Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Really wanted to like this. The previous trilogy is excellent, and I'd even say it's one of the best genre trilogies ever made (LOTR is #1, of course). Dawn is especially a masterpiece of intelligent sci-fi adventure spectacle, a movie that is both exciting and intelligent. The entire trilogy is emotionally engaging and Caesar is an incredible lead.

Unfortunately, this film doesn't have any characters as good as Caesar. In fact, it feels like a lesser retread of the same ideas and themes of the previous trilogy. There's nothing really new here. You've already seen a better version of this movie before.

With that said, let me get the good out of the way first. The cinematography is excellent. The visual effects are still incredible, both as a technical and artistic achievement. The first 45 minutes of the film are really solid. There's a lot of good visual storytelling in the opening act.

However, once we meet the main antagonist, things kinda fall apart. The pacing is off. Some scenes drag, while major character moments feel rushed. There's a friction between two major characters that doesn't feel earned, especially since the characters kinda come to an understanding, and then a few scenes later they are butting heads. What could and should have been an interesting dynamic feels incomplete, like entire scenes were cut out.

The main antagonist could have been really cool. The idea of a cult-like warlord obsessed with human history, there's so much they could have done with that idea. But he simply doesn't have enough scenes to really make him anything more than Koba Part II. And Koba had better motivations and more complexity. None of the characters here are as well written as the previous trilogy and the last 10 minutes feel more like a TV finale than a movie.

Oh, and the music score is pretty generic and forgettable. Really disappointing, because I love the music from the other movies. Caesar's theme is so good. Nothing here comes close.

Anyway... Kingdom is far from terrible, but to quote another major franchise with a movie coming out May 2024: "Mediocre!"

I'm bummed I didn't love this. The visuals are as good as ever, both from cinematography to cgi it just looks fantastic. Unfortunately it falls flat mostly everywhere else. A classic hero's journey through the remnants of this universe's apocalyptic landscape is a great idea, but the journey itself is just devoid of sauce. It's bland, and often just feels like we're watching scenes checking off boxes from an adventure story. Like a movie coming out of an assembly line. Character motivations are unclear, the mc's emotional arc is unclear, and overall every idea just doesn't feel fleshed out, even when they almost have a good one. How Caesar's legacy is handled in this movie is almost interesting, but again it is not fleshed out. I will say the movie starts strong, I didn't really start turning on it til I realized how bored I was about halfway through. And that's before the third act really just frustrated me. Almost feels like we're seeing the first draft of a potentially great movie. Still excited to see where the franchise goes, but this new set of movies is off to a rough start for me.

Was so looking forward to this film even book my ticket in advance as I really enjoy this reboot series. However this one is really disappointing! While the cinematography and AI is absolutely phenomenal, the lead characters have far too human traits! And the human lead character, very disappointing & unbelievable, the casting of Freya Allan is really hammy, they obviously needed a Gen Z in the film. Too many holes in the plot, they filled up the film with stuff & missed opportunities to explore some scenarios in more depth. There was a great opportunity to give a nod to the original, when they were walking along the beach which they missed, (guess what I'm thinking)?. Perhaps it would have been better with a more focused storyline.

Are there any directors left that have watched a Spielberg movie so they can see how to pace an action adventure movie? Very few movies are actually so well written, acted and directed as to warrant a 2:30+ hr run time. This was not one of them. But with some proper editing, you could make a tight 2:10 movie that keeps things moving along.

The story wasnt bad. The characters werent bad. The acting was good enough. They just took a very long time to get to anything. Then the action picks up for a bit, things get good, it gets exciting and you get another long dull 15-20 min segment. A good editor would bring those segments down to 5-10 min and keep the movie rolling along.

I'm a big fan of all the planet of the apes, and they nailed this one. Usually when they start milking series like this, they come out bad, but with the amazing cinematography and great acting, it more than succeeded. Some movies just deserve to be watched on a big screen, and this is one of them. The movie had me intrigued, and interested in the storyline unlike a lot of other movies I've seen this year. I'm looking forward to what they will come up with after this, and I can assure you that I will be watching no matter what. Go grab a popcorn and enjoy the phenomenal graphics this movies has to offer! Godspeed.