This next chapter in the rebooted Planet of the Apes series is far better than could have been expected, paying tribute to the original Andy-Serkis-starring trilogy, while also expanding the mythos into an interesting new era.

Premise: Several generations after his death, the story of Caesar has passed into legend. Noa (Owen Teague) is a young chimpanzee living a peaceful existence with his small fishing community, until his clan’s safety is threatened by forces from ‘the valley beyond’. Noa has to embark on a quest that takes him beyond the safety of his village, on which he encounters an orangutan scholar called Raka (Peter Macon), a mysterious human scavenger (Freya Allan), and the self-proclaimed Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand).

Review:

I was a huge fan of Andy Serkis’ trilogy of rebooted Planet of the Apes films, and I thought that 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes brought the series to stunning conclusion – so when it was announced that they were intending to resurrect and continue the series without Andy Serkis, I was very sceptical. However, the good news is that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes demonstrates that while War for the Planet of the Apes was a perfect conclusion for Caesar’s story arc, there are still plenty of new stories waiting to be told in the fictional world constructed by the earlier trilogy.

My initial concern when Kingdom was announced was that it would somehow cheapen Caesar’s story from the reboot trilogy by sidelining his importance within the fictional history of the film series. But in many ways, Kingdom is all about Caesar’s legacy, and his spiritual presence is central to many of the film’s plot threads. The film makes this abundantly clear with its decision to open with a flashback to Caesar’s funeral (taking place almost immediately after the end of War), before then moving forward “several generations” to introduce the audience to Noa (Owen Teague) and his friends Soona and Anaya. By opening the film with Caesar’s funeral, director Wes Ball frames everything that follows against the backdrop of Caesar’s legacy, and the impact that he had – and is continuing to have – on this world.

“…Caesar has passed from living memory into the realm of myth & history…”

In my review for War for the Planet of the Apes, I described Caesar as having become an almost mythical figure for the apes, like a cross between Moses and John Conner. This theme carries through into Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, where Caesar has passed from living memory into the realm of myth and history. For some apes, like the sheltered chimpanzee community where Noa lives, the name Caesar has been all but forgotten, whereas Raka (Peter Macon) is an orangutan scholar who has studied history and who tries to keep the teachings of Caesar alive. Meanwhile, the authoritarian ruler of the “Kingdom” featured in this film is a bonobo who has named himself “Proximus Caesar” (which loosely translates as ‘the next Caesar’) because he understands the power that the name still possesses.

The cast in Kingdom all do a great job of carrying the story forward – Owen Teague is very convincing in the lead role, and conveys a lot about Noa’s character growth non-verbally through the course of the film. Meanwhile, Kevin Durand is having quite the year, making his presence felt here as Proximus Caesar just a month after he very nearly stole the show in the excellent horror/comedy Abigail. Peter Macon ensures that Raka is never reduced to simply being the exposition provider, while Freya Allan is excellent as the human scavenger that Noa encounters, and who Raka eventually names “Nova” (in tribute to the human child that Caesar befriended in War).

“…doesn’t shy away from moral complexities & dilemmas…”

I’ve deliberately avoided saying too much about the plot to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, as one of the things that I enjoyed most about it was that I was never entirely sure where it was going next. This is even more true in the second half of the film, where there were some genuinely unexpected surprises and developments, which I certainly won’t spoil here.

What I will say is that, while this instalment isn’t nearly as dark or bleak as the original reboot trilogy, it also doesn’t shy away from the moral complexities and dilemmas that made the previous trilogy so engaging. The film touches on issues like the rewriting of history by those in power, and raises some interesting questions (with no easy answers) about the place of humans in what has now become ‘the planet of the apes’. By the end of the film, there were plenty of plot points that gave rise to some interesting moral discussions on the journey home from the cinema (but which to hint at here would certainly be a spoiler).

“…there are no easy answers to many of the questions asked…”

At this point it feels it goes without saying that the VFX are excellent, but equally, the VFX work in this film does deserve to be talked about because the apes in this film are absolutely photo-realistic, both in the action sequences, but also in terms of capturing the nuances of the facial performances of the actors. Between the motion-capture of the actors (giving each character their own individual physical performance) and the rendering of the VFX, each of the apes feels like a fully realised (and easily distinguishable) character, to the extent that you quickly forget that you’re watching scenes where a lone human actor is interacting to CGI characters.

Ultimately, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a self-contained story with a satisfying beginning, middle and end, but it does also leave story threads open that could be explored in future films (and I understand that this is hoped to be the first in a new trilogy, following on from the Andy Serkis trilogy). I thoroughly enjoyed Kingdom, but this also left me definitely wanting to see where the story goes from here, especially given that there are no easy answers to many of the questions that the end of this film asks.