THE TUESDAY NIGHT REVIEW! - 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'

'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' (2024)

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is the fourth film in the current series of “Planet of the Apes” films that started with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” 15 years ago. The last film, “War for the Planet of the Apes” was released almost seven years ago and capped off what was a pretty stellar trilogy of films.

Therefore, I must admit to a little bit of skepticism when I learned that 20th Century Studios was returning to the well for a fourth outing. Thankfully, my skepticism was unfounded as the filmmakers of “Kingdom” have found a way to continue the story, both with this movie and perhaps some more sequels down the line.

In the latest movie, the story fast forwards a few hundred years where the apes definitely have control of the planet and humans are mere primitive versions of their former selves that can’t even speak. The apes, on the other hand, have formed several different clans, one of which specializes in falconry and refers to humans as “Echos” and they barely have any history of Caesar or the world that came before them.

Noa is a young ape within this clan and one night, apes from another clan come to his village and burn it down while kidnapping the inhabitants. Noa vows to find the members of his village and he encounters an Echo that he eventually learns is a human that another ape refers to as Nova.

Noa must try and save his village from a tyrannical king!

Nova seems to be following Noa on his journey that eventually has him finding a tyrannical king named Proximus who is using ape slaves from other clans to try and gain access to an old human vault.

Now, I could say more but that would be getting even deeper and deeper into spoiler territory, so I’m going to hold off there. What I will say is that I enjoyed the world building here and seeing the ways that Caesar’s legacy lives on. There are apes using the old window symbol, some who are misrepresenting his teachings, and it was fun hearing how some of the apes think that apes and humans lived together but their history isn’t quite right.

The story is also good as it is a genuine “hero on a quest” storyline. Noa is a great character to follow and cheer for while Proximus is a good old fashioned bad guy. Infused in this adventure, though, are plenty of themes such as whether or not humans and apes may co-exist one day or if one is destined to destroy the other.

The last thing that I want to note are the special-effects. The first three films in this series boasted some of the best visual-effects ever featured in films. “Kingdom” carries on that tradition effortlessly and Wētā FX once again deserves a nod that may very well include an Academy Award next year.

There was never a scene where I was taken out of the action due to bad visuals. It was actually crazy to see how far we’ve come since “Rise” was released in 2009. Back in 1968, the original “Planet of the Apes” was acclaimed for its use of fantastic make-up effects to bring the apes to life and now the new films can boast that they have some of the best CGI effects ever to be produced by creating characters that we genuinely care for along the way.

I’ll admit that I don’t know quite where I would rank this in the current series of “Planet of the Apes” films. What I can say, though, is that it is another surprisingly strong entry into the series and I can’t wait to see where they take this new story next as the movie definitely sets up room for more films and, more importantly, even more engaging storylines.