Movie Review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

https://open.spotify.com/episode/210rsO3kR432dNnPZ3jrkU?si=TZ3KezzPSZ-9-cNR-yhngw

Please Be Aware There Are Light Spoilers For Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Below.

This is probably the most conflicted I've been about a movie after walking out of a theater in quite some time. There is a lot that really works about the movie, but at the same time there are a lot of strange decisions that just feel a little uneven. It's not bad, and none of these strange decisions detract from the overall enjoyment of the film enough to really harm it, it just feels a little weird at times.

The best example of this is how the film handles the legacy of Caesar (the protagonist from the last three rebooted films) who dies at the very start of this movie. The film treats Caesar as a religious figure who bestowed law upon apes and in the generations since there has been schisms in ideology along the lines about what he meant hundreds of years prior (the review audio does not reflect the fact that I looked up how long it has been between the beginning and the plot because the film is unclear). Pitting Noa against Proximus Caesar in this ideological war would create an interesting conflict but the film does not play enough with that. At the same time, the movie also pits Noa ideologically against Nova/Mae who seeks to reestablish human supremacy of the planet.

This is where it kind of falls apart because neither of these things are grappled with enough to be fully explored, which is a shame considering how well paced this movie is. It feels slow and it has a methodical pace designed to give the viewer time to ruminate on the ideas being presented which helps the more philosophical tone the movie takes, even if there is some action interspersed from time to time.

Because it can't commit to either of these things, both kind of feel underserved and a little shallow. Still, it is engaging enough to stick with a 5 out of 5 score, making this a must-see film for this weekend.

★★★★★