Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (what a long title!) is a 2024 20th Century Studios film directed by Wes Bell and starring Freya Allan, Owen Teague, Kevin Durand, and Peter Macon. This film is a follow up to the amazing Planet of the Apes trilogy made in the 2010’s that followed the journey of the great Caesar and the rise of the apes’ reign on Earth. This movie takes a different, and at least to me shocking at first, approach and jumps the timeline to 300 years in the future where the apes are fully the intelligent and ruling species on Earth and humans are mainly primitive and on the brink of extinction. The film follows a younger ape by the name of Noa and his journey for redemption following an unwarranted attack by King Proximus’s apes on his eagle clan. From the get-go the cinematography in this film was amazing, the far-reaching shots of the wilderness were beautiful and gave you a sense on how much the Earth was thriving without the humans’ grasp over it. These films haven’t really missed up to this point and I’d say the same thing for this one. Cinematography, character building, tension and conflict, storytelling, they’ve done a great job at firing on all cylinders with these films and have kept the franchise strong into Kingdom, while still moving away from the initial cast of characters and timeframe that the audience was used to, and I think that’s something to hang your hat on.
I personally don’t think this one quite holds up to the 3 before it, at least not yet, but this movie set up a lot with a brand-new cast of characters and is one of those films that has the ability to get better depending on how the next movie or 2 go, because with how the ending of this film played out I think it’s clear to see that we’re probably not done exploring this new timeline yet. That’s not taking away anything from this one though either, it was still quite enjoyable. The Planet of the Apes trilogy of the 2010s was just one of the most well done and best trilogies of movies in a long time in my opinion and is going to be hard to top in almost any capacity. Wes Bell is kind of fresh in Hollywood from what I’ve seen and his only real credentials in the major motion picture department up to this point was the Maze Runner trilogy. He seemed to know what he was doing here though for the most part and paid good homage to the Apes movies before this one, while adding in his own fresh take on the universe and the characters that now inhabit it. All of our main cast of characters were interesting enough as well and kept me intrigued to learn more about as this trilogy (I’m just assuming they’re shooting for another trilogy here) progresses. Noa is a sympathetic hero that is easy to get behind and root for, he seems to be attempting to fight the right fight for his fellow clan and stepped up into a leadership position when no one else would or could. Mae, the main human counterpart to the apes, is a bit complicated as well but in a good way. She seems to have empathy for the apes and helps Noa where she can, but she also hasn’t given up hope on the humans and inevitably would hope they could rise up and take back control of the world. Rakka is a fun and wonderful addition as an orangutan that added some levity and morality into the movie, while also being the one that helped to spread the teachings and keep the spirit of Caesar alive for Noa and the other apes. King Proximus was a pretty great villain as well, his clan was brutal and took over things by force, but he himself was more of a charismatic and well-loved leader than I was initially expecting and that turned out to not be a bad thing. He was great at firing up his people and getting them to do his heavy lifting under the guise that they were all in this together, even though he just wanted to acquire as much knowledge and power as he possibly could over the other apes. He also followed the teachings of Caesar and thought highly of him, but he just had a very distorted view on his teachings and the morality behind them.
Overall, Rakka and King Proximus were probably my favorites of the new characters personally. Rakka was just funny and gave a welcomed warm presence to the film, while also being the one to teach the new generation of apes and the new audience of the films about Caesar and his important moral teachings. King Proximus was a much more layered, intelligent, and charismatic leader than I imagined he might be, while still being vicious and evil on his path to power, making him a great villain and addition to the franchise. I think everyone should give this movie a shot if and when they have the time, it was a strong solid addition to the franchise and set up the future of the franchise nicely while still moving away from the timeline we were used to in the first trilogy of movies. If you’ve seen the previous films and enjoyed them then I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t enjoy this one, and if you’re new to the franchise and are wondering if you can see this one without seeing the previous trilogy then my short answer would be yes. I’d suggest watching them if you have the time, or at least the first couple just to understand who Caesar was and learn more about his story because he is referenced quite a bit in this movie and the apes still function based off the code that he established for them, but I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely necessary either. There’s an opening title scroll that kind of gives you a rundown of the world and attempts to catch up new viewers. Plus, if you see this film and like it then chances are you’ll be itching to go back and watch the previous trilogy with Caesar to learn more. He’s one of the best movie characters of the 2000s in my opinion and has one of the most complete stories of his life from beginning to end, you feel like you really understand him and what he stands for. Give it a watch, out now in a theater near you!
