Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

This weekend, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the newest film in the Planet of the Apes franchise, releases in theaters. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place hundreds of years after the previous trilogy and follows a new generation of apes as they try to find their place in the world. The new era of the Planet of the Apes films has been one of the most consistent runs in the franchise with each member of the trilogy being better than the last. Because of that, I was very excited to see how this new film was going to turn out. 

This movie delivered just about everything I wanted from a Planet of the Apes film. I was a little skeptical at first since Caesar was not going to be in this film but the movie still manages to tell a compelling story that gets you invested in the new ape characters. The movie does a great job of expanding the world and culture of the apes. In the previous films, there was one clan of apes all under Caesar but this film has the apes more broken up into different cultures each with their own view of the world. While Caesar isn't in this movie, his presence is still felt throughout the film with the way he lived and his ideals impacting characters and their choices in life. I also quite liked the handling of humans in this film. In the previous films, the humans are very much a part of the central conflict. However, in this film, the conflict is between the differing ape factions. While there are still some major human characters, they aren't as directly involved in the conflict as the previous films which I liked for being new and different. This movie also has one of the better villains of the franchise in Proxima as you really understand his motivations are just to protect the apes and his kingdom. The visual effects are also quite stunning. It still baffles me how a movie like this can look so good on a $160 million budget while other films have a $ 250 million budget and look terrible. The apes look so real in this film, especially next to some of the human characters. It looks as though they are actually there. At its core, this movie is a coming-of-age story for the Noa character and I think it achieves this very well. Noa gets a great arc as he grows into this heroic role throughout his journey. I really liked his character and based on the ending, feel like we will spend more time with him in the future. Finally, I liked how this movie manages to be standalone while still connecting the other films. Some elements connect to Caesar and the events of the other films but you can still understand what is going on as the movie explains everything you need to know. 

I don't have many issues with this film. It doesn't have as much emotional depth as the previous trilogy does but I think that has more to do with having to start with all new characters instead of the quality of the story. I also felt like the ending tried too hard to set up a conflict for the next film. The last 10 minutes are spent putting characters into positions that would make sense for a sequel. I would have preferred they just left things as a standalone film and let a sequel come naturally. 

Overall, this is another great addition to the Planet of the Apes franchise. It manages to provide new compelling characters while still connecting to the impacts of the previous film. 

Score: 8.5/10 Grade: A- Recommendation: This is a must-see film.