The Planet of the Apes franchise was considered one of the better sci-fi franchises back in the day. 20th Century Fox at the time, now 20th Century Studios owned and operated by Disney since the merger about a decade ago decided to reboot this once thought-lost franchise with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That was a great decision because it launched this franchise into a whole new era. Now onto the Fourth film since the reboot, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, they have the creative juices and the minds of Wes Ball and the writers to figure out where they can go with the franchise after the tragic death of Caesar (Andy Serkis) in War For the Planet of the Apes.

The Fourth installment of the reboot starts 300 hundred years after the last film ended. The Apes have developed many different colonies all over the place. One of them is the eagle clan, where they raise and appreciate the great eagle. Like any colony, this one has some rambunctious and curious youths who go exploring and sometimes get into trouble. As part of the ritual of the eagle clan, they must steal, raise, and nurture an eagle egg. Noa (Owen Teague), Anaya Travis Jeffrey) and Soona (Lydia Peckham) are close friends and they go on adventures together. Noa notices a human girl he refers to as an Echo because that’s what the little girl in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was called. Following the girl leads to trouble as an outside clan of Apes not associated with the Eagle Clan finds them and their community and kills the elders and takes the rest of the tribe as prisoners for their leader Proximous Caesar (Kevin Durand) Angry at what transpired, Noa than embarks on a perilous journey with the help of the Echo/Girl named Mae (Freya Allan) and an orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon) to find and rescue his clan.

Josh Freidman takes what has already been established by the previous three Planet of the Apes films and expands on that lore. There is a story that is based on a reality of the past but also expands on this franchise quite a bit. The connection to humanity and ape kind is fastballs realized in this sequel. The script could have gone in any crazy direction, but it’s intelligently written with a story grounded in reality as well as the sci-fi nature it was meant to be a part of by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Pierre Boulle. It along with the acting are the strengths of the Fourth installment of this sci-fi franchise.

As mentioned, the acting using mocap suits is fantastic. A lot of the actors playing the characters I wasn’t as familiar as others like William H Macy as a human slave of Proximous Caesar, Trevathan. Teague as Noa and especially Durand as Proximous Caesar were the standouts among the cast, but everybody did an exceptional job in their various roles. As Andy Serkis can attest, giving a great performance in a mocap outfit isn’t easy. I believed everything these actors were doing in this movie. I was completely drawn to all of them throughout the film.

Two technical aspects of the movie I thought looked great were the visual effects on the Apes and elsewhere throughout the film and the cinematography by Gyula Pados. The V Effects team worked miracles as they had these characters and backdrops looking amazing. Aside from the V Effects the rest of the movie was breathtakingly gorgeous to look at. Seeing a film that looked this beautiful sucked me in and I didn’t think anything of the V Effects very much except how impressive they were. With a sci-fi film of this nature, these effects and cinematography truly matter.

It was going to be hard to top the previous three installments of this franchise, but Wes Ball and his team did just that. He has experience with dystopian sci-fi films with the Maze Runner Trilogy under his belt previously. This isn’t as down the earth as that trilogy, but has elements he could use to bring this world to life once again. He put the script and great acting to good use in his first try at an Apes film. The grounded characters who the viewers can get behind helped the world come to life once again. The science he unused in the story was the cherry on top of the sundae. It added an extra element of reality to the already stellar story. I was surprised how much I liked what Ball was cooking up here as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would say.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was a pleasant and very good surprise. It was going to be hard for Ball and company to make a film that lived up to the legacy of the previous three films in this franchise, but they did. The story was grounded in reality while also having the sci-fi elements of the previous movies. The acting was superb by everybody in the cast, but Allan, Teague as the heroes, and Durand as the big bad were the standouts among the cast. I was genuinely blown away by how good this film looked from a V Effects and cinematography standpoint. This is a worthy successor to the Apes franchise. I can’t wait for what this franchise has in store for fans in the future. It’s sure not stale yet as far as I’m concerned. 

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen.