Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) Review

 "What a wonderful day!"
-Proximus Caesar



After his clan is kidnapped by another group of apes, Noa (Owen Teague) sets off on a dangerous journey to free his friends and family.  On his quest, he comes across apes and humans and not all of them can be trusted. 

Spoilers below!  I was a big fan of this movie, but I can't really talk about it without getting into spoilers.


What Works:

First off, the CGI looks absolutely incredible.  Even when compared to the last three films, this one looks great.  It's really amazing how easy it is to get lost in the world of this movie.  Great work!

The performances are excellent across the board.  Owen Teague does a great job as our main protagonist.  He's really likable and it's fun to learn more about this world through his eyes.  Both Kevin Durand and Peter Macon also do great jobs.  Durand is a fun and charismatic villain and Macon is perfect in the mentor role.

I love the role of the main human character, Mae (Freya Allan).  I was expecting her to be a typical mute human like we saw in the trailer, but the filmmakers really pulled the rug out from under us with her character.  Not only can she speak, but she's very intelligent.  She's more of a spy and assassin than anything else.  It's a character I wasn't expecting in this movie at all.  I love that she's someone we can't trust and we never really know what she's up to.  The dynamic she has with Noa is my favorite part of the film.

The 3rd act flooding sequence is an absolute blast.  It looks great with some excellent cinematography.  The fluidity of the action is a lot of fun.  It's a solid setting for the finale and has some great action beats.

Finally, this move does a great job of setting us up for the next movie.  The ending sets up a future conflict between the humans and the apes and with the interesting and contentious dynamic between Noa and Mae, I'm really excited to see where they go in the next movie.


What Sucks:

I do think that some aspects of the film could have been expanded upon more.  It would have been nice to learn more about the culture and dynamics of both Noa's clan and Proximus' kingdom.  I think that would have helped inform the characters and the decisions they make a little more.


Verdict:

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is another worthy entry in the series.  It's probably the most similar in tone to the original movie and it earns its place here.  I don't think it's quite as good as the previous three films, but it's close thanks to some great acting, amazing CGI, and a fun 3rd act.  Some parts could have been expanded upon, but this movie has still definitely got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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