Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes proves there’s still life in this decades-old franchise
No Serkis, no problem
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Nothing captures the imagination like an anthropomorphic monkey. Ever since a stop-motion King Kong scaled the dizzy heights of the Empire State Building in Merian C. Cooper’s 1933 classic, ominous ‘What if?’ stories about our closest living relatives have proven a surefire way to get audiences’ bums on seats.
Perhaps, then, we shouldn’t be surprised that thePlanet of the Apesfranchise has endured for so long (61 years and counting), but it’s still remarkable that a premise introduced in 1968 remains compelling enough to attractMarvel-level investment from increasingly risk-averse studios.
The tenth (tenth!) entry in thePlanet of the Apesseries is the grandly-titledKingdom of the Planet of the Apes; a sequel-of-sorts to Matt Reeves’ excellentWar for the Planet of the Apes(2017) and a jumping-off point for what will surely become anotherApessaga. This time around, there’s no Andy Serkis – he consulted with director Wes Ball on the new film’s script, but had no hand in its production – thoughKingdomstill manages to stand on its own two feet (knuckles?) as a thoroughly entertaining post-apocalyptic adventure.
Set “many generations” after the events ofWar,Kingdomcenters on an intelligent young ape called Noa (Owen Teague), whose clan of eagle-rearing chimpanzees live a tranquil existence in the oasis left behind by Caesar. Humans are few and far between, and those who do emerge from the shadows are feral and mute.
It all seems rather pleasant (for the apes, anyway) until a violent tribe of coastal simians – led by the tyrannical bonobo Proximus (Kevin Durand) – capture Noa’s clan to further populate their own ape kingdom (title drop!), with Proximus hell-bent on advancing his species through the discovery of human technologies. Having avoided capture himself, Noa embarks on a cross-country journey to free his family and friends, with an inquisitive human girl (Freya Allen) and a wise-cracking Orangutan (Peter Macon) in tow.
If that synopsis reads to you like the plots ofDawn(2014) andWarrolled into one, you’re not far wrong.Kingdom’s maniacal antagonist, imprisoned apes, and West Coast road trip are all reminiscent of recentApesmovies, and those left unmoved by Reeves’ trilogy won’t find anything revelatory in Ball’s latest effort. There is, however, enough new meat on the bone here to warrant the ticket price for existing franchise fans.
For starters,Kingdomuses the absence of Caesar to its strength. Although Serkis’ simian doesn’t feature physically, he takes on an almost mythical role for the apes that do continue to survive – and thrive – on this pandemic-ravaged Earth. Caesar’s ‘apes together strong’ doctrine is misinterpreted (willfully or otherwise) by a paranoid Proximus as a call to arms against the last remnants of humanity, while the scholarly Roka continues to share Caesar’s hope that apescanlive side-by-side with humans as equals.
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Kingdomis the most philosophical of the recentApesmovies; it lays bare the same question at the heart of every film in the franchise – is there room for competing intelligent species on one planet? – in a way that feels more urgent, perhaps because we’re now approaching the moment at which Charlton Heston crash-landed on Earth in the original movie’s imagined future (if indeed Ball and co. decide to go that way). It leaves you wondering when, if, and how this centuries-spanning story will end.
Proximus is also a refreshingly interesting villain. He believes that the only way to assert true dominance is tobecomehuman, in a way. He despises humanity, but his hate is driven by envy. He wants to achieve, for apes, what humans achieved in the time before the apocalypse, and although his proposed method for doing so is a little – okay, very – silly, his motivations are markedly different from those of previous villains in the series.
That said, the film takes too long to introduce Proximus, and we’re not given enough time to digest his perspective before all hell breaks loose in the final act. William H. Macy plays a sort of court jester-cum-private tutor toKingdom’s antagonist; he’s a human character who teaches his ape master Roman history and fuels his emperor complex (hence the Proximus name), while also harboring deep-rooted ambitions for his own species. The relationship between the pair makes for an interesting role reversal, but again, Macy’s character is all too quickly brushed aside in favor of the series’ customary Kong vs. Kong action.
The CGI-fueled set pieces inKingdomare downright jaw-dropping, mind. As we’ve come to expect from Weta FX, the film’s myriad ape characters are both life-like and distinct – Durand’s Proximus is a highlight – and the lengthy water-based sequences rival those inAvatar: The Way of Waterfor realism.
Kingdomis also packed to the rafters with nods toApesmovies past. In one scene, Ball inverts the enclosure sequence inRise(2011) by having the apes appear aghast at a human’s ability to speak, while Linda Harrison’s Nova and Heston’s Taylor are referenced on several occasions. This is a movie that rewards long-timePlanet of the Apesfans, but also one that can exist as a standalone trilogy-starter.Kingdomultimately succeeds because of that dichotomy; it’s essentially more of the same, but the same is still interesting enough to propel anotherApesera into orbit.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released in the US on May 10, and in the UK and Australia on May 9.
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Axel is TechRadar’s UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site’s Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.
Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.
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