Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

★★★½

There are few long-running franchises in Hollywood history with the consistency of the “Planet of the Apes” saga. From the original 1968 classic to director Wes Ball’s latest addition to the canon, the series has changed hands no fewer than seven times, spanned three separate continuities, and traversed millennia of human (and ape) history. And yet there is only one truly terrible entry. Ten films, and nine of them range from simply mediocre to truly excellent. The “Apes” film that opened this weekend, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” does not perhaps strike with the same potency and force as the masterful trilogy that directly precedes it, but succeeds wonderfully at delivering everything this series is so beloved for.

Set many generations after the time of Caesar, “Kingdom” finds colonies of intelligent apes spread across the globe, with the sparse human population reduced to non-verbal animalistic creatures. Our new protagonist is Noa (Owen Teague), a young soft-spoken ape from a clan that trains eagles. When legions from another tribe lay siege to the Eagle Clan and take its apes as prisoners, Noa sets off on a journey across the time-ravaged landscapes of post-apocalyptic California to bring them home. Along the way, he makes allies of the wise Raka (Peter Macon) and a young human girl (Freya Allan), before finding himself at the mercy of the tyrannical ape leader Proximus (Kevin Durand).

The most apparent and immediate achievement on display in “Kingdom,” like the Andy Serkis-led trilogy before it, is its transportive visual effects. Landscapes and apes alike are rendered with a near photorealism that is breathtaking in its obvious awe-inspiring movie magic-ism, but also in how infrequently it calls attention to itself. Unlike the work of James Cameron’s immersive “Avatar” films, Wes Ball’s “Apes” film, in the tradition of what has come before, aims to let the CG of it all slip away, to leave us with the characters underneath. It works wonderfully. Noa is brought to such complex, nuanced life, there are only a rare few striking moments that remind you he’s a purely digital creation. 

Much of this has to do with how these visual effects are made, using performance-capture technology to translate the subtleties of an actors face and body movements onto a computer-made monkey. With this in mind, each lumbering step and primitive grunt coming from a human actor, the emotional strength behind these performances is all the more impressive. There is a sense of free play, of a wide creative sandbox being played in. The looseness and naturalism with which the apes are brought to life, as well as the precision with which these performers mine expression and feeling from behind the shiny coat of visual-effects plastered on top of them, is astounding. You don’t doubt the effect for a second.

But “Kingdom” has much more up its sleeve than visual prowess. The echo of Caesar rings throughout the film, an unseen force dictating the move of every character on the board. Several hundred years removed from his reign, the ape who led the revolution against humanity has been morphed into a Christ-like figure of history, ripe for deification and misinterpretation. Noa’s first introduction to the teachings of Caesar come in the form of Raka, a kindhearted orangutan devoted to the messages of peace and togetherness the great ape once preached. The malevolent Proximus takes a different lesson from Caesar. He may lead his clan in chanting Caesar’s motto — “apes together strong” — but it takes on a twisted meaning, emboldening his forces to subject humanity to the brutal might of his kingdom of ape brotherhood. Sound familiar?

Yes, distill the “Apes” saga down and it’s always been a repetitive parable on the relationship between humans and apes. The struggle for co-habitation, the inevitable rise of one species and the fall of another. Wes Ball’s film sets this idea against themes of religion and the dangers of myth-making. So widespread is the god-like idolization of Caesar that his teachings have become malleable, bent out of shape to support any crusade that invokes his name. The lesson to take away is clear, even if it only lands with a muted thud.

Because if there’s one thing “Kingdom” struggles with it is committing to its more adventurous ideas. It’s a fun summer blockbuster with some compelling ideas at play, but you can practically feel it holding itself back. Reigning itself in. It doesn’t swing for the fences in the way Matt Reeves’ previous two films so unabashedly did. Wes Ball and writer Josh Friedman put their spin on this decades-long franchise, and suggest innovative concepts both narratively and thematically, but it feels like only scratching the surface. The film plays like it is holding out as long as possible for a seismic shift in plot or theme, wonderfully deliberate and methodical in pace but with a distinct air of anticipation. It leaves off on a memorable note, but otherwise, the film reveals itself to be much smaller in scope than it itself had been led to believe.

But we are also on only the very first step of this new journey. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” serves as not only the fourth entry in this continuity, but also as the first film in a new trilogy of “Apes” pictures. The world and characters are unbound, opportunity for more exploration and adventure is endless, and there is potential yet for deeper examinations of this film’s themes and ideas in future entries. What director Wes Ball has delivered here is an entertaining and thought-provoking sci-fi epic, the perfect way to kick off the summer movie season. Its characters are well-drawn, excellently performed and imaginatively rendered, set against thrilling spectacle and immersive set pieces. To follow the trilogy that breathed new life into the “Apes” saga and raised the bar for contemporary VFX-heavy Hollywood blockbusters is no easy task, and Ball’s attempt to follow in those footsteps isn’t flawless, but I’d gladly see many more movies set in this world and of this quality. After all, if the previous trilogy is any sort of roadmap, we may have a near-masterpiece sequel coming soon down the pipeline.