Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes REVIEW: A Wonderful Return
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the epic return towards the world of the Apes. If you had seen the previous trilogy then you would know that the expectation of this film is bound to be high especially coming off the weight of a perfect trilogy and being the fourth film in the franchise. With that in mind, this film succeeds in what it had intended to do in every way. The film certainly has some flaws, but the standouts and strengths had easily beaten those flaws. To put it simply, this film is pretty much the first Lord of the Rings but with Apes.
So, let’s take at what this film did right.
Visually Splendid to Watch
Immediately, the greatest part of the film is the visuals. Now Disney really knows how to create a world which looks and feels realistic. In some cases it may not work well but this film manages to showcase how amazing it can be.
This world is immediately seen as a devoid apocalyptic world with apes dominating and humans close to extinction. It manages to capture this perfectly well and the attention to detail is just great. The motion capture on the apes is pitch perfect. The emotions of the apes never seemed uncanny. The action and cinematography truly made us feel as if we were in the action with the apes.
Movies nowadays just don’t have great visuals anymore but seeing this franchise continue to look this great is something I am grateful for.
Noa is an original protagonist who the audience will grow to love
With Caesar being out of the picture, the new protagonist is up for some heavy competition. Luckily this film nails Noa, the new protagonist really well.
From the beginning, we would care for him because we see how he is willing to sacrifice his egg just for his friends. We know the egg they are gathering is very important because it is like their whole future so seeing him being so considerate is sweet and endearing which is actually quite rare in movies nowadays. When he risked his life to collect the egg,it was basically the test of how much we care for him. By the end, we do.
The dynamic with his friends is great. You can tell there is some Disneyfication in it but it is still heartwarming to see. From how he is considerate towards them and then their bond whereby they would be vulnerable for each other. It only made the attack on the village more devastating as the warmth and endearing beauty was gone. Later on, when they had to face Proximus and destroy the vault it was a true testament of their dynamic. The dynamics here manages to influence Noa and the others along with adding on some conflict throughout which makes up for great dynamics between characters.
Noa’s arc is also amazing here. His journey revolves around the union between apes and humans. From the start we see how he is purely confined in his own tribe within his comfort zone. He fears humans and does not even know what they are. He does not know what it is like outside of his own tribe and lives an all out simple life where the biggest problem would be losing a bird egg. From here his flaw of being confined and not knowing the nature of the real world would cause distrust in others outside of his tribe which restricts him from truly achieving a union.
When the attack came forth,this flaw was elevated. It was him who caused the evil apes to find his tribe which shows his strength of being considerate as he goes back to save his friends and risking his life for his father, but it further pushes him to not trust others as even his own kind being apes are not trustworthy anymore.
His meeting with Raka showed him of a time where apes are stronger together and a union between humans and apes and as he sees it Raka is a great ape whom he could trust. The encounter of the human girl opened him up as well. Despite his hesitance it was through his view of Raka which made him have some compassion for her. When both he and her looked through the telescope it was then he saw that apes and humans may not be so different as both would be fascinated by the world beyond them. It was this slow gain of trust which prompted him to save her as she called his name.
Later on, the film does take a lot of interesting turns. Apparently the girl had never revealed much of her own life and had even been lying to him which caused more distrust but only to humans. For apes he sees how Proximus,an ape, would make others to be slaves but he knows that is not right. He trusts apes more than ever. He knows that apes can be stronger together through his experience with Raka and even with his friends later on. By the end it was the union of both his tribe and the other apes which allowed him to conquer Proximus.
In the end he may not totally trust humans, but he does hope to have a union especially when the first step of uniting with apes has been achieved. The slow step by step way of achieving Noa’s arc remains a major highlight of the film. His arc is achieved but not in a way which we would have thought and even subverted our expectations.
Noa could have benefitted if his flaw had caused him to lose the egg or that the egg thing could be more impactful, but he is still nonetheless a great protagonist and one which we would care for.
Lifelike Dynamics
As mentioned through Noa the dynamics here are more stronger than ever through having characters having a change and conflict between them throughout.
Noa with his friends are prime examples of great dynamics. From the start based on their dynamics, we see how Noa is considerate and how because of them it allowed him to take a risk on getting the egg. Through this dynamic we see how it influenced Noa as a character who has a stronger motive to take a risk by way of not wanting his friends to be disappointed. This even influences all the way until the climax where he has to recruit his friends to destroy the vault but because one of his friends was afraid he had to be left behind. In the end he came back to join them because it was through their bonding only will Noa take more risk.
