KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES [2024]

And so we come to the next instalment of Planet Of The Apes, a perhaps odd franchise in that it consists of an original quadrilogy, a remake, then a trilogy which reboots the concept yet still ties in with the very first film from 1968 which now has two alternate timelines seemingly leading up to it. 1970’s Beneath The Planet Of The Apes ended with Future Earth being blown up, which one would have thought would have ended things, but 20th Century Fox executives demanded more apes, so it was decided that the only way things could conceivably continue was to have three primates survive the explosion and travel back in time to present day Earth, after which we would see how the future ape-ruled Earth came to be. After the disappointing 2001 remake from Tim Burton which doesn’t really fit in anywhere, we got a new trilogy which basically did what Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes did back in the ’70s; chart how the Earth which Charlton Heston visited and ended up destroying came to be. One wonders, as the films get further and further into the future, if one will end with a CG Heston, or if they’ll eventually present an alternate version of what was presented to us in 1968. All this is probably more interesting than Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, sadly. It’s certainly better than Battle For The Planet Of The Apes but still registers very low on the Apes spectrum and is a serious drop from the fabulous trilogy of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and War For The Planet Of The Apes. It presents little that’s new, preferring to rehash several previous episodes including even the previous one, is very weak in terms of characterisation and, as is common these days, is more interested in setting things up for further instalments than telling a decent story which works on its own.

So by now the apes have established numerous clans, while humans have become feral. Near the ruins of Los Angeles, Noa, a chimpanzee of a ape-clan which has a great affinity with eagles, prepares for a coming-of-age ceremony by collecting eagle eggs with his friends Anaya and Soona, but things soon get dangerous in a great opening set piece which presents a great chain reaction of how things can go wrong. However, a scavenger which might just be human follows Noa home and inadvertently cracks his egg during a scuffle before fleeing. Things are rather slow for a while, with us being given a chance to get a real sense of this ape culture which doesn’t live in specially constructed buildings but converted pylons. Some may be bored, but I have to say I liked the slow, immersive introduction. Then, while searching for a replacement egg, Noa encounters a group of ape raiders using electric weapons. As he hides from them, the apes follow Noa’s horse to track down his clan. Upon returning home, Noa finds his village burning, with the raider leader Sylva killing Noa’s father, Koro, before knocking Noa unconscious. A major problem here is that Noa doesn’t seem to exhibit any guilt for [unintentionally, but still] partly causing all this awful stuff to happen, but this is what happens throughout; dramatic opportunities are just missed. Noa awakens, discovering his clan has been abducted. He buries his father and sets out to rescue the others, though there’s little sense of urgency here, it all seeming rather casual as Noa gradually progresses in his journey, though the use of landscapes is strong; take a bow cinematographer Gyula Pados who does a great job throughout, especially with night time shots.

Noa is joined by an orangutan named Raka, who tells Noa about Caesar’s teachings. He’s a true follower, unlike many other groups of ages who’ve obviously misunderstood Caesar’s teachings, which of course presents a major theme; things, no matter how good, can be misinterpreted or even perverted. Some of the dialogue here from screenwriter Josh Friedman is very good, but elsewhere it seems determined to avoid getting even slightly deep. The two apes notice they are being followed by the human scavenger, the buildup to her appearance being very well done. Raka offers her food and a blanket, naming her Nova. This is a good example of what I’m talking about; there’s not much of the expected conflict between the two. I was still kept fairly interested, probably partly because I am an unashamed Apes fan, even to the point of owning DVDs of the TV series that came in the ’70s after the quadrilogy of movies ended, but for a long time things aren’t that great. When the trio encounters a group of feral humans, Sylva’s raiders suddenly attack them. Noa and Raka rescue Nova, who, to their surprise, can speak. She reveals that her name is Mae and that the raiders took his clan to a beachfront settlement located outside an old human vault. After another action scene, set on and under a bridge, Noa and Mae are captured and taken to the apes’ coastal settlement. There, Noa reunites with his clan and is introduced to the self-proclaimed ape king, Proximus Caesar. Proximus has enslaved Noa’s clan, using their labour to attempt to open the vault and access the human technology locked inside.

Yes, series fans will have a feeling of familiarity throughout the second half, with ideas used in earlier films being rehashed, including even the last one, not to mention a sense of unfulfilled potential. The idea of a cult-like warlord obsessed with human history is interesting, but not much is done with the idea and Proximus Caeser ends up being little more than Koba all over again, despite Kevin Durand projecting a really strong personality through the digital rendering. A long time is spent over some moments, but elsewhere whole scenes appear to be missing, with friction between two characters not feeling earned because they go from being friendly to butting heads to being friendly again far too quickly. Motivations sometimes don’t seem clear at all, while a few expected dramatic confrontations don’t even happen at all. The three main action sequences do excite, and the apes look better than ever, with lots of closeups to show off how realistic their faces are; I can’t wait for the Blu-ray so I can pause shots and revel in the detail. But Friedman just can’t be bothered to create strongly defined characters, something that left me at times struggling to work out who was who, something which most certainly wasn’t the case with the trilogy that came before, a trilogy which seem even better the more one realises how this one just doesn’t seem to trying very hard not to seem like an expensive cash-grab. And we’ve surely had enough of films which seem to spend more time setting things up for future episodes rather than trying to be films that stand alone; a few of the Marvel episodes did far too much of that. Watch any of the films in the original fivesome and they work well as individual pieces of cinema, as individual stories, even if they all link up with each other.

Registering strongly amongst the cast is William H.  Macy, who plays Trevathan, a human who’s allied himself with the apes. Macy’s nuanced performing,  suggesting vulnerability amidst opportunism, allows us to partly understand his character even if the script doesn’t. One certainly can’t say the same for Freya Allan as Mae, even though she impressed me in the generally poor Baghead [I haven’t seen The Witcher which she’d probably best known from so I can’t comment on her in that]. But then Mae is a terribly written character which points out how flawed Hollywood’s current obsession with presenting nearly all female [but only female] characters as really strong is. Mae is extremely tough and extremely clever but we become unconvinced by her sheer amazingness despite the number of admiring hero shots that she’s given, and realise that she largely exists just for two reasons; to move the plot along. and to show Girl Power. Owen Teague as Noa comes across as very weak indeed. The journey by our threesome, as they must decide to try to trust each other while also coming to grips with what their world has become, works better as an allegory than actual drama, and a refreshingly subtle one which doesn’t attempt to preach or hit the audience over the head, something which certainly isn’t the norm in today’s Hollywood. Likewise the employment of the trilogy’s now-familiar themes of power, prejudice and societal structure which cause us to reflect on our own world and the human condition, even if one misses the often sly humour that was to be found in the very early films. It’s a shame that, instead of trusting that audiences are able to pay attention to a film that’s largely silent and reliant on sign language, as the last one was, the apes in this one talk up a storm, though of course it makes sense that they would have evolved this way.

Director Wes Ball generally does a solid job and some of the references to bygone glories, such as a few notes here and there from Jerry Goldsmith’s amazing soundtrack in John Paesano’s mostly dully generic musical score, are sly and subtle, but Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is very much Apes By Numbers, which seems to be enough for some. For fans of this franchise, which at its best is able to reach a very edifying balance of action adventure fun and food for thought, there’s still some good stuff to get your teeth into, but the overall feeling is one of unfulfilled potential. The next two might give us a hell of a lot more and may satisfy, but why should we have to wait?

Rating: