Like most folks, I’ve grown up with various incarnations and entries into the “Planet of the Apes” franchise since its 1963 French novel inception.
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is the latest entry and frankly, not something I found worthy of the time spent watching it.
I get the concept of trying to show how humans and apes have evolved separately, but I think framing a storyline on 300 years later was lame.
And really, the only way to see how lame it is, is to watch the entire movie until it ends.
I’m not going to spoil the ending, but it leaves far too many holes in the story overall and I can’t understand why it’s been reigning at the box office since its debut.
Kingdom is an American science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball and written by Josh Friedman.
As a stand-alone sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), it is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise and the 10th film overall.
It stars Owen Teague in the lead role alongside Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, Travis Jeffery, Lydia Peckham, Eka Darville, and William H. Macy.
The movie is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence/action and is 145 minutes long.
Many generations after Caesar’s death, apes have established numerous clans, while humans have become feral.
Adolescent Chimpanzee Noa (Teague) prepares for a coming-of-age ceremony by collecting eagle eggs with his friends Anaya (Jeffery) and Soona (Peckham).
However, a human scavenger (Allan) follows Noa home and inadvertently cracks his egg during a scuffle before fleeing.
While searching for a replacement egg, Noa encounters a group of ape raiders using electric weapons.
As Noa hides from them, the apes follow his horse back to his clan.
Noa hurries home to find his village burning; the raider leader Sylva (Darville) kills Noa’s father before dropping Noa from a high platform.
Left for dead, Noa awakens the next day and discovers that his clan has been abducted.
He buries his father and sets out to rescue his clan.
On his journey, he is joined by an orangutan named Raka (Macon) who tells Noa about Caesar’s teachings.
The apes notice they are being followed by the human scavenger; Raka offers her food and a blanket, naming her Nova.
When the trio encounters a group of feral humans, Sylva’s raiders suddenly attack.
Noa and Raka rescue Nova who, to their surprise, can speak.
She reveals that her name is Mae and that the raiders took Noa’s clan to a beachfront settlement outside an old human vault.
As they cross a bridge on their way to the settlement, they are ambushed by Sylva.
In the ensuing fight, Raka saves Mae from drowning, but is swept away by the rapids.
Noa and Mae are captured and taken to the apes’ settlement.
Noa reunites with his clan and is introduced to the apes’ self-proclaimed king, Proximus Caesar (Durand).
Proximus has enslaved other clans, forcing them to work on opening the vault so he can access the human technology locked inside.
Proximus invites Noa to dinner along with Mae and human prisoner Trevathan (Macy).
Unfortunately, it seems that it doesn’t matter if you’re human or ape when you want to be a dictator.
It really gets worse from there in my book and the ending feels rushed after over an hour of lead-in time.
Overall, I’m not a big fan of this flick and can wholeheartedly advise you to wait for it to hit streaming services later this year.