The other dynamic would be with Raka. He was the one who provided all the information about the past. How humans and apes can coexist seemed like an idea which is dumb, but he made it sound as if it were all true. True to a point that Noa may actually believe in it. It was Raku’s kind and gentleness which made Noa soften his heart and truly start to believe. It was only then he saw who humans were and pretty much laid the foundation of his union with humans.
The most interesting dynamic would be Noa and Mae’s. Both of them steamed from the constant shift of whether they could trust each other or not which offers up for some great conflict. Initially Noa would slowly be convinced that maybe humans and apes could coexist as both are no different through their experience with the telescope, but he gradually sees the true human nature. How humans would constantly lie, conceal and betray each other just for their own benefits. This is especially true when they slowly figured out that apes used to be caged by humans for mere entertainment. The balance of trust between them constantly shifts which makes their dynamic so interesting. Noa would both learn and constantly be in conflict with her, ultimately creating a memorable and powerful dynamic.
Perfectly Evil Villain
Proximus Caesar is easily one of the best villains of this year. While he does come in a bit late, he is nonetheless a haunting figure which may have existed in our world.
Proximus uses the ways of Caesar i.e. being apes are stronger when united to undergo his whole operation. The only thing is that he enslaves those apes instead of working together. That is the difference between him and Caesar. While Caesar cares and protects every ape, Proximus twisted Caesar’s words in a way that makes him look like he is doing good. Yes, apes are stronger together, not as a team but rather as slaves. Yes, humans and apes can coexist but only humans that are captured and enslaved as well.
At the end of the day no matter how nice and flowery he places his words all Proximus had ever wanted was more power. He wanted the powers of humans of the past. He wanted to conquer the world. He wanted everyone to bound down on their feet for him. He wanted immortality. He only cared to create a kingdom in his name and in his ruling. If that sounded familiar then that is actually because it could have been true.
No there was not an ape which created a kingdom but throughout history there have been many kingdoms and how many of them had truly done good as they said they would and are not the power-hungry monsters which they had always been? The truth is these people who speak with such flowery language to convince how good they are, are usually the ones that could be the most power hungry of them all.
The most haunting aspect of Proximus was when every ape under his rule followed and chanted with him which just goes to show how in real life as well that people could easily be manipulated and enslaved without even being known.
Fascinating Theme
The theme of this film revolves around whether apes and humans are truly able to coexist with one another. This kind of symbolizes our real world of coexisting as one no matter what race you are or where you came from. This theme goes to show how we may or may not achieve true union of peace.
Just because apes are more common that does not mean that all apes can be trusted. Some apes are terrible and only want power instead of caring for others, but some apes may be good and have a kind heart. Oppositely just because humans are different from apes does that truly make them untrustworthy.
At the end of the day humans and apes both have the same ways of thinking and feelings so why can’t humans and apes coexist? But we do see how humans tend to lie and deceive everyone around them so how could the apes truly trust them especially when humans themselves do not trust each other and that is not even counting apes yet.
By the end, it is a leap of faith to trust one another but the truth is it is our own decision which matters. Whether we choose to trust and make peace with each other is what ensures a union to be created. Apes and humans may not still coexist yet but at least apes are able to trust each other and have some level of peace.
Despite these positives there are some minor flaws throughout the film which should be addressed.
Human needs more impact
Mae the human here is a very interesting character. Her character is constantly shown to be lying all the time on who she really is. Her gradually laying down her guard only to pick it back up or having Noa to discover her lies were devastating…or it should have been.
While Mae is a very interesting character, there is an odd issue whereby she just does not have the impact which she should have had. When Noa discovered that she was lying and concealed of the truth it should have been an impactful moment, but it just felt like something was missing. I think the issue could have been from us not really knowing much about her aside from exposition and the emotional value she inherently carries. By the midpoint of the journey what does she mean towards Noa? Is she a friend or what? There is no clear way of knowing because she still seemed to be the enemy. Everything else about her was just said out through exposition.
I don’t think she is a bad character. I even want to see more of her in future instalments, but I just wished she had been better utilized and left a greater impact.
Odd Frankenstein-like Pacing
The other issue I guess would be the pacing. I guess you could tell that there were a lot of moments where it had to make pit stops. While I do think it is great to take a break from the action sometimes, those breaks felt a bit redundant. Noa just sleeping and continuing on the journey could have easily been cut. His relationship with his father was not really explored much besides the surface level. Raka did not have enough time to really shine. The pacing issue was scattered here and there but ultimately the film is still great.
Conclusion
In conclusion Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes had some minor setbacks with its pacing and human characters but the film overall is a great continuation of an already perfect trilogy with a new protagonist we care for and a menacing villain is more than enough to get one to be reinvested in the franchise.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now in theatres
