“Apes Together Strong.” Those are the words used by Caesar (played by Andy Serkis using motion-capture technology) to lead ape-kind and rally against the cruel humans in the most recent trilogy of Planet of the Apes, which kicked off in 2011 with Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. His story continued on to two sequels brilliantly directed by Matt Reeves – 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, where he finally meets his end. This trilogy has cemented Caesar as a hero amongst the apes, and sort of a messianic savior that has led them to a land where their kind can live in peace, far from humans.

Has Caesar’s dream come true? Many generations later, apes are now the dominant species in the world and humans have regressed to a primitive state. Young chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague), along with his close friends Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Soona (Lydia Peckham), go out climbing massive heights to find eggs from eagle nests. The three of them are members of the peaceful Eagle Clan, known for raising and controlling birds, and it’s a coming-of-age tradition for the tribe’s young members to catch an egg for them to train and bond with over the years. As they make their way home, Noa picks up a strange blanket that belongs to a mysterious human named Mae (Freya Allen) who’s secretly tailing him. When Mae accidentally breaks Noa’s egg, he sets off again to catch a new one, but encounters a group of hostile masked apes led by Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). They ravage Noa’s village, kill his father, and kidnaps his entire clan, all while twisting Caesar’s teachings like a fake prophet invoking the words of God for their own interpretation. It turns out that Proximus is looking for Mae as he believes she is the key to opening a bunker storing human technology from generations ago.

Soon after, Noa and Mae go on a journey together to save their respective communities from Proximus. Along the way, they are joined by a lovely orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon) and learns the truth about the real Caesar – a compassionate leader bound by a moral code that apes do not kill apes. With a runtime of two and a half hours, some parts of Josh Friedman’s script can be a bit of a slog, mainly due to the story feeling aimless and the leads lacking any particularly compelling traits. Mae does not talk much for the most part, and Noa is still a naive young ape with much to learn about the world. It’s only until the final act when the movie actually presents its main plot that the two receive any form of development.

Durand’s Proximus makes for an interesting villain and steals the spotlight away from Noa and Mae once he shows up. Here we have a self-proclaimed ape king determined to learn the ways of the humans, believing that whatever knowledge he acquires is crucial to accruing more power. And he has no qualms about harming other apes to achieve his goals, which makes him particularly dangerous. These later scenes add so much more nuance to everyone that a good chunk of the first two-thirds of the film could have been cut shorter to get to this point. Still, director Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) cleverly constructs visually rich and kinetic action setpieces that serve the film well enough to keep us entertained until the last 40 minutes.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is its remarkable use of CGI and motion capture performance. It’s really hard to believe that these apes are not real, especially during scenes where they are next to humans. Seeing the vividly rendered fur and textured skin, it’s easy to get lost in the film’s visual effects. Every emotion like heartbreak, pain, and ecstatic joy these apes exhibit is so unbelievably palpable, that rooting for them just comes naturally.

Although Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does not reach the same heights as its predecessors, it’s decent enough to bring new life to this 56-year-old franchise. While it still begs the question of whether humans and apes can actually coexist peacefully, Kingdom brings up the idea that apes and humans are more alike than we’d admit. We don’t find concrete answers here, but the film plants enough seeds for more chapters if necessary. And with this IP’s newfound vibrancy, I bet the studio heads will keep digging at that question for the foreseeable future.

Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.