*****SIMIAN SPOILERS!*****

I’ve been a fan of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise for as long as I can remember. In fact, the original “Planet of the Apes” movies (1968-1973) were my first real sci-fi movie addictions before “Star Wars” came along. And while I wasn’t terribly thrilled with Tim Burton’s 2001’s reboot (save for Rick Baker’s amazing ape makeups), I was deeply impressed with the 2011-2017 reboot trilogy (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” “War for the Planet of the Apes”); which is one of the best sci-fi franchise reboots yet; on a par with Ron Moore’s “Battlestar Galactica” redux (2003-2009). 

With a screenplay by Josh Friedman (2005’s “War of the Worlds”) and Patrick Aison (2022’s “Prey”), from characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (“Avatar: The Way of Water”), director Wes Ball’s (“The Maze Runner”) latest addition to the “Apes” reboots has some big prehensile shoes to fill. Being a longtime, loyal Apes fan (as a kid, I once had a Planet of the Apes cereal bowl), I made a rare foray to my local IMAX-RPX theater to see this one…

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

The movie opens with the revolutionary talking ape Caesar’s funeral, before segueing to “Many Generations Later” (the overgrowth of greenery and decaying technology suggest centuries have passed).  We then follow young apes Noa (Owen Teague), his girlfriend Soona (Lydia Peckham) and their best friend, Anaya (Travis Jeffrey).  Soona and Anaya are helping Noa prepare for a coming-of-age ritual that involves carefully collecting eagle eggs, as part of the Eagle Clan’s ‘bonding ceremony.’  Noa is nearly killed after falling from various cliffs, but he secures his egg before the mother eagle returns to the nest. 

Trekking back to their arboreal community (built with decaying human infrastructure), the three of them come across a rag with a distinctly human scent, near an old railway tunnel entrance.  Noa grabs the rag to show to his father, Koro (Neil Sandilands), the benevolent ruler of the clan.  They don’t realize they’re being watched by an ‘echo’ (Freya Allen).

Note: Echoes is ape slang for humans, since humans have devolved into echoes of their former selves. That sounds like it may have been the origin of the slang, but younger generations of apes who’ve forgotten humans’ former dominance may use it because the feral scavengers ‘echo’ the movements of apes in order to steal from them.

Returning to their community, Noa shows the human rag to his father, Koro, and mother, Dar (Sarah Wiseman). Later that night, when Noa is alone, he is jumped by the human who tracked him home.  She kicks the surprised young ape in his chest, and cracks his hard-won egg.  As the human girl runs off, Noa decides to steal another egg before sunrise in order to complete the ritual.  After he slips away, the Eagle Clan community is descended upon by a war party of rival apes, led by soldier-ape Sylva (Eka Darville).  Noa sees them, and heads back, only to find his community burning. His father is killed by Sylva, who then knocks Noa unconscious.  Awakening the next morning amidst the smoldering ruins of his home, Noa is determined to find his abducted clan.

Note: The destruction of the Eagle clan’s community in “the name of Caesar” is the first time we realize the teachings of the late Caesar have been corrupted to accommodate all kinds of acts, just as too many modern wars are committed in the names of Christianity, Islam, etc. Granted, the late Caesar wasn’t a pacifist (see: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and its sequels), but he didn’t believe in apes harming each other (“Ape shall not kill ape” was a decree issued by the ape ‘Lawgiver’ in the original movies). The only phrase of Caesar’s teachings the warrior clan seems to have taken to heart is “Apes Together Strong”; a rationalization of might makes right. 

After making a cairn for his father’s body, Noa sets out in search of his people. Along the way, he meets a wisened, patient older orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), who takes Noa under his wing, and teaches him about the rotting structures all around them; how they were once built and run by the now mute and feral “echoes.” Living near the ruins of what looks like Los Angeles International Airport, Raka shows Noa human books and other artifacts, which convince the younger ape that the current echo pestilence was once very powerful. 

Note: Raka, played by Peter Macon (“The Orville”), is like a more benign version of Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans); the secretive orangutan administrator from the original film, who knew the truth about human origins, but kept that information to himself. Raka tells Noa everything he knows about the former dominance of humans (which is sketchy at best). Raka also wears a pendant depicting Caesar’s attic window from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which has now become a religious symbol, like the Christian crucifix or the Jewish Star of David. An apt symbol, since the attic window framed Caesar’s desire to be free.

The two apes quickly fall into a master-apprentice relationship (à la Luke and Obi Wan in “Star Wars”), and they soon realize they’re being followed by the echo girl who broke Noa’s egg. Later that night around a campfire, they see the girl spying on them.  The benevolent Raka invites her over to share their warmth, telling Noa that humans have less resistance to cold. The girl nervously joins them. With their pungent human guest, Raka relates the true teachings of Caesar, which have been long corrupted. 

