Directed by:
Wes BallScreenplay:
Josh FriedmanCinematography:
Gyula PadosComposer:
John PaesanoCast:
Freya Allan, Owen Teague, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Kevin Durand, Eka Darville, Sara Wiseman, Neil Sandilands, Lydia Peckham, Dichen Lachman, Karin Konoval (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic, franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. (20th Century Studios)
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Reviews (10)
A slick Hollywood adventure with nicely constructed ape characters featuring flawless digital rendering of their facial expressions. And a screenplay rich in plot development in a beautiful, varied setting. But toward the end, there are some things in it that don’t make sense, that don’t correspond to the preceding meticulous narrative and the building of relationships between the characters or their logical behaviour. It seems as if there wasn’t time to polish the last few pages of the script.
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A script that could easily have taken 100 minutes of running time. At least in the first third of the film, the heroes are sometimes groping in a breathtakingly made visual arrangement full of crumbled skyscrapers in an overgrown jungle, and it takes a hell of a long time before it starts to have any momentum and any systematic direction in which the new Apes want to go. The umpteenth sequel, which thankfully doesn't degrade in the style of Fast and Furious and other similar mega-sagas, but still maintains a spare, relatively minimalist storyline and very reasonable action that doesn't come at the expense of storytelling. The ending got it moving solidly, but it lacked top speed. Plus, in some moments, the filmmakers took strong inspiration from recent contributions to the Mad Max franchise.
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I'm going to say it, and I'm surprised myself. Even though I'm an old boomer who grew up on the first Planet of the Apes from the late 60s, and even though I'm not a fan of the CGI serendipity of today, the direction that Rupert Wyatt took 13 years ago, Matt Reeves continued, and now Wes Ball has followed up on, is very much to my liking. While the old Apes from the 70s was becoming a ridiculous parody of itself (and an ugly one at that) episode by episode (except for the legendary first one), and Tim Burton didn't take to it happily later on either, so the current tetralogy is beautifully paced, looks beautiful, makes logical sense in how the apes evolve and take over, and the current installment is such a natural evolution in the plot that the cards are already clearly dealt. It makes me happy that in this day and age we have a film franchise that has great references and works well, which is not the norm in contemporary Hollywood, where "rhyming" is done at the top of its lungs and it usually turns out badly.
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To be honest, I have to say that I got exactly what I expected. And while I wasn't looking for a miracle, I definitely intended to enjoy a smart, good-looking sci-fi adventure at the cinema, and that's what Wes Ball delivered. This is the first installment of a new planned trilogy, so a lot of time is spent on world building (which has changed quite a bit from the last film) and introducing the main characters. And just the first scene with them is enough to blow you away, because Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes looks gorgeous, and Ball also makes great use of the attractive setting of the ruined cities that nature is taking back. But that's just the beginning. What's most interesting about Ball's new release is the ape society itself, hinting at the ways and directions in which the new civilization and each ape community is evolving. Noah is also quite a likable hero, different from Caesar and to some extent a bit more ordinary and with simpler motivations, but he serves well as a guide in the journey through a world we actually have to rediscover, as does his human partner Freya Allan, with whom it's unclear for a long time how they will work with her. The only problem is that because of the long exposition and introduction of the world, there is not much time for the plot itself, which is a bit rushed in the last third. The ambiguous villain could have done more interesting things with a better script, and the moral issues facing some of the heroes deserve more space, but again, I understand that you can't cram everything into two and a half hours. What Ball has crammed in is amply sufficient for a satisfying sci-fi adventure that can easily stand alongside the previous installments. And I hope he gets a chance to continue telling his story
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I don't see any major differences in the direction and I don't trust Wes Ball much, but for me it's another sheer blockbuster spectacle that meets the highest criteria, it's setting itself up for another excellent Trilogy (there aren't many of those in the works right now) and it will definitely be in the top 5 among blockbusters this year. Plot-wise, I like it better, the apes are in control and the humans will gradually fight to take over. The new hero Noah is likable, Freya Allan is adorable and acts great (another female star looms here), Proximus is a solid villain, visually it's a VFX gem! The action scenes have drive, tension, emotion and a thick atmosphere, in fact I was almost breathless during every scene, it's that gripping (the home invasion one was almost horror) and the whole grand finale has the necessary gusto. 100% immersion in the story with a world that still has something to offer. 85%
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