Review: Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

While I'm not sure there's much more fertile ground for this series, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" manages to go to the well once more and make something interesting out of this scenario. There have been, I believe, about 10 films in this series - the 1968 classic easily remains the best of the bunch - and while this modern series is of higher quality than most of the 1970s sequels, there's probably not much more material here to mine.

That being said, this latest installment isn't half bad, even if it takes its time to get where it's going. At nearly two-and-a-half hours, "Kingdom" is just the latest film to indulge in a running time that's not quite warranted. As the film opens, we witness the burial of Caesar, the ape who acted as the leader of the world in which apes took over after humanity's fall. We skip ahead "many generations later" and meet the Eagle clan, a group of apes who train and have a connection with eagles.

When the clan's village is attacked, young Noa (Owen Teague) undergoes a hero's journey to find out where the surviving members of his family have been taken. Along the way, he meets a lone orangutan who was once a friend of Caesar and a human girl, Mae (Freya Allan), who is also traveling to the kingdom of the fearsome Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), who has named himself the leader of apes and perverted Caesar's teachings.

While spending time with the orangutan, Noa learns that Caesar wanted apes to band together and that the former leader actually had a soft spot for humans, who long ago created a virus that nearly wiped them out, causing them to lose the ability to speak, and in the process helped apes to become smarter and, therefore, dominate the world.

Two of the trio are captured by Proximus' army and brought to his kingdom, which is a glorified work camp where apes slave away at trying to open up a gate that apparently holds some type of secret. As it turns out, Mae is aware of what's on the other side of this gate - a plot point that's a bit underdeveloped since when we meet Mae, she seems like a girl lost in the wild - and convinces Noa and some of his clan to help her prevent Proximus from gaining access. For good measure, there's an untrustworthy human (William H. Macy) who acts as Proximus' tutor.

While it might seem that the "Apes" franchise had likely exhausted itself narratively after the previous entry - which could have been a decent send off for the series - "Kingdom" breathes some life back into it. It's a smart move to center the story around new characters, rather than again focus on Caesar, whose story was wrapped up sufficiently several years ago. 

That being said, despite "Kingdom" being a decent reboot of the series, I'm not sure there's much need to continue prolonging it. For a summer blockbuster picture, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" is well made and good enough for a recommend, even if it is a little longer than might be warranted.