Note: I once had the pleasure of meeting actor Peter Macon, who is an accomplished artist as well.  Macon was appearing at a panel on the makeup of “The Orville” (2017-2022) at IMATS Los Angeles 2018, the International Makeup Artists Trade Show in Pasadena (not Los Angeles). That deep voice you hear when he played “Bortus” in Seth MacFarlane’s “The Orville” is not an affectation; that is Macon’s true speaking voice. 

At they follow the tracks of the Eagle clan, the trio spends the night exploring the ruins of what appears to be the Mt. Wilson observatory overlooking Los Angeles. Noa examines a large optical telescope, and is surprised to find this metal “tunnel” somehow gathers light into an eyepiece affixed to its end.  Even Raka doesn’t understand its function, but the mute girl, whom Raka assigns the generic human female name of “Nova,” shows deeper curiosity as she stares intently into the eyepiece. 

Note: “Nova” of course, was the name of the mute wild woman played by Linda Harrison in the original, who bonded with astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) in the 1968 original.  Nova was also the name given to a mute young girl (Amiah Miller) in 2017’s “War of the Planet of the Apes,” who was afflicted by the same virus that also reduced human mental faculties.  As much as I love the original movies, I prefer the reboot’s explanation of humanity’s downfall being caused by a human-made virus instead of nuclear war.  Nuclear war would kill our ape cousins just as surely as it kills us (despite apes’ hardier physiology), so it makes no sense that they could survive and thrive in a nuclear post-apocalypse any better than us.  Also of note is the condition of the telescope; being exposed to the elements for centuries, it’s more likely the delicate, opened mirror and eyepiece optics would be completely obscured by weathering.  

The next day, the trio continues to follow the tracks of the abducted Eagle clan when they find a group of wild humans in the woods. These more primitive humans appear to wear simple rag-like coverings instead of the pants and tank top inexplicably worn by Nova.  Before long, a  hunting party led by Sylva finds the humans, and uses nets to catch them.  Nova herself is nearly caught in one, but manages to escape and return to Noa and Raka. Later that day, “Nova” comes clean and speaks—something which causes Raka’s jaw to drop.  Neither Raka nor Noa have ever met a talking human.  Nova reveals her actual name is Mae, and that she knows where Sylva took the Eagle Clan; a beachfront community built near an ancient, abandoned human vault…

Note: The human hunt, a faithful homage to the original 1968 film (complete with “scarecrows”), also uses original composer Jerry Goldsmith’s music in that sequence. Other Jerry Goldsmith cues from the original are sprinkled throughout this film, giving it a sense of lineage, though the use of Goldsmith’s music contrasts strongly with the otherwise lackluster new score by John Paesano.  While I appreciate the care in recreating the hunt sequence, I question its overall necessity in a film which already runs a bit long at 2 hours and 25 minutes.

As Noa, Raka and Mae make their way to the beachfront, they’re stopped at a bridge over a river, where they’re surrounded by Sylva’s forces.  The apes dread water, since they lack human buoyancy. This forces the three to take on Sylva’s overwhelming forces in order to cross the bridge.  As Mae falls into the water during battle, Raka uses his long arms to pull her out, but Sylva cuts the rope Raka was holding onto, and he falls into the water himself.  The current takes Raka away, and he’s presumed dead.  Stunned and grief-stricken, Noa and Mae are then captured by Sylva’s boarding party and taken to the settlement…

Note: While all the ape actors do a nice job with their motion-capture CGI ape performances, Peter Macon’s Raka is exceptionally expressive and interesting.  Raka is easily the movie’s most compelling character, and it was a mistake to kill him off so early in the film (if at all), though a post-credits audio clip suggests he may have survived. 

Arriving at the seaside ape community in shackles, Noa and Mae see crowds gathered to hear a rabble rousing speech of their despotic ruler, Proximus-Caesar (Kevin Durant). The ‘community’ consists of ape clans forcibly abducted to serve this new ‘caesar.’  Proximus repeats the misconstrued mantra from Caesar, “Apes Together Strong,” as he uses conscripted apes in a futile attempt to open massive steel doors of the ocean cave vault; an ancient stronghold believed to contain powerful human weapons. The vault’s thick doors are lined with explosive powder in another attempt to breach them.  Needless to say, the explosives fail, and several apes are killed in the attempt, but Proximus vows to try again—using more of his subjects as expendable labor. 

Note: Using distorted religious mantras to justify aggression; that has an all-too familiar ring, doesn’t it? 

