The Mosley Review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

What continues to be fascinating about this franchise is the amount of humanity that is found in the world of the apes. The amazing Caesar trilogy brought us a fresh take on the franchise that focused on the apes rising as we watched humanity fall and how much of our worldly views influenced how they would live among us. That made his trilogy special and set up a future that was ripe for exploring. This film carries that same torch and takes a very natural turn that is familiar and special in its execution. The idea of what Caesar fought for and believed in was on display of apes living together in peace, but the idea of one ape twisting his word to something more sinister was fun to watch and added that layer of drama that kept me invