Over the course of the past few weeks, I caught up on all the Planet of the Apes movies from the most recent trilogy. I remember seeing the first one with my dad in theaters, but that was thirteen years ago, so not much besides that, but I was pleasantly surprised with how good they all were. Even the first one in 2011 had better CGI than many movies have now, and even as the number of apes increased over the course of the franchise, the quality never dipped, which often happens in movie franchises. The newest addition to the franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is a mouthful of a title, has a new director, new characters, and it takes place in a new location, but despite all those changes, this movie did not disappoint.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place generations after the death of Ceaser, which is how the last movie of the trilogy ends, and none of the characters now have any known relation to the fan favorites of old, but that is not an issue. The story starts by following Noa and his two friends as they try to get an eagle egg for their ceremony the next day, and on their way back, they find evidence of a human being in their territory, which was new for them. That night, Noa found the human in their camp, and she crushed his egg accidently while fleeing, so he had to go out and find another one, but when he left, a rival group of apes came and attacked. They burned Noa’s village down, and everyone was either taken as a captive or killed.
After burying his father, Noa takes off on a journey to find his people. On that journey, he meets Raka, an Orangutan that teaches him about Ceaser’s teachings, and they also befriend the human that has been following them, Mae. They get attacked several times on the way to the settlement, but eventually they get there. They find Noa’s mom and his friends, but they are being forced to do labor for the new Ceaser, Proximus, who has a different version of Ceaser’s teachings than Raka, that he uses to keep his apes in line. Proximus is trying to get into a vault that has humanities secrets kept inside, but so far, he has not had any luck, but Mae knows a way in, but she needs help from Noa and his friends to get inside.
The whole idea of Ceaser and his ideology and sayings becoming a religion for the apes was an interesting one, especially considering the path they decided to take. There was Proximus’s group that used those ideas to their advantage, and it led to them ruling with an iron fist over other apes, and then there was Raka. Raka had a group, before Proximus killed them, and they also followed Ceaser’s teachings, but they were peaceful teachings based in the whole “apes do not kill apes” line that Ceaser gave, even though shortly after saying this line, he ended up killing Koba, but self defense is a reasonable argument there.
It is kind of funny to think about a movie of apes being about religious extremists, and how they bend the words of venerated people to their gain, but that is what this movie was. I was ready to compare it just to Christianity, like when the protestants split from the Catholics, but all big religions have had a split. Islam, Judaism, and even Eastern religions go through splits due to varying interpretations of the same information. So it was great to see this movie about apes be so easily applicable to humans, and for the message to still carry weight.
All the recent ape movies carry along a fun intellectual exercise, and that is whose side should we be on. As humans, it seems horrific to think about the extinction of our own species, and these movies have humans on the cusp of extinction, but the way humanity is portrayed in these movies, makes it feel okay that we would all be wiped out, because humanity sucks. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, there is the caring doctor, James Franco, that raises Ceaser, but for every good person in these films, there one hundred bad ones to counteract it, and that is not a great percentage.
Ceaser is always willing to try and help the humans or at least give them the benefit of the doubt, but there are always humans trying to take advantage of him for his open mind, and this leads to division among the apes. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Ceaser allows humans to come in to try and activate a dam in the ape’s territory, and this deal gets done due to the kindness of a few humans that interact with Ceaser, but the rest are plotting some way to destroy the apes, so it makes it very hard to root for humanity in this film, and this would put the viewer more in line Koba’s side, who thinks that the humans are a massive threat, and that they need to be eliminated, but he is radical, so it is hard to find good ground to stand on. In the end, Ceaser has no choice but to battle humanity in War for the Planet of the Apes, and it costs him his life, despite his attempts to coexist.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes not only tackles a weird religious conundrum, but it also has a coming-of-age aspect to it as well, which again is funny to see in ape version. In parts it reminds me of The Lion King, which I guess means it also reminds me of Hamlet? Noa is the bird master’s son, which is not exactly king, but the role is taken by an elder of the village that is in high esteem, and when this elder unexpectedly dies, and the tribe is gone, and Noa is left basically alone, he must go on a journey to reclaim his home. Like when Scar kills Mufasa.
Also when Noa is on his journey, he meets two companions that help guide him in his growth, like Timon and Pumba. Then when Noa makes it to where his people are being held, he meets back up with his old love interest, which is comparable to Nala. Noa even makes friends with an eagle, which is like Zazu, and when he wins, his rival is pushed off a cliff like Scar. The biggest difference between the two is that Proximus is not Noa’s uncle like Scar was Simba’s uncle, but they mostly follow similar paths. Two young ones being thrust into roles where they must take on large amounts of responsibility, and they rise to the occasion to help their people.
Overall, all the recent apes movies are really good. I gave them all 3.5 stars. The newest one did an excellent job of expanding the world, and it made it easy to move on from the tentpole characters that had been created in the previous trilogy, and it allowed the previous trilogy to have the finality that it deserved. Seeing this in IMAX was the right choice. These movies do an incredible job of making their CGI look real, and they also create some incredible landscapes. The opening scene of the apes climbing up tall precipices to get their eggs had my palms sweating. After watching The Fall Guy last week, which was about making stunts for movies, it made me wonder, what was a stunt and had actors in their green screen suits, and what was just total CGI, but if it makes you question it, then that means that they are doing a good job. The ending of the movie left it open to another sequel yet to come, so potentially this will be its own trilogy, if it does well enough at the box office, and if they keep putting out 3.5-star Apes movies, then count me in!
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