‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ had its theatrical release back in May 2024. The Wes Ball-helmed flick serves as the fourth installment of the rebooted ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise. Cast members include Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, and William H Macy.
Produced on a budget of $160 million, this standalone sequel to 2017’s ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ became a success with nearly $400 million in box office collections. As far as the premise is concerned, the latest movie takes place several centuries after the death of Caesar.
The present generation of intelligent apes is now living in different clans, with each house following a different interpretation of Caesar’s ideology. The titular character, Noa (Owen Teague), belongs to the Eagle Clan, a tribe of apes that practices falconry.
Noa is forced to watch as his entire tribe is destroyed and its members taken captive when another group of weapon-wielding apes attacks them in the name of Proximus Caesar.
Proximus is obsessed with the old world, especially the Roman Empire, and wants to recreate the present age in his image. He has trouble accessing a vault filled with weapons left by intelligent humans during their time as the dominant species on the planet, and he commands entire clans of apes to help him open the vault’s door. At the heart of this struggle is a girl named Mae (Freya Allan), one of the intelligent human survivors, working to access an encryption key from the vault to restore communication with the rest of the world.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does a brilliant job of showcasing the different interpretations each ape clan has of Caesar’s teachings. Proximus believes Caesar wanted apes to be the dominant species by slaughtering humans and anyone who opposes them. Noa, however, is guided to Caesar’s true teachings of living in harmony with others and helping those oppressed by Raka, a descendant of the orangutan who was one of Caesar’s closest aides and friends centuries ago.
The film portrays the self-doubt Noa feels while trying to make sense of Mae’s actions. The protagonist opposes Mae’s plan to put apes in danger by flooding the entire vault, but he ends up liberating the apes from Proximus’ tyrannical rule. Viewers can relate to Mae’s character as someone who has lost most of her kind and is trying to survive in a world where apes are the dominant intelligent species.
The interaction between Mae and Noa is a wonderful example of the unity both characters exhibit to overcome the odds, despite Noa struggling to trust Mae. The action sequences are solid, but they pale in comparison to what we saw in ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’. That film is truly a masterpiece. ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ manages to convey its message that rulers with ruthless tendencies will always try to interpret ideologies to justify their actions.
Proximus is a power-hungry ruler with a maddening obsession for the vault, which he refers to as “my vault” multiple times throughout the movie. Mae’s decision to flood the entire vault, without considering the fate of other apes who drown with it, can be interpreted as her survival instinct as well as her view that the world always belonged to humans and was never meant for apes to dominate in the first place. She is determined in her cause, going so far as to kill William H. Macy’s Trevathan character for attempting to inform Proximus of their plan to flood the vault.
Credit should be given to the crew for some brilliant CGI work. The scenes featuring Noa and Eagle Sun, the eagle raised by Noa’s father Koro, are well-written and serve as a prelude to Noa’s coming-of-age, as he takes his father’s place as the leader of the Eagle Clan. In a nutshell, ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ has a great message at its core but fails to live up to the terrific storytelling of ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’.