Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes REVIEW: A visually appealing actioner with a weak script

Film:
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Wes Ball

Written By: Josh Friedman

Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H Macy

Run Time: 145 minutes (2 hours 25 minutes)

Platform: In theatres

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review

Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a standalone sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes. The sci-fi action flick – which is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise, takes place centuries after the death of Ceasar. It follows Noa, a young chimpanzee as he joins hands with a human named Mae to reunite his clan and determine the future of the apes and humans.

Besides focusing on family, love and friendship, the film also sheds light on Proximus Caesar – the ape king and his obsession to further the evolution of apes at a rapid pace. This film pays homage to all its predecessors and also offers a new lease of life to the franchise which began in the late 1960s.

What Works

Works The biggest plus of the film is it’s apes and the way they are portrayed in it. The seamless blend of motion-capture performances and cutting-edge visual effects bring the intelligent creatures to life with astonishing realism.

What Doesn’t

The script is weak and takes at least 1/4 of the film’s runtime to  establish its plot. It lacks the drive force the apes had during Ceasar’s time and has several loop holes.

Technical Analysis

Direction

Director Wes Ball has done a good job in bringing to life the personal struggles and losses of Noa as well as talk about a feature when humans and apes can co-exist the best he could with a weak script. While couldn’t bring out much emotions in the ape, he did an okay job with the two humans we see on screen – even if one appears one dimensional at times.

Story, Script & Dialogues

Written by Josh Friedman, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is based on characters by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The story is set atleast 300 years after the death of Ceasar and fails to show how much they’ve progressed both intellectually and as a community. The now-smart monkeys don’t know what zebras are; they call them stripped horses! 

The film has a weak storyline and it’s script is filled with several loose strings. How are some humans smart and others dumb? What happened to the humans who the chimpanzees captured? The film incorporates many things but fails to tie up all the ends. In short, the storyline and its characters are boring and the story lacked flavour. 

Talking about dialogues, some dialogues are repetitive, while others are predictable. The use of the word ‘important’ is overused to a degree you wonder if the meaning of the word has changed in the  apocalyptic future. 

Editing

It feels very long. Despite being 2 hours 30 minutes long, you leave the theatre with way too many questions. 

Cinematography & VFX

The makers made up for what they lack in story – try to make up, with the special effects added in post production. The VFX team deserves a round of applause for blending the motion captured performances with emotions with graphic help.

Gyula Pados deserves a round of applause for adding some life to this otherwise bland story with vibrant forest and sorrow filled captivity camps. He has managed to let shadows and camera angles tell stories that are engaging (to a certain point that is).

Star Performances

Owen Teague has done a okay performance as the main leads Noa. He is a hunter who is eagerly awaiting to bond with his eagle but embarks on an adventure of self discovery (and discovering who Ceasar is) after disaster strikes his home.

Freya Allan as Mae/Nova is mysterious and unnecessary. She fails to serve any major purpose except for being part of the final twist that left us confused.

Kevin Durant as Proximus Ceasar, the ambitious King of the apes at a coastal clan, is full of menace, but sadly, we don’t see him much on screen. He seems to be the only ape with Some brains.

The other characters leave minimal impact – whether they are ape or human.

Conclusion

The film is a beautiful and visually stunning actioner which, unfortunately, lacks a strong script. Given that it’s set generations after Ceasar, the narrative lost on its chance to make the apes more progressive. Despite these drawbacks, there’s still hope for the franchise.

If you love the franchise, do watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in theatres; else, save your money

Watch the trailer of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes here

Also Read: The Fall Guy Review: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt-led actioner is a goofy but love-filled homage to stuntmen