Disney had a tall order in front of them when they got to work on their continuation of the Planet of the Apes franchise, which is among the more valuable IP's they came into after acquiring Fox in 2019. The 2010's reboot trilogy focused on the primate takeover of Earth through the eyes of an ape named Caesar (mocapped/voiced by Andy Serkis) was not only a pretty big box office success but a sneaky beloved series that earned a lot of huge raves from critics and fans alike. Now, matching the acclaim that those films helmed by Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves got wasn't a fair or realistic goal for the new iteration of 20th Century. They really just needed to make something that would justify the continuation of the series and get people to care enough to be invested in a new prospective trilogy. On those grounds, Wes Ball's Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes gets the job done.
Set 300 years after the death of Caesar depicted in War for the Planet of the Apes (this isn't explicitly stated in the movie, but Ball has stated this is the case in the press), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes introduces a world where apes have separated into their own clans and the remaining humans have devolved to a primal, almost feral state. In the opening frames, the audience is introduced to Noa (mocapped/voiced by Owen Teague)- the teenage son of the leader of a falconry clan who resides in the hills of the jungle. On the night before his clan's annual coming-of-age ceremony that he's set to partake in, a simple mistake Noa makes leads to his village being attacked by raiders and everyone from his clan besides him being killed or enslaved. Alone and grieving, Noa sets out to free his clan and ends up crossing paths with an old orangutan (mocapped/voiced by Peter Macon) who is the sole surviving member of a clan that's dedicated to preserving Caesar's teachings and a nomadic human girl (Freya Allen) who he'd previously seen glimpses of in the woods surrounding his clan's living area. His new companions inform him that the ape responsible for the abduction/killing of his clan is a tyrannical king named Proximus (mocapped/voiced by Kevin Durand)-who weaponizes Caesar's legacy to justify enslaving apes to help him try to gain access to a facility that contains artifacts and weapons from the powerful human civilizations of the past. This trio united by nothing but a common goal of taking down Proximus soon set out to stop him from gaining access to the tools that will make his oppressive regime grow even stronger and free Noa's clan and all of the other apes he's kidnapped and enslaved.
When it comes to worldbuilding, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does a really great job. Treating Caesar as this kind of benevolent figure whose legacy has been either distorted or ignored by several generations of apes is a great backdrop to build off and the differences in how the leaders of each clan view Caesar are engrained in how they rule and function on a daily basis. Some don't even know he existed, others are trying to use his legacy to serve their aspirations of achieving power and control by any means necessary and a few are hoping to educate people about who he was to help build a brighter future for everyone. What Caesar means to the apes dictates survival, their relationship with humans and arguably, their entire worldview. That's a clever way for Kingdom to build a vivid world of its own while also establishing its place in a broader established universe, which is kind of a nice surprise considering its status as the sequel/reboot series to a sequel/reboot series.
Does it do much well beyond establishing a new world/setting the table for future expansion of the universe and offering up breathtaking CGI? Not particularly. The story is not consistently engaging enough to justify its 145-minute runtime, the characterizations of both the ape and human characters are pretty thin for a movie of its length and all of the attempts at big emotional beats land with a thud on account of the underdeveloped characters. Nailing the character work and plot specifics are things that can be corrected with future installments. Introducing a world is not, so Ball and writer Josh Friedman focused their creative energy in the right place to ensure their vision for a trilogy has the highest odds of actually materializing.
While Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes isn't even close to being a great standalone movie, I was interested and optimistic about the possibilities of where it can go from here when the credits rolled. Admittedly, "The future movies could be really good!!" is a pretty shitty reason to be positive about a movie that's currently out in the world but that context is the top reason why I didn't put more weight behind the movie's considerable number of flaws. Now, Ball and Friedman just need to go out and turn this intriguing blueprint into a couple of great movies so I can stop talking about potential for the future and actually relish in the euphoria of witnessing some incredible epic-scale filmmaking.
Grade: B-
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