The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Another solid entry in the current Planet of the Apes series, this more pessimistic outlook on the future of humanity is still engaging and often thrilling.
Full Disclosure: I’ve really enjoyed the three previous movies in what I’ll just call the “current” Planet of the Apes series. They successfully managed to transfer some of the themes of the original movies into movies with more realistic and interesting storytelling. And they look a lot better too. The last two were directed by Matt Reeves, but he’s now moved on to the Batman franchise. He’s being replaced on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes by Wes Ball, whose most notable previous work was the middling Hunger Games-wannabe YA Maze Runner series. So it’s fair to say that I was a bit unsure about whether or not the excellent quality of the Apes franchise was going to continue.
Review
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes operates almost as a reset to the Apes franchise. While there are many references to Caesar (the main character from the first three films) throughout, this movie is set “many generations later” and so aside from a brief prologue scene which shows Caesar’s funeral, none of the characters from the previous films appear. Instead, Kingdom attempts to explore questions about what happens after a charismatic leader has led his people to freedom.
Insomuch as all Planet of the Apes movies are a metaphor for human nature, Kingdom is definitely the darkest and most pessimistic of the current series. We are introduced right away to Noa and his two best friends, Soona (female) and Anaya (male), apes from the “Eagle Clan”, as the young apes climb high up in the ruined skyscrapers of a long-lost human city to snatch eggs from eagles’ nests. These climbs are harrowing and dangerous, and this sense of danger sets the tone for the rest of the movie. In addition to its dark themes, Kingdom is also possibly the most intense of the current series. In almost every scene there is a palpable tension as if the worst could happen at any time, and often it does.
The three friends return to their village, where we see the importance of eagle-raising to their community’s way of life. This post-apocalyptic falconry is central to everything they do, and Noa’s father is a respected elder as the “Master of Birds”. This is where one of my few criticisms of the movie comes in. The movie does a good job of showing us that eagles are important to their way of life, but not why. There’s one short moment where an eagle drops a fish down to a group of young apes. Is that it? Do the eagles gather food for them? It’s not really clear. I wish the film had explored that aspect more, because when the eagles show up near the end of the movie, it seems inevitable, but not really earned.
Noa (on the left) and his two friends Soona and Anaya, near the beginning of the movie, trying to prove that they’re brave young apes.
It’s not long before everything goes wrong. Noa’s village is attacked and destroyed by an army of other apes, his father is killed, his people captured and taken away, and only he escapes. It's in this scene that we get our first glimpse of one of the main themes of the movie – the effects of messianic legends on future generations. The apes that attack Noa’s village often shout out “For Caesar!” as they commit their horrendous acts. The parallels aren’t particularly subtle, but effective nonetheless, and hold up a mirror to acts done “in his name” over the course of history by religious fanatics. But whose interpretation of the message of a messiah figure is correct?
When Noa sets off to try to rescue his people, he meets two new travelling companions. One is an orangutan named Raka, who has an entirely different view of the example of Caesar. He instructs Noa, who is completely ignorant of Caesar or his history, that the first great ape saviour was a compassionate leader, not one who would have sanctioned the brutality of the apes operating under the orders of the leader of the soldier-apes, called “Proximus”. The other companion they meet is a human girl (played by Freya Allen of The Witcher-fame), but one who seems different than the “pests and scavengers” with which Noa is familiar.
Spoilers Ahead
Noa and his travelling companions, Raka and Mae. An experiment in human and ape getting along.
The first twist in the movie (but one that has unfortunately already been spoiled by trailers for the film) is when Noa and Raka first hear the human girl Mae speak. Their reaction is one of the few moments of levity in the movie, which doesn’t have much of the comic relief that happened from time to time through offbeat characters in the previous films. But it’s also a watershed moment, as despite Raka believing that humans used to live side-by-side with apes, they’ve never actually come across an “intelligent” human.
Mae knows where Noa’s people are being held, and the three soon arrive at a massive compound on the beach built out of rusting old container ships. They are captured, and in a sad scene, Raka is swept away by a raging river, seemingly to his death, while they try to fight off Proximus’ soldiers.
This moment seems important thematically as well, because Raka was the one character that was of the belief that harmony was possible, not only amongst apes, but also between apes and humans. What we see for the rest of the movie is characters acting almost entirely out of self-interest, or at least in the interest of “their people”, not necessarily the greater good. This is where the movie lands, and why I’ve said it’s the most pessimistic of the Apes movies. If the questions are: “can we set aside our differences, or are conflict and mistrust always inevitable?” Kingdom sure seems to come down on the side of conflict.
Proximus, for his part, believes he is fulfilling Caesar’s words that “Apes Together Strong” by bringing all apes together under a kingdom he is building. But of course his perversion of the message of Caesar is that he is doing so as a dictatorial tyrant. Noa is reunited with his captured people, Mae is thrown in a cell with another “intelligent” human, Trevathan (played by William H. Macy) who is teaching Proximus about Roman history, but also evolution, and is resigned to his captivity.
From there the movie speeds along to inevitable conflict. Noa and Mae are joined by Noa’s old friends in breaking into a McGuffin of an old human military vault, but everyone has designs of their own. Mae’s lack of innocence is betrayed when she kills Trevathan to prevent him from squealing about their plan. In the end, Noa and Mae both achieve their objectives, but are left with a mutual mistrust, even as they part as friends to return to their communities.
I really enjoy this moral ambiguity that is at the heart of the movie, even if it doesn’t really make for your standard summer blockbuster fun. I saw this movie with a friend and his kids, who had really liked the previous three movies. The kids definitely understood some of the themes, but I’m not sure they liked it as much as they might have if it had had a more positive message. The movie is PG-13, but the themes are definitely for more jaded adults.
The menacing Proximus Caesar, a tyrant with a vision.
5 Quick Hits
The motion-capture CGI in this movie is incredible, as it has been for the whole series. In my view, the quality is well beyond similar work we’ve seen in almost any other franchise, with the possible exception of the Rocket character from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The expressiveness that the apes demonstrate is really remarkable. It says a lot that we can watch a movie with very few humans on screen, and yet be totally immersed in the characters.
Despite the “everyone is out for themselves” theme present in some of these movies, I’m not quite sure it says about me that I often find myself cheering for the apes in a war of survival against humans. I hope it’s just that they’re well-drawn protagonists that an audience is naturally rooting for, and not some sign that I’m subconsciously cheering for the eventual downfall of humanity.
Freya Allen does an excellent job in this movie, often in scenes where she doesn’t speak at all, at showing the range of her character, even to the point where he age seems to change. In the beginning she appears very young, but that’s when we’re meant to believe that her character is innocent and naïve. Later on, when it’s clear that things are going according to her plan, she seems much older and in control. Great subtle acting.
In addition to the character CGI, the ruined cityscapes that dominate the background of a lot of the shots in the movie are incredible. But they also lead to one of my other criticisms. If most of the apes don’t know that the humans used to be intelligent, who do they think built these structures? Do they believe that it’s part of their past? I think there’s a bit of a plot hole there.
At the very end of the credits there’s a short sound clip that appears to be the kind of guttural cooing noise that orangutans make. As we all know, a character is never dead in film until we actually see them die. Does this mean that Raka is still alive and might return for a sequel? If so, is that a hint that the next film in this series might have a more positive message? Or am I just reading too much into all of this?
