Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Film Review
It’s only been seven years since the reboot trilogy concluded with War for the Planet of the Apes and it’s already back with Wes Ball‘s new instalment, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Set many generations after the death of ape rebellion leader Caesar, Earth is now populated by talking apes while feral humans have gone underground. The film follows young chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague via motion capture) as he tries to find his clan and bring them home after a group of apes destroy his village and take its inhabitants to work for Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Along the way, he meets his first human, Mae (Freya Allan), and a wise orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), who informs him of Caesar’s teachings.
This film is a staggering technical achievement. The visual effects are so unbelievably good you forget you’re watching actors perform as apes; you just accept you’re watching apes. The performance capture technology has evolved since the reboot trilogy and can be used on location more and in trickier environments. The locations, the cinematography and the post-apocalyptic production design are seriously stunning.
The problems lie with the narrative. The film is too long at 2 hours and 25 minutes and the pace is very slow sometimes. It takes a while to get going and present the conflict, although I appreciate that Ball needed to take time to build this new world and establish the new characters and their relationships.
I also had issues with the characterisation of Mae, who felt quite inconsistent and confusing. Plus, considering she’s out in the wilderness, how does she have tinted lipstick? The amount of make-up on Allan was distracting and actually quite annoying. She’s not supposed to look pretty!
For a new lead, Noa is quite bland and reactive and could have done with more personality. However, he comes of age and gains more agency throughout the course of the film and I imagine this will be developed in later instalments. That is no reflection on Teague’s performance though – he does an impressive job conveying Noa’s emotions as an ape. However, my personal favourite was Raka because he was cool and very wise.
Despite these narrative issues, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a jaw-dropping visual feast that tackles surprisingly complex themes. Ball has created a worthy successor to the Caesar trilogy.
In cinemas from Thursday 9th May. On Disney+ from Friday 2nd August