'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' review: Spectacular comeback for dormant franchise
Noa, played by Owen Teague, from left, Freya Allan as Nova, and Raka, played by Peter Macon, in a scene from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." Credit: AP/20th Century Studios
PLOT A young ape searches for his loved ones after his village is destroyed.
CAST Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand
RATED PG-13 (some strong violence)
LENGTH 2:25
WHERE Area theaters
BOTTOM LINE An entertaining new entry in the dormant franchise.
Humans never come off looking too good in the “Planet of the Apes” movies. In the first film, from 1968, they nuked themselves back to a primitive state, then watched their simian cousins bypass them in intelligence. In the recently rebooted series, humans unleashed a virus that did much the same thing, though enough of them would survive to form a bizarre military death-cult (memorably led by Woody Harrelson). Always in these movies we give in to our worst instincts: wastefulness, cruelty, playing God.
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes that as a given. The first film in the franchise since 2017 (and the tenth overall), it tells the story of Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee living among the Eagle Clan — so named for their ability to train and control the majestic birds. There’s a human named Mae (Freya Allan) who scurries around like a rodent, but she doesn’t seem like much of a threat (yet). Death and destruction come in the form of Proximus, an ape-warlord (played by an excellent Kevin Durand) who sets Noa’s village ablaze and hauls off the survivors to serve as slaves in his remote compound.
As Noa sets out on horseback to rescue his loved ones, “Kingdom” seems to be firmly in Mel Gibson territory. Things take a twist when Noa meets Raka, a wise and wry orangutan (there’s always one) played by a very good Peter Macon, who informs him that history is more complicated than he thinks. (The name of Caesar, from the earlier films, means different things to different apes.) Even Mae turns out to be more than just a pest: She not only speaks, she knows where Noa’s clan mates are being held.
Director Wes Ball, of the “Maze Runner” films, has the post-apocalypse down pat: This movie is filled with little hints of humanity (stonework, I-beams, bas reliefs) hidden in the jungle overgrowth. The motion-capture effects, by Weta FX (“Avatar” and countless other blockbusters), are subtler and more impressive than ever, with little physical stiffness and much visible emotion in the eyes. Josh Friedman’s screenplay comes with a bit of heft, nodding to themes of ambition and power. (William H. Macy takes a small role as Trevathan, a human who has fallen all too willingly under Proximus’ spell.)
Someone once described Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” as the world’s most useful metaphor. The “Planet of the Apes” movies might run a close second. Near the end of “Kingdom,” human and ape stand face to face, full of mutual distrust precisely because each sees something of himself in the other. With that idea at its core, this franchise could keep running forever.
Here's what other critics are saying:
The effects are just jaw-dropping, from the ability to see individual hairs on the back of a monkey to the way leaves fall and the crack of tree limbs echoing in the forest. — Associated Press
It takes just a couple minutes to be immersed completely in the world of the movie. — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Kingdom” checks most of the boxes for longtime “Apes” fans, and newbies don’t need to any prior homework as a stand-alone story that mostly explains itself. — USA Today
What makes “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” powerful, in the end … [is that] it probes how the act of co-opting idealisms and converting them to dogmas has occurred many times over. — New York Times
Fans of the franchise should find much to enjoy in this very solid new installment, which points the way forward to a potential new recalibration of the human-ape balance. — The Hollywood Reporter
