Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

➤Rated PG-13
➤Theaters

Hollywood returns to one of its most iconic worlds with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes—the 10th movie in the Planet of the Apes franchise and the fourth in the reboot that began in 2011. But don’t worry about getting up to speed on 56 years of ape lore. This new film offers a soft reset that doesn’t require much background knowledge.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place hundreds of years after the trilogy of movies that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Those movies chronicled the adventures of a chimpanzee named Caesar who established the ape society after a man-made virus killed off most of the world’s humans and simultaneously increased the intelligence of the world’s ape population.

The hero of this new installment is a young chimpanzee named Noa (Owen Teague). His clan lives secluded from the rest of the world—afraid to cross the borders of their land. But the wickedness of the world eventually finds Noa’s home, bringing with it disaster and heartbreak. Noa, along with an older orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), sets off on a quest to alleviate a great injustice, and along the way, they pick up a stray human (Freya Allan) they call “Nova.” But Nova surprises the apes when she reveals that unlike most of the other humans in their world, she’s not a dumb animal.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and a few instances of bad language. The movie’s story arc follows a familiar pattern, and the plot revolves around the franchise’s age-old question of whether apes and humans can trust each other.

Despite retreading old ground, the film contains new delights. The otherworldly visuals are beautiful, and the new characters possess surprising depths. Also, setting the action hundreds of years after the events of Caesar’s trilogy opens up interesting themes in the narrative.

The memory of Caesar’s deeds has started to fade. He’s become a figure of myth, and his legacy is up for grabs. On the one hand, care­takers of Caesar’s teaching claim the ape founder espoused decency, morality, and compassion. On the other hand, a new ape king calling himself Proximus Caesar champions strength and ape solidarity, claiming the original Caesar wanted to eradicate humans. He plans to build a kingdom of ape slaves for his own power and glory.

A sort of religious duality exists between the true followers of Caesar and the villainous Proximus Caesar. In fact, Proximus isn’t merely a villain. He’s more like an anti-Christ figure, standing in the place of the apes’ venerated hero, pretending to be Caesar. He parrots Caesar’s teachings, but he twists them, hoping to give himself unassailable power.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes gives the viewer much to think about. It asks whether we can trust those who aren’t like ourselves. And how should we respond when we realize others don’t trust us? It asks us to ponder whether truth and knowledge are mere commodities to be hoarded for the advantage of ourselves and our in-group. Or should knowledge belong to everyone equally? We see the damaging effects of tyranny, and we see differing responses to that tyranny.

These characters are wrestling with thorny problems in a harsh, yet lush, world. One of the greatest strengths of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that the filmmakers resisted the temptation to wrap everything up with a neat and tidy bow. The movie has a definite conclusion, but an intriguing tension persists after the credits start rolling. That tension will undoubtedly lead to a sequel, which I hope turns out as thought-provoking as this one.