are not much different from humans.

One can see its own logic in this moment, especially if one does not perceive the film in isolation from the previous trilogy. After all, it shows us how the new dominant species on the planet begins to repeat the mistakes of its predecessors. Caesar’s teachings from the trilogy have been distorted and become a tool for achieving their own goals, as Proximus clearly demonstrates as an antagonist.

On the other hand, it turns out that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does not work as an independent work. It could have benefited from better characterization, but the script stumbles over the director’s inexperience. The dramaturgy of the film is at a very weak level, which is why many scenes that were supposed to evoke empathy for the characters either do not evoke anything at all or make you embarrassed by the stupidity of what is happening on the screen.

For example, in one scene, they try to show us a conflict between Noah and his friend. The latter does not quite share the protagonist’s plans and refuses to help him. It would seem to be an interesting premise for the development of their relationship, even if some of its potential outcomes are obvious. However, literally in the next scene, in about a minute or two, everything is resolved by itself. There is no dramatic impact to speak of.

The movie lacks the halftones that were present in Reeves’ works. Because of this, the ending of the story can be guessed from the very beginning, and the pretentious speech about evolution from the ape causes laughter rather than an adequate reaction. To a certain extent, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a young adult about apes. The level of maturity of the main characters contributes to this positioning.

The film could have been positively influenced by the development of the relationship between Noah and Nova. After all, viewers have long loved stories about very different characters who find contact over the course of the plot. However, Noah and Nova have only one touching scene, otherwise there is no chemistry between them. Again, one could blame it on the despicable human nature, but the story handles this subtext too carelessly, forcing it on the audience with boring, straightforward scenes.

Because of this, the local “road trip” becomes more about changing locations and beautiful scenery than about the relationships between the characters. And there is plenty of beauty in The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. For a movie that is almost entirely made using CGI, everything looks as attractive as possible. At the same time, we are not talking about realism. The closest analog is the graphics of Horizon: Forbidden West, which is eye-catching but does not forget to be in a separate artistic niche, and not just copy the real world.

As a result, it turns out that The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is most enjoyable to watch, not to think about it, to understand local ideas or to discuss interesting solutions. The latter are not present here; the movie turned out to be simple, even clumsy. This fact spoils the impression in itself, and in addition, against the background of the previous films, it is easy to see how much the new part is inferior to its predecessors in terms of semantic content.

Yes, the movie can only be seen as the beginning of a new trilogy. But Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 did a much better job of this. Immediately after watching it, you don’t really want a sequel. And this speaks volumes about the quality of the movie.

We should also talk about the Ukrainian dubbing. It is of a high level, but it does not convey the animal intonations that were in the original soundtrack. In some places, the actors try to play something similar, but only slightly. So if you close your eyes, you might think that people are speaking on the screen. An additional disadvantage to immersion in the world.