Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: a solid summer blockbuster
It might be 'a bit silly' but the effects are excellent
This is "the fourth film in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise, and while the term 'reboot franchise' might make you want to swing quickly from the trees in the opposite direction, it's actually not bad", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail.
Set hundreds of years after the last film, the narrative centres on Noa (Owen Teague), a kindly, intelligent chimpanzee who sets out to find his tribe after they are captured by the tyrannical Proximus (Kevin Durand) and his army of thugs. "It's a hairy expedition in more ways than one." But, on the way, Noa befriends the wise (and apparently gay) orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), and meets a human (Freya Allan), who "turns out to be one of the few of her kind who can talk".
Perhaps inevitably, it is all a bit silly, and the film does get bogged down towards the "blessed end", which comes "almost two-and-a-half hours from the start". But the "effects are excellent" and, on the whole, director Wes Ball "does a fine job". I do worry, though, about the "dispiriting prospect" that, as the franchise continues, we might end up with a film called "The Realm of the Empire of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes". Fingers crossed not.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The "action bits" are perfectly fine, said Kevin Maher in The Times; but the film's hero is "dreary"; the "CGI chimp faces" are "bland and synthetic"; and the closing sequence (as in so many franchise films) abandons the central plot in place of a "set-up for the next instalment". Well, I found the film "thrilling", said Wendy Ide in The Observer. The motion-capture performances are top-rate, and the world it depicts looks "phenomenal", with abandoned tower blocks jutting like broken teeth, and "the decaying carcass of a container ship". As summer blockbusters go, this is "top quality" stuff.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Wikipedia: Is ‘neutrality’ still possible?Feature Wikipedia struggles to stay neutral as conservatives accuse the site of being left-leaning
-
A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
-
Diane Keaton: the Oscar-winning star of Annie HallIn the Spotlight Something’s Gotta Give actor dies from pneumonia at the age of 79