KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2024) – Another attempt to reboot the series

Once again Hollywood has resorted to “reboot” another successful science fiction series. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes attempts to a new series of movies under the franchise of The Planet of the Apes. Never mind that this was already done to some level of success relatively recently with the trilogy which began with Planet of the Apes (2001) followed by Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). Now with the 10 years gap, the film makers takes us several generations after the last movie removing the bulk of any linkage to the earlier movies.

The supposedly new story takes place many years after Caesar, the ape leader in the earlier series. The series had always been a fascinating look at the possibility of a future world that is taken over by intelligent apes and how life would be like for humans living under this situation. It was disappointing for me to find this latest entry take a step backwards from this direction and focusing instead on a story that frankly can take place a familiar post-apocalyptic scenario involving rival tribes. We could have easily removed the whole apes getup and replace it with humans. Human are supposed to have undergone some level of de-evolution but yet we find a main human character that defies this principle. This is somehow explained indirectly from the film’s opened ending but I have to admit that this conflict in logic was distracting to me.

On the plus side, the CGI technology used combined with motion-capture performances of the actors to depict the apes was remarkable and very realistic. The expressions and emotions of these ape characters came across naturally. The set locations in the jungle and ocean coasts were also effectively CGI enhanced. Many of the action sequences were very well choreographed and filmed. All these technical excellences made up for the film’s short coming in the story line to some extent. The film’s open-ended conclusion was to be expected since they are trying to reboot the series with a whole new set of stories. However, I didn’t buy it as it was too much to take in within just a few scenes. The sudden introduction to a whole new scenario raised too many questions. The cliff hanger effect is lost without the benefit of being provided a bit more background to what we are witnessing in the final scene. I for one will not be holding my breath for the next installment.