Today I will be doing a spoiler-free review of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. This movie is set 300 years after the original trilogy and the reign of Caesar. Apes are now the dominant species and humans live in the shadows, and it’s now been like this for so long, that apes don’t even know that humans used to be the dominant species. The main ape in this movie is known as Noa, and he goes on a journey that leads him to become friends with an advanced human and learn many things about the past that affect the present. The name of the more advanced human is Mae/Nova, and I think she does a very good job portraying her emotions in a world like this, without even having to talk very much. The writers also did a very good job at making me interested in Noa and his new journey, especially since they had to follow up the Caesar trilogy, they made Noa feel like he could be just as special one day.
The villain of this movie is Proximus Caesar, who tries to twist Caesar’s beliefs into his own agenda to rule his kingdom. I was a major fan of his character, as he was insane and the way he went about his beliefs were totally wrong, he also kept making points throughout that would eventually show to be true by the end of the movie. Proximus also has many great quotes that I still use unironically two weeks after seeing the movie. The only other character worth mentioning is Raka, who is an older Orangutan who shows Noa the way throughout his journey. Besides the one I’ve mentioned already, there really aren’t any other characters worth bringing up that had a big enough impact on the story. Besides the characters, I loved the story that they did for this, and I think it set up a lot of potential for the rest of this upcoming trilogy. The action was very good when used, as it was very fast paced and always had a lot of impact. The most impressive feat about this though has to be the cinematography. Every shot and every scene looks absolutely stunning. When the apes are by themselves, when humans are there with them, with the huge set pieces, everything just looks perfect and nothing looks out of place at all.
I always rate movies and I rate them based on 10 things in the movie. Those things are: action, acting, cinematography, pacing, score, characters, ending, plot, protagonist, and antagonist. I rate all of those pieces 1-10 and then after that, I add up the scores of all 10 of them and get a total score out of 100. I gave this movie an 84/100, and like I’ve said a lot of things in this are at least pretty to very good. However, besides the cinematography, I don’t think anything is perfect, and the pacing definitely could be better, which is one of the biggest things that brings down this movie.
Jeff • Jul 11, 2024 at 1:31 pm
I believe Nova was the villain. Representing all of humanity. She was shown tenderness affection and kindness by the apes who knew nothing about her or her mission. They fed her and kept her warm with no thought of a reward for their actions. They never lied to her and risked their lives trying to save her. All the while she had alterior motives. She lied stole and used them from the very beginning. She put their lives in danger without ever even warning them. And that was just in the first half of the movie. Then after finally getting into the mountain and getting the drive, she thanks them by trying to drown his whole village. Then, finally, you think she might redeem herself in the end when going to say farewell to Noah but does she. No! She has a gun behind her back thinking the worst about this Ape that risked his life throughout the whole movie trying to keep her safe. She represents man’s unwillingness to let go of evil and revenge and selfishness. We haul it with us wherever we go unable to just let it go and live free like the apes that saved her life.