KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - Andy's Review

[AndyDursin]

At least this doesn't look like another variation on "Apes running around in the dark Vancouver forest with Gary Oldman/Woody Harrelson screaming at them" -- even if the animation looks a little like they've dropped everybody into the AVATAR machine.

Personally I'd just remake the original movie at this point -- maybe that's next -- but after 2 movies of basically the same narrative line, at least this looks different (and familiar at the same time).

[AndyDursin]

Another trailer, all that's missing is some astronaut from the distant past crash landing.

[AndyDursin]

Reviews are in and they're mostly really good!

I'm up for this. WAR bored me but the change in setting and the fact we're actually getting the PLANET OF THE APES this time has me interested.

[AndyDursin]

7/10

The very definition of "servicebale," Wes Ball's continuation of the modern-day APES retains its mostly humorless, glum tone as post-pandemic apes butt heads with a few stray humans running about. The audience here follows one thoughtful simian named Noah as he tries to save his "Eagle Clan" after they're captured by the tyrannical "Proximus Caesar" who's distorting the name of the original, all the while a mysterious human girl (Freya Allen, quite good) tails his quest for redemption.

The motion capture and VFX are all solid as usual and Ball's action set pieces are mostly well done. The issue is a bloated, needlessly prolonged running time and Josh Friedman's simple screenplay, which is too straightforward and really devoid of any interesting dramatic elements to maintain audience engagement, punctuated by a near total lack of surprises.

As a result, kids might enjoy this more than the other entries, but its ridiculous 2.5 hour running time is absurd given how thin the picture is -- if you've watched the trailer, you've basically seen it all. Some smart pruning -- you could EASILY remove a half-hour from the film's slack pacing -- would have helped though there's also a nagging sense, as with the previous installment, that its adherence to a standard action formula robs the source material of its inherent inventiveness and playful elements, which even the Tim Burton film recognized.

It's cut-and-paste, comic book like action, solemnly and competently delivered, but little more.

[mkaroly]

I enjoyed the movie...the voice acting was incredible and everyone deserves props for the amount of emotion and feeling they put into their dialogue. Personally I was never bored - while the story was predictable I still found the journey entertaining and, at times, moving. I did hear the nods to Goldsmith's score in the music, but honestly the film score did not wow me - made me appreciate the uniqueness of Goldsmith's score even more (not that I needed a catalyst to do so). Between this and Godzilla x Kong (and Godzilla Minus One), I am impressed that at least where my tastes are concerned, the franchise pictures I gravitate toward were worth watching.

The one thing that irritated me about KINGDOM occurs at the end - it is a continuity thing where 'Nova' is holding something in her hand in one scene, and then in the very next the hand that was holding the thing all of a sudden is not holding anything. Stood out like a sore thumb to me and made no sense...you'll see what I mean if you watch the film.

[AndyDursin]

I just assumed she put it away but I agree, they could've just put an establishing shot there clarifying she wasn't holding "it".

I should clarify that I wasn't bored per se -- I just felt the pacing was slack. For me nearly every scene felt like it could have cut in half. There was no subtext to the film, no big reveal or surprise they were holding -- it's a movie that's very cut and dried. What you see in the trailer is what you're getting and nothing else. Which is why I felt it was a movie that would've been better as a brisker 90 minutes than a very bloated 145 minutes.

It's probably why the audience score was so low (comparatively speaking) and the worst of this run of films. There's nothing egregious about the ending that would've caused that -- except the fact it's like they're setting you up for a remake of the PREVIOUS movie where, once again, the dwindling human populace is going to fight it out with apes. We've already seen this done in the 2nd and 3rd movies of this cycle with little variance.

Also, William H. Macy's character was poorly defined and, ultimately, a totally missed opportunity to do something dramatically interesting.

[mkaroly]

Also, William H. Macy's character was poorly defined and, ultimately, a totally missed opportunity to do something dramatically interesting.

Agreed - it reminded me of Tim Robbin's character in War of the Worlds...waste of time having him there.

Also - wondering what they can actually do with the franchise instead of repeating the same stories over and over again. I feel like they need to branch out and do something like a three-part "Adventures on the Planet of the Apes" thing where the characters explore, learn about their world, learn about humanity, etc. While I was entertained by this recent film, I do agree that they are basically setting things up to reboot the last three films (which is not good).

[AndyDursin]

That's exactly my point Michael. It's like they're telling these peripheral stories around the "edges" of PLANET OF THE APES but the draw of those movies was this kind of wild, funny, black comic look at a world where apes were running the show.

Here, we're "getting there" but again it's mostly just Apes hanging on in a wild, depleted wasteland -- which I was disappointed they didn't do more with. The humans are still around -- they're just in a different place. Maybe it's leading up to something -- but it's too incremental for my tastes. Plus there is a lot of humor in those movies -- there's next to none here.

It's a series that inherently possesses a lot of imagination -- I just didn't feel this movie displayed much of it. It was a really on the nose action movie, didn't really advance the overall scenario and kind of left it twisting backwards to yet another "confrontation movie" we've seen already in this group of films. I mean, that's why I was bored with WAR, it felt like a re-run of the film before it.

This movie is well made and I liked the set-pieces. I just wanted "more", and it didn't quite deliver that.