Gorgeous images, so-so story
Film critic Jason Evans has made it his mission to tell you everything you need to know about movies in less time than it takes to pound your chest. His reviews are exactly 100 words long (99 is too short, but 101 is too much). Here is his 100-word review of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
The Premise: Set many generations after the events of the recent
Apes trilogy, we are introduced to a peaceful tribe of chimpanzees living amid
the grown-over wreckage of a human city. Among the young leaders of the group
is Noa (motion capture by Owen Teague), who is an extraordinary climber. One night, while gathering eagle eggs
to raise as pets/hunters, Noa sees a female “echo” (their word for humans) who is
being pursued by a violent group of bonobos and gorillas. Noa helps the woman
(played by Freya Allan from The Witcher TV series) to escape but the rest of
his tribe is captured by the gorillas and taken back to their camp as slaves. Can
Noa and his new human friend find a way to rescue his people? The film is
directed by Wes Ball who previously did the Maze Runner trilogy.
The 100-words: With no “stars” here, you can see every penny of the $165 million budget in the jaw-dropping world-building and lifelike chimps and apes we meet. It is a wonder to behold. But, to be as good as the previous trilogy, we need a strong story in addition to visuals and that is where this film lags a bit. The characters are nicely developed but the overall plot plays out slowly and I never got a satisfying message. By the end it is clear we just spent 145 minutes setting the stage for sequels… which is ok, but not exactly satisfying.
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