On a more positive note, Noa finds the rest of his clan, living in this shantytown of abducted apes. He even reunites with Soona and his mother, Dar, and they take a quick moment to mourn the loss of Koro.  Most of the community lives in tents along the surrounding beach, where they are guarded by Proximus’ brutal lieutenant, Sylva. On the shoreline, Proximus has set up his personal command post inside of the beached, rusted hull of an ancient human ocean liner; living in the relative lap of luxury, compared to his tented subjects.

Note: The seaside community, living in wrecked hulls of ships and in raggedy tents along the beach, resemble something out of the Mad Max movies, or even 1995’s “Waterworld,”which was once called “Mad Max on jet skis” in a review I read once.  The cliffs along the beach also remind me of the archeological dig site in the ‘Forbidden Zone’ from the original 1968 movie. The dig site was in cliff faces along a mysterious beach, which turned out to be the unrecognizable ruins of a destroyed Manhattan. The 1968 movie’s beach location was Malibu, California; on the opposite coast from Manhattan. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” was shot entirely in Sydney, Australia, which now doubles for a post-apocalypse California. Movie magic at work…

As Noa tries adjusting to life under the brutal reign of Proximus-Caesar, he is separated from Mae, who finds another human living inside the ship; an older man named Trevathan (William H. Macy). Trevathan is allowed to act as teacher to Proximus, using the ship’s library to educate his ruler on the customs of Ancient Rome and human civilization, which Proxima finds fascinating (and useful).  When Mae meets with Trevathan alone, the two humans debate living under ape rule, which Mae finds intolerable.  Trevathan tells her this is the apes’ world now, and that Mae has to adapt to “the way things are.” In an attempt to curry favor with the potentially useful Noa and Mae, Proxima invites them to dinner that evening…

Note: William H. Macy was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for his work in 1996’s “Fargo,” one of my favorite dark comedies of all time.

Over dinner, Proximus believes Noa might just be intelligent enough to open the vault, which may contain powerful human weapons which could fortify his rule.  He also advises Noa not to trust his human friend Mae; warning him that she has her own agenda.  After dinner, Noa confronts Mae and demands the truth in exchange for his help, which she needs.  Mae tells Noa that the vault may contain a book which can restore the human ability to speak, though she’s a little vague on specifics.

Note: Kevin Durant gives a bold, bombastic performance as Proximus, and while the performance is never in question, the villain is written a bit too two-dimensionally at times. It would be interesting if he were more layered in his villainy, like Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans); a villain keeping a dangerous secret for the protection of his people. Proximus is simply greedy, which is perhaps more telling of our times, when politicians are fixated on power and immunity (see: Donald Trump), rather than helping their constituents.

Under cover of darkness, Noa gathers Soona and Anaya, as Mae hitches a ride on Noa’s strong back, in order to scale the cliffside, which Mae promises will lead them to an access point inside the vault. Following Mae’s lead, the young apes help Mae plant bags of explosive powder into the levees surrounding the vault and the ape village.  The group is interrupted by Trevathan, who threatens to tell Proximus of their unauthorized activity. Before anyone can react, Mae stuns them all by grabbing Trevathan, and breaking the older man’s neck.  After tossing the dead body into the ocean, the group makes their way to the vault’s hidden door…

Note: The murder of Trevathan seemed inevitable, but it was surprising that waif-like Mae is the one who so ruthlessly breaks his neck, rather than one of her stronger ape allies (who could’ve done the job more easily). 

Mae opens the door, and they enter the complex.  The mysterious vault turns out to be an abandoned military bunker, where the last human survivors in this area must’ve holed up during the viral apocalypse.  The bunker contains stockpiles of weapons, both light and heavy firearms, as well as a dormant missile. A very focused Mae goes to retrieve a specific electronic decryption key, used for satellite control.  Meanwhile, the curious apes gather in dorm rooms once used by families of military personnel. There, they find disturbing children’s books depicting apes in cages, as well as a talking human doll (another bit taken directly from the 1968 movie). This new evidence makes the apes suspicious of Mae’s motives. 

Note: The talking doll actually uses an actual audio clip taken directly from the 1968 film’s soundtrack (“mama”).  We also see a missile inside the complex; a nod to the nuclear “Alpha-Omega bomb” worshipped by the radiation-scarred, telepathic human mutants of “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970). I found it a bit hard to believe the generators of the complex still worked after centuries of dormancy. Generators require routine maintenance. Perhaps this might be explained in deleted scenes, or in the movie’s novelization, assuming it gets one.

