I’ve always enjoyed the Planet Of The Apes movies so when I saw a new one was coming out soon, I was not only excited but I also was looking forward to it.
For fans who have been following the recent films, this film is a bit different in its setting. It has now jumped forward many years into the future. It’s set in the same world as the other films, but feels new and different with the future world setting.
I thought that Wes Ball and the team did a great job in setting up the world and creating the setting for this story. Movies likes these have planned future sequels probably already in development and need a good foundation to build on and this movie sets future films up to be able to do that.
The world of the Apes is different, it lives in the shadow of the human world and ruins are seen all throughout the jungle like environment that the apes like to live in. The world there has gone into a second sort of dark ages too, knowledge of how the humans did things and built things has been lost and there’s only a few remaining books that are available that hold knowledge of the past.
This triggers the main villain’s motivation to find human knowledge about weapons and how to build things so that he can expand his kingdom and grow his ape civilisation. I found this all very interesting.
The movie doesn’t rush through the story either. Things unfold slowly and with a lot of time. Some may say this is a bit boring but it isn’t, it’s just that they’ve taken their time with it to set the audience up. We don’t always need fast pacing, we get that a lot of that these days.
Freya Allan who plays the only human character in the film does very well. All the apes are all animated so it must of been difficult. I think she was cast perfectly for the film. If they do make some sequels hopefully she will return to the series.
Both Owen Teague and Kevin Durand play ape characters. Owen is the hero, Noa. Kevin is the villain, Caesar. For the voice acting and also the energy they brought to the role, I thought they were both great.
The special effects and action sequences are excellent. All the recent Planet Of The Apes films have had great special effects so this film is another one that delivers on that aspect. Things look realistic enough that you can buy into it all being real.
Overall I’m happy to recommend Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes. If you are already a fan of this franchise, this is a very good option this weekend at the cinema. It’s well made, the actors are great and the story/world setting is very interesting.
The Review
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
If you are already a fan of this franchise, this is a very good option this weekend at the cinema. It's well made, the actors are great and the story/world setting is very interesting.
PROS
- Set design and world development
- Freya Allan
- Special effects
- Decent action sequences
CONS
- Some people might not be able to sit through the slower pacing
