PREMISE
Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
THE GOOD STUFF
DAMN NEAR EVERYTHING- It’s so difficult to break down all of the things that this movie does very well. The visual effects are on point, the cinematography is gorgeous, and performances by Owen Teague, Kevin Durand, William H. Macy, and Peter Macon are on point. The world that has been built to explain how time has moved on from Caesar’s reign is creatively done, and the movie itself feels like an actual cinematic epic. It feels like something that justifies its running time because of how much they are trying to do.
When it comes to the technical side of this movie there are no complaints and there should be no complaints.
THE BAD STUFF
CHARACTERS MATTER- Very simply put, Noa, the main character of this film contrasts heavily with the protagonist from the previous trilogy Caesar. And that is largely because Noa is the much lesser version of what Caesar was. Even by the end of the first chapter of the previous trilogy, Caesar in comparison was a way, way, WAY more compelling and charismatic figure in comparison to Noa in this film.
I’m not saying that we need our heroes to be overpowered, or unassailable, but Noa gets his ass whooped a lot in this film, and to me, that doesn’t breed a certain kind of charisma for a protagonist of this kind of epic. He just…isn’t a warrior like Caesar was, and I don’t know what you can classify him as at the end of the film…but it’s NOT that.
The co-main character of this film is Nova. Nova as a character makes a lot of sense. Her purpose and her motivations make a lot of sense as well. However… I would say somewhere in the middle of the second act it became kind of predictable as to where this character was going to go. It’s kind of a boring journey for this character. Freya Allen is trying, and her efforts are worth applause. But she doesn’t really bring anything dynamic to this story. The ferocity is completely absent.
(Not to mention… There wasn’t enough of an effort to aesthetically show that this woman’s been out in the jungle for months at a time. Her teeth are white, her hair is messy but miraculously untangled, her lips are not chapped whatsoever, and I’m pretty sure she’s wearing lip gloss even when her character is supposed to be at her messiest. Maybe.)
THE UGLY STUFF
MANY GENERATIONS LATER- Had this story taken place 5-110 years later after the story of Caesar then I would understand how Caesar’s influence is so predominant throughout this story. But this movie makes it a point to say that multiple generations of both apes and humans have passed since Caesar’s death. (Estimated to be HUNDREDS of years) However, there’s vaguely any mention of how the previous generations have had their impact on the current time.
I can only imagine there have been other apes that have claimed the position that Caesar held, and have had an influential impact of their own. But it’s just not mentioned. And I don’t know if that’s to lead to a bigger universe or whatever, maybe they’ll cover that in the next chapter, or in a spinoff or something, maybe that’s something that just bothers me and nobody else, but I found it annoying that throughout multiple generations the relations of humans to apes are practically where they were at the end of Caesar’s reign. Or at least it seems that way.
Again this might be s*** that just bothers me.
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Try and follow me here. In my humble opinion, one of the greatest animated movies of all time is toy story 3. The ending of that movie was so brilliant, and closed the chapter on that franchise in such an emphatic way, that when I heard that toy story 4 was coming out I refused to see it, and still haven’t to this day. In my opinion, there has been no reason to continue the journey of those characters because everything was wrapped up perfectly with toy story 3. I can say the same thing with these planet of the apes movies.
It’s not that this is a bad movie, it’s just that you can only do so much with this premise. The story of a soon-to-be mythical figure on the rise from simple beginnings, having to battle with mutinous other factions of apes whilst confronting humans and what they have to bring to the problems that they face… It’s all here. Again.
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is in theaters now
