‘Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’ review: more maniacal monkeys in a middling sequel

This simian sequel also serves as a soft reboot. Though it arrives seven years after the last slab of cinematic monkey business, 2017’s War For The Planet Of The Apes, it’s set around three centuries later. Andy Serkis’ ape leader Caesar is long gone, but a new generation of ambitious super-chimps are seeking to build on his legacy. Apes are dominant and evolving fast, while humans have been reduced to mute scavengers scuttling in the shadows.

Director Wes Ball, who previously steered the Maze Runner trilogy, makes sure this kingdom is stunning to look at. The movie’s huge troop of CGI apes have faces more expressive than many Hollywood actors – these simians may be genetically enhanced, but they haven’t yet discovered Botox. Though sadly, his film gets off to a sluggish start. It begins in a peaceful chimpanzee community where young, clever Noa (Owen Teague) and his clan have a symbiotic relationship with eagles, whose eggs they care for until they hatch.

The eagle-rearing primates are perfectly happy until their settlement is attacked by Sylva (Eka Darville), a hulking silverback gorilla who hails from a more mercenary clan. Noa’s father Koro (Neil Sandilands) is killed in the ensuing fire and his family are captured and taken away while Noa is out cold. Shortly after he sets out to find them, Noa is joined by Raka (Peter Macon), a solitary orangutan who reminds him that Caesar’s worldview was benevolent rather than bloodthirsty. Noa also forms an unlikely alliance with Mae (The Witcher‘s Freya Allan), a meek, mute human who is less primitive than she seems.

Freya Allan in ‘Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’. CREDIT: 20th Century Studios

After several skirmishes, they arrive at a coastal colony run by a blinkered bonobo, Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). He wants to use brute force to bust into a sealed vault containing human technology that he thinks will level up the apes’ progress – at this point in their evolutionary journey, they understand the concept of books, but can’t yet read them. (They also speak in halting monosyllables that in places sound laboured.) Trevathan (William H. Macy), a human who educates Proximus Caesar but is subservient to him, tells Mae to give up on the idea that humans can ever return to the top of the food chain. However, she isn’t ready to back down.

The climactic setpiece isn’t quite an action spectacular, but it does feel tense and narratively satisfying. The screenplay by Avatar alum Josh Friedman also includes some cute comic moments, including an ape learning his first expletive, and capably points to the franchise’s future. Let’s hope Allan’s Mae is front and centre again in the next film: her inscrutable heroine has a moral ambiguity sorely lacking in many blockbuster protagonists. Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is no classic, but it does enough to keep the franchise moving forward, if never quite swinging from the treetops.

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