Film review: Mute feral humans being chased to their enslavement or death through the long grass by rampaging gorillas on horseback? Aww, sometimes in this 10th instalment in what is the longest-running sci-fi movie saga, it’s just like the good old days.
But despite a few sprinklings of Jerry Goldsmith’s classic score, we’re not back in the era of the first movie and its vision of a primarily primate planet just yet.
Nor are we very connected to the terrific reboot trilogy of the past decade – Rise, Dawn, War.
Kingdom is set some 300 years into the future from those three movies, which followed Caesar from laboratory chimp to warrior-Moses of the monkeys.
The long-dead Caesar is now a religious figure, his commandments open to interpretation by his all-talking descendants. A pondering of theoretical theology in developing societies is something you don’t normally get in franchise blockbusters.
It doesn’t go that deep, but the film also demonstrates that knowledge, however archaic, is power via its villain Proximus Caesar (no direct relation), a brainy bonobo who, having found himself a tutor in ancient imperialism, has declared himself top banana.
He’s also on a mission to unlock more knowledge the decimated-by-virus human population he thinks has left behind in an underground bunker.
That storyline gives off the worrying vibe of 1970 instalment and franchise nadir Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which Charlton Heston’s stranded astronaut returned from the 1968 debut and actually went nuclear.
Thankfully, Kingdom isn’t a descent into B-movie silliness. Still, it is a bit of a dip after the previous three. It starts out slowly and it runs a little long. While it resets the scene for apparently two more films, its own story doesn’t add much to the lore.
There is also something of a hole at its centre, previously occupied by Caesar and the presence provided by Andy Serkis in his motion-capture performance.
His place is effectively taken by young Noa (Owen Teague), an adolescent chimp whose clan specialise in falconry, which they use for fishing while living a peaceful pescatarian existence, possibly not far from where Caesar’s descendants ended up.
At first, it can feel a bit like life with the Na’vi on Pandora, given the early scenes involving Noa and gang in the treetops, and their faithful flying companions. Kingdom writer Josh Friedman also co-scripted the Avatar sequels, so any resemblance to Wētā FX-created tree-dwellers from another planet may not be entirely coincidental.
Inevitably, their existence is shattered by the arrival of Proximus’s troops, in pursuit of a human (Freya Allen), who may not be as dumb as she first seems. She joins Noa and wise orangutang Raka (Peter Macon) on a mission involving Proximus’s stronghold.
Other than being chased, humans don’t get much of a look-in. Which is fine. The motion-capture actor-primates, including Kiwi Sara Wiseman as Noa’s mum, are still remarkable creations.
But for all the vertigo-inducing climbing they do in this one, Kingdom doesn’t scale the giddy heights of its predecessors.
Still, if it’s not a great Apes movie, it’s good enough to make you want to stick around for the next evolution.
Rating out of five: ★★★
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Wes Ball, is in cinemas now.
