The director of the trilogy Maze Runner (2014, 2015, 2018) ventures into the extensive franchise (about 20 films, television films and series from 1968 to date) of Planet of the Apes with uneven luck.
Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, United States/2024). Director: Wes Ball. Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon and William H. Macy. Screenplay: Josh Friedman, based on the character of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Music: John Paesano. Photography: Gyula Pados. Editing: Dirk Westervelt and Dan Zimmerman. Distributor: Disney (20th Century Studios). Duration: 145 minutes. Suitable for people over 13 years old.
If we take into account that the first film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston dates back to 1968, this film saga is already 56 years old. In that sense, Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom It is an attempt – not entirely successful – to recycle and restart (once again) a franchise whose “modern era” emerged in 2001 with Tim Burton’s film and had, in my opinion, a very good trilogy made up of Planet of the Apes: (R)Evolution (2011), by Rupert Wyatt; Planet of the Apes: Showdown (2014), by Matt Reeves; and Planet of the Apes: War (2017), also by Reeves.
new kingdom begins with the funeral of Caesar, the wise and brave leader of the apes in the previous films. After that prologue, the action skips several generations and his figure has been magnified as that of a prophet whose teachings are invoked again and again. But, of course, in the post-apocalyptic universe the apes reign, while humans have been reduced to a minimum and those who survived have devolved so much that many have even lost the ability to speak.
In this context of dominance of the once primates and today owners of the planet, there are, of course, good and bad. Among the first, who have even developed the art of falconry (the birds will have a decisive importance in the resolution of the film), we will find the young Noa (Owen Teague) and the experienced Raka (Peter Macon), who follows the moral precepts of César, in a clear student-teacher relationship. And, on the other side, the main antagonist will be the dictatorial and sadistic leader Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) who builds his empire by imposing fear and violence. And, in the middle, a young woman named Mae (Freya Allan) will appear, who not only talks but is also very intelligent and clever, and will end up joining Noa and Raka in the resistance to the tyrants.
If the conflict is rather basic, Ball develops it at times with action scenes achieved in their tension and suspense, but also with other passages in which the narrative is prolonged too much with statements as underlined as they are solemn. The result is a film with too many unevenness, which is sustained thanks to an imposing visual display and the impeccable work of capturing the movements (and facial features) of the apes, but which misses the dramatic power and spectacularity of the preceding films.
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