Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is solid and shows no sign of letting up

The first three Planet of the Apes movies, in this revamped series were all remarkably consistent in their quality. They were films that I personally enjoyed, in addition to achieving great commercial success. Because of that, I was concerned about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The negative headlines to reviews of the potentially subpar film wrote themselves in my head, An Ape Too Far, Forescore and No Apes More, There’s Nothing to Ape About This Film, and other erstwhile clickable titles that would be glib and hinted at my disappointment in the movie.

However, not since the Harry Potter movie series has a franchise produced so many films consistently, with roughly the same characters, and has continued a high level of quality and entertainment. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth film in this series, the tenth movie overall, and stretches every conceivable positive metric forward, or doesn’t back off from its previous highs, for the most part.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place centuries after Cesar has died. His legend has grown during that time, and he’s become a cult figure, with some viewing his legacy as more of an oracle and others from a more aggressive point of view. Apes are the dominant species and the plague that was making human beings mute is still raging around the world. Humans roam the countryside in packs while apes live in communities created around the remnants that humans built.

Because of all of that, this Planet of the Apes film has a different feel than the previous three. There was never any doubt as to if the apes would rule, it was just a matter of how. Now, they have to wrangle the same pitfalls that humans dealt with, albeit in their own particular fashion. This film isn’t as dark as the one’s that proceeded it. The first quarter of the film focuses on a particular tribe of apes, their social structure, their rites of passage and their bonding. It lays clues about the greater ape world and those who aren’t as peaceful as them, with them taking center stage in the second quarter.

That’s also when the human in the story appears and the main plot arc is revealed. It is great not to know anything about this film. I didn’t know any of the spoilers about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and that’s the biggest difference between this one, and the previous three. In those films you knew what was going to happen, but were along for the quality and the storytelling. In this film there are genuine twists that will surprise you. The reveal has parallels to the classic Apes movies, but doesn’t recycle plot points.

Cynical movie fans might point out film is just an inverse image of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. They certainly have a point in that observation, but it’s the fact that this movie is so much fun that it supersedes that argument. This movie is very different and has genuine moments of laughter. There are multiple apes that you will care for, whereas Cesar was the sole ape recipient of any caring emotion in the first three. Kingdom also benefits from being the first film out of the gate for what feels like a new trilogy. The characters are unknown but taken from the template that made the ones successful to previous audiences.

It’s the writing and pacing that will reward audiences who see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. By this time, you expect the special effects to be great, and they are. There were only a couple of moments of blur and that happened in the first couple of minutes. In hindsight, it might not have even been blur, but rather my eyes expecting to see flaws in the special effects. For eagle-eyed viewers, there is a continuity error in the final five minutes that both my son and I noticed, but won’t derail the film’s overall enjoyment.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a film that nails the technical merits and will entertain you over its 145-minute run time. That’s two-and-a-half hours that I was not tempted to look at my phone, chat with my son, or get something to eat. More striking than that is that I didn’t use the bathroom before the movie, had to use the facilities when it started, but waited until after the film’s credits had rolled. There is no post-credit scene. The era of Marvel movie dominance and their post-credit scenes are over. In their place, we’ll hopefully have story-driven movies that use special effects to make impossible things seem not so untenable, especially in the case of this film.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is rated PG-13 for violence.

If you’re an old school fan of Planet of the Apes and haven’t see this clip it’s worth a view.