P-R FIlm Review: "Kingdom" another solid entry in 'Ape' reboots

Jane Goodall’s account of the Gombe Chimpanzee War in mid-1970s Tanzania is one of the

most haunting things I’ve ever read.

Hearing Goodall describe formerly docile chimps committing brutal acts of savagery against other chimpanzees young and old feels, for some reason, even more heartbreaking than hearing of that same violence among humans.

Perhaps that’s because we like to imagine chimpanzees and other such animals as lacking that “edge” that we humans seem to carry.

But there’s the rub: That the same spark that led humans to build civilization also led us to kill for it.

This question of who gets to be in charge and, indeed, what weights and responsibilities come with that make up the moral core of the original “Planet of the Apes” film and its many sequels.

And that theme continues in this year’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

The fourth film in the series of reboot “Apes” films that began with 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, “Kingdom” takes place 300 years after the events of 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes.”

The charismatic Caesar, the lead chimp of the remake series, is long dead, but his lessons and morals continue to hang over the tribes of intelligent apes that inhabit the film’s world.

The plague that was spreading in “War” has left humanity as the apes once were: mute, feral and treated by the apes as beasts.

The lead ape of this film is Noa, voiced by Owen Teague, who lives among a tribe of bird-tending apes. But Noa’s peaceful tribe is raided by a violent band of masked apes who abduct Noa’s friends and family, leading him to head off to find this other tribe and rescue his kin.

The first thing that will likely strike any viewer new or old to the series are the film’s simply breathtaking visuals. It’s no wonder that the visual effects team is the same that helmed 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

Both films just leave you with no earthly way to tell what might be props and what’s computer generated. The way that the light scatters across the flesh and fur of the apes is just astounding.

Fortunately, the effects are wrapped around a much more captivating story in this film.

Where the questions of survival and morality felt a bit, well, alien when tied to giant blue people, they feel much more profound and heart-wrenching when seen through the eyes of the apes.

You can’t help but feel a chill hearing Noa speak of the humans he encounters as we might speak of a pigeon or a rat.

And, far removed from the sideburns of the original “Apes” film, the pitch-perfect visuals really sell that it’s a chimp saying these things.

That being said, the best part of “Kingdom” are those quiet vignettes toward the middle of the story that show us little glimpses of this world.

The main “good chimps vs. bad chimps” plotline offers few new revelations and feels far more thin than Caesar’s solemn scenes with Woody Harrelson’s Colonel in the last “Apes” film.

Speaking of the Colonel, it should also be said that this film is far less grim than “War” was, acting more as a sci-fi than a war film.

But you can still feel the fairly cliche final battle between Noa and the main villain of this film coming long before it hits.

And part of that might be that Josh Friedman, the scriptwriter for this film, also worked on the story for “Avatar: Way of Water.” The two films share uncannily similar story beats, especially in the third act.

That being said, I love the modern “Apes” remakes. They’re fun popcorn films with occasional glimpses of profound questions about ape and man alike.

And “Kingdom” carries on that exact legacy.

I give “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Have you seen “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”? What did you think? Email Ben Rowe at browe@pressrepublican.com with your thoughts and takeaways.