Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes rules because it is modest

Aalmost all of the films Monkey’s Planet The franchise focuses on answering an understandable question: How did this planet become, well, a Planet of the Apes? The original 1968 film and Tim Burton’s infamous 2001 remake are about astronauts who are surprised to realize that the planet they crash-landed on was Earth all along, and the first sequence ends with the planet exploding. But all the other films (and there were 10 in total) deal with the fall of humanity and the rise of the apes. The recent reboot trilogy, Ascend, DawnIt is War for the Planet of the Apes, it was a masterful primate apocalypse. In the end, the monkeys were resurrected and everyone realized that they had won the war. That’s it from them planet now. So… what’s next?

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the first film in seven years and the possible start of a new trilogy, has a chance to really explore this world rather than being forced to establish it. Freed from being yet another stop in an essentially predetermined apocalypse narrative, the film can tell a smaller story that builds into an epic.

Caesar, the revolutionary ape who led the chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons to dominance in the reboot trilogy, is long dead. Kingdomthe action begins. (Andy Serkis, who brought Caesar to life with the help of some innovative motion-capture technology, does not return for Kingdom but he is listed as a consultant.) Generations later, long enough for the apes to found their own clans and mini-societies independent of each other. Noa (Owen Teague), is a member of the Eagle Clan, a society of chimpanzees that practice falconry with golden eagles and lead a peaceful existence. The Eagle clan knows nothing about how the apes took over the planet – they don’t need to know. What they know about human beings (reduced to silent pests) is inaccurate and, as far as they know, irrelevant.

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Compared to most long-running franchise sequels, the way Kingdom dealing with tradition is very interesting. Films like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire insist on the importance of the history of their franchise. Ghostbusters are important to you, the viewer (or so the film hopes) and therefore they and their story are important in the world of the film. Many modern franchises are built around Easter eggs, and major plot points are an excuse to bring back something from the franchise’s beginnings that will reward dedicated fans for recognizing it. Kingdommeanwhile, it actually engages with its own tradition rather than taking it for granted. Because although the apes of the Eagle Clan do not know the past of their species, other apes are trying to continue a forgotten legacy or distort history for their own ends. And although they have decisively lost their position as the dominant species on the planet, humans may not be totally out of this thing yet.

The Eagle Clan’s peaceful existence is shattered when they are attacked by another group of apes, who are eventually revealed to be serving an ambitious and charismatic bonobo named Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Noa’s father is killed and the rest of her clan taken hostage by Proximus’ soldiers, forcing Noa to embark on a journey to locate and hopefully rescue them. He is accompanied on this journey by Raka (Peter Macon), an orangutan who preaches the gospel of Caesar and tries to keep his legacy alive through oral tradition – although much has been lost or changed by a game of telephone over the decades. Completing the trio is a human woman, played by The magicianit’s Freya Allan, who seems to have more going on behind her eyes than the average homo sapien.

Proximus, whose chosen name Caesar is no accident, wants to be this era’s equivalent of the founding father of the apes and is more than willing to profit from symbolism and twist tradition for his own purposes. He knows what humanity used to be like and hopes that an impregnable vault around which he has built his kingdom contains ancient secrets that can propel his apes into a more powerful future. Not all of the various primates in Kingdom Share that goal, though, and things come to a head as various parties try to uncover the past, keep it locked away, or simply rescue their friends and family.

Except for a few late revelations that could presumably be explored in sequels, the conflict in Kingdom Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not the status quo should be maintained. This may seem disheartening at first glance, but the relatively small risks are refreshing and a testament to the fact that the Monkey’s Planet can tell a story in its world without having to completely tear it down. (The special effects, always a highlight in these films, continue to be revolutionary, which adds to the sense of immersion in this setting as an established place rather than in flux. With very few exceptions, Apes never reads like special effects, motion capture and animation so deft you might find yourself forgetting they’re not real.)

It would have been easy for Kingdom seem unnecessary – a fourth film in a reboot trilogy that takes place just a few months after another ape-centric blockbuster? The pleasant surprise, then, is that Kingdom is forced to justify its existence based on the story it tells about the Planet of the Apes, not just because it is O Monkey’s Planet. The legacy exists in clever ways that make sense in the film’s fiction, but the title has changed to be fully complete and adaptable. context instead of a premise.