Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

My brother gave me money today because he wanted to take me out to a movie, but since his arm was badly sore, he didn’t want to keep delaying me. So, I went today to check out “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which came out last month. The problem was the route I took had really bad traffic on it because of an accident that they closed off the road and we had to take another exit. I had to put in the theaters address to get to the theater, but I missed about the first 20 minutes of the movie, which I was livid about. I should have checked the map before going to see if there was an alternate route to take, since this is the first time in four years I have gone to this theater due to the pandemic. Enough about all that. Everyone must be wondering what I thought of this latest installment in the reboot franchise.

Advances in facial motion capture are present in this film that makes the talking apes look more like humans than ever before when it comes to facial expressions. One thing about these films that will always be the same is that they require a lot of willing disbelief for the audience to accept it.

Robert Roten said in his review, “I looked in vain for Andy Serkis, the go-to actor for motion capture, in the credits. He played Cesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011) “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014) and in “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017). Andy's not in this one, but the motion capture looks great, and the faux apes have got a lot of personality.”

Roten continued, “In this story, we find a clan of apes living an ideal existence, noble savages, as it were, in tree houses in a forested land, not unlike the tree dwellers in “Avatar” (2009) and the tree-dwellers of Lothlórien, as seen in “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001).” The main character is a young ape named Noa, played by Owen Teague.

Noa is trying hard to live up to the example of his father, Koro, played by Neil Sandilands, who is a master of eagles, but the eagles don’t seem to like Noa. Preparing for an opening ritual, Noa gathers eagle eggs from a dangerous, high nest, but on the evening of the ceremony, a scavenging human, Mae, played by Freya Allan, accidentally bumps into him, breaking the precious eggs, without which, he can’t be initiated.

He rides a horse into the night, wanting to find replacement eggs before the ceremony the next day, but finds a raiding army of evil apes. Noa hides from them, but they spot his horse and follow it back to his home, destroying the village and taking his clan members prisoner.

Noa sets out to find his clan and free them. Tracking the raiders, he encounters Mae, and Raka, played by Peter Macon, an orangutan, who follows the teachings of Caesar, a great lawgiver whose teachings have been forgotten. Raka offers Noa a chance to read and learn the teachings of Caesar, but he is set on finding his clan. Mae and Raka decide to follow Noa on his mission.

Mae has been pretending to not be able to speak like most of the savage humans, but Noa and Raka are surprised to find that she can speak and understands their language. Mae tells them she is on her way to the place where Noa’s clan is being held, hoping to find a valuable human artifact there.

Noa and Mae find some adventures and decide to team up to get what they want, but neither one completely trusts the other. In the end, we don’t know if the humans and apes can ever live together in peace. It is also unknown if humans and apes can avoid the mistakes of the previous human civilization, whose leaders desired power, but lacked the wisdom to use it wisely.

The acting is solid and the story is gripping, even if it is unbelievable. William H. Macy is in this movie as a very odd human named Trevathan, living among the apes. Roten noted, “He seems to have divided loyalties, and his place in this story is a bit of a mystery.” The ape leader Proximus Caesar is played by Kevin Durand.

As you might have guessed, this movie is not as good as the previous trilogy. If this is supposed to start another trilogy, then this is a good start, as this reboot series has remained to be consistently good. This film is no exception. The effects still are amazing, there are definitely a lot of slow, dialogue moments, and the action scenes are still engaging. I felt as though I was nodding off at the climax, but that was probably because I was feeling tired from mowing the lawn earlier today. Still, I say check this film out in theaters, if it is still playing near you. Otherwise, wait for it on streaming.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of “Emma Thompson Month.”