Movie #12 of 2024:
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Another thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure, with some excellent worldbuilding for this new era of the setting: “many generations” beyond the lifetime of Caesar, the chimpanzee protagonist of the 2011-2017 trilogy who experienced the collapse of human civilization and the rise of his own people firsthand. By now, that leader’s name has fallen into legend, with piecemeal and contradictory accounts of his time. In fact, our new hero’s tribe doesn’t seem to know that history at all, adding to the fragmented feel of the current ape culture. They do have their own cherished practices and teachings, like raising eagles as hunting companions, but those customs extend no further than the valley they call home. It’s very Clan of the Cave Bear, and helps to suggest a more expansive vista than we’re ever actually shown.
The villain of the piece is ape with delusions of grandeur, who styles himself a king and is willing to raze and enslave the smaller communities to forge his realm. That’s what initially sends Noa on a quest of rescue and revenge, as the outside world intrudes forcibly on his quiet and insular one. Along the way, he also connects with a wise orangutan and one of the few humans who has miraculously retained the powers of speech and higher thought.
That character is the only one in the film whose presence doesn’t really work for me. She’s too clean and modern in her appearance, with her sculpted eyebrows looking like she just walked off the set of an Abercrombie & Fitch commercial. I also don’t buy how familiar she is with the old world — the script’s treatment of the apes does such a great job of conveying how much knowledge has been lost over the centuries, it becomes jarring whenever she speaks up to mention concepts like viruses or government. She comes off almost as a time-traveler visitor from the past like Taylor the astronaut in the original movie, rather than someone who would have been born and raised long after such ideas fell out of common use.
But that element aside, the story is good. I love the design visuals of all the overgrown, broken, and repurposed artifacts of our day, and Noa is a worthy new lead, whether any subsequent sequels continue to follow his journey or not. I’m so glad that this franchise didn’t end with Caesar’s last stand in the previous film, even if this one never comes close to matching it in spectacle or pathos.
[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]
★★★★☆
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