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.
-
Political cartoons for February 7Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include an earthquake warning, Washington Post Mortem, and more
-
5 cinematic cartoons about Bezos betting big on 'Melania'Cartoons Artists take on a girlboss, a fetching newspaper, and more
-
The fall of the generals: China’s military purgeIn the Spotlight Xi Jinping’s extraordinary removal of senior general proves that no-one is safe from anti-corruption drive that has investigated millions
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
-
Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
-
Is This Thing On? – Bradley Cooper’s ‘likeable and spirited’ romcomThe Week Recommends ‘Refreshingly informal’ film based on the life of British comedian John Bishop
-
A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars – history at its most ‘human’The Week Recommends Alwyn Turner’s ‘witty and wide-ranging’ account of the interwar years
