Review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Official synopsis: Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape, Noa (Owen Teague) goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

If you've been reading here for a while, you probably know what a huge fan I am of the most recent POTA trilogy. While I never felt strongly about the original movies, something about Caesar's journey really connected with me. So I was slightly apprehensive of this film when I found out it was going to be set several hundred years after the fact. But, the trailers looked interesting, and it became one of my most anticipated of the year. So how did it fare?

Pretty good! Though I have some notes. What this film does very well is world building. It takes its time getting to know Noa and his Eagle clan. I expected it to move as a much faster pace than it did. Proximas Caesar (Kevin Durand) the main villain doesn't even show up until more than an hour into the film. Caesar is essentially a religious figure at this point. His window symbol is worn around a character's neck like one would wear a star of David or a cross. The whole film is a critique on religion. How some use it to inspire and do good, how others pervert it to meet their own personal gain, and how some can be blissfully unaware of it at all. That's not what I expected the film to be about, but it was an interesting way to go.

While the film does a great job of setting the scene, it feels like that's all its doing. You can tell this was made in mind with sequels. It's a lot of build, small pay off, then a tease for what's to come next. I think that harms the film in a way, because while Caesar's story was also made with multiple movies in mind, each film felt complete to stand on its own. This one feels like season 1 of a TV show. However, I am pretty invested in Noa now, though no one else gets nearly as much development as him. I was actually surprised how much I disliked the character of Mae. (Freya Allan) The humans have always been the weakest part of this franchise, but considering where this story is possibly going, she was a very frustrating person to deal with. 

Some very questionable story choices aside (like, are there no guards at this facility or...) This made for a find entry to the POTA universe, and while not perfect, it was still a good watch. Hats off to the Visual Effects team as always. It was stunning.

Grade: B-