With Mae finding what she was looking for, she and her ape allies exit through the complex’s massive main doors into daylight—where they find Proxima’s forces waiting for them. Proxima’s guards threaten to kill Soona, whom they’ve taken hostage. The hostage situation is soon ended when Mae pulls a secreted pistol and shoots Soona’s captor dead.  Awed by her weapon, Proxima negotiates with Mae, promising to release them all if she leads him to more of such weapons.  Mae bitterly vows never to surrender human weaponry to apes, and she detonates the explosives planted in the levees. As ocean water floods into the complex, most of Proxima’s forces are quickly drowned. Noa and the others scramble to higher ground, after overpowering Sylva in the floodwaters.  Reaching the top of the cliff overlooking the complex, the surviving Eagle clan are confronted by Proxima, who beats Noa to a pulp, demanding that he kneel before him (“Kneel before Zod!”).  Noa rises to his feet, as he and the others perform their tribe’s summoning chant for the eagles—which fly to the rescue, pecking and clawing at Proxima, until he falls into the ocean below…

Note: The eagle summoning trick might’ve been inspired by the Charlemagne gag from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989), as Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) uses his umbrella and clucking noises to rouse the seagulls along a beach, causing them to gum up the propellers of a pursuing Nazi fighter plane. The gag still works, especially with tribes of apes who bond with birds. The ape mythology of this film, like its cinematic (and TV) predecessors, is more primitive than that of Pierre Boulle’s original 1963 novel, “La Planète des Singes” (aka “Monkey Planet”) whose simians used technology equivalent to mid-20th century humans, including cars and planes.

With Proxima’s reign ended, the Eagle clan return to reclaim and rebuild their community. Noa and Soona (the new Cornelius and Zira?) see Mae nearby, and Noa bids her farewell. She reiterates that humans deserve another chance, but Noa doesn’t see a future where humans and apes can coexist peacefully. They part ways, and Mae later arrives at a military bunker near an overgrown field. The bunker door opens, and she hands the satellite description key to a fellow human survivor (Dichen Lachman) who plugs the key into a control board.  With that, the massive, dilapidated radio dishes outside groan to life and reorient themselves to acquire satellites in Earth orbit. Soon, the staffers inside the bunker make contact with other survivors—setting up a future conflict between apes and humans.

The End

Note: Like the generators inside the vault, it’s a bit of a stretch that the dilapidated satellite dishes so quickly reorient and reacquire the satellites, which might’ve fallen into disrepair themselves (though satellites in geosynchronous orbits might still function).

Summing It Up

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is a solid continuation to the 2011-2017 “Planet of the Apes” reboot trilogy, which hasn’t yet had any real duds in the bunch. This one is no exception, even if the story is a rejiggering of 1973’s “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (the least effective of the original “Apes” movies). However, “Kingdom” offers considerable technical, dramatic and artistic improvements over its low-budget 1973 predecessor.  “Kingdom” is an objectively better film in nearly every way, though it is not perfect.

There are many callbacks to the original “Planet of the Apes,” such the shoreline horseback riding, the scarecrows, and a recreation of the classic ‘human hunt’ sequence; which is well realized, though it isn’t critical to this film, and could’ve easily been dropped.  There’s even the tattered talking doll that cries “mama” from the 1968 film. These fan service moments are accompanied by samplings of Jerry Goldsmith’s original groundbreaking score, too. I half-expected Mae to lead the apes to a subterranean cult of nuclear bomb worshippers—which would not have been entirely unwelcome, since I love 1970’s “Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”

The ending points toward a new conflict between the dominant apes and surviving humans, who have considerable military hardware intact. Viewers may wonder how collapsing satellite dishes and rusted-out power generators could still function after centuries of neglect (judging by the Nat Geo “Life Without People” overgrowth), but then again, this is a franchise about talking apes, so what exactly is off the table? The apes are also seen having their own power struggles, as the distorted teachings of Caesar offer explicit commentary on how religion is often twisted to fit reactionary agendas. 

Unlike Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter from the original movies or Andy Serkis from the reboot trilogy, “Kingdom” lacks that sort of gravitas with its new younger leads. Though in the younger actors’ defense, those are mighty tough acts to follow, and this new group serves the needs of the film well enough, though “Kingdom” kills off its best character way too early; even if a post-credits audio snippet suggests this may not be the case…

Overall, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” offers an engaging, slightly more YA-take on the franchise (just as “Battle…” went more kid-friendly in 1973), setting things up for another trilogy, with just enough grist in the mill to hold onto younger and older “Apes” fans. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few freaky bomb-worshipping mutants, or some other unconventional ideas down the road. One thing this earnestly good and worthy entry in the series could use a bit more of is that experimental, late 1960s perversity.

Where to Watch

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is currently only in theaters; no word on digital or physical media releases just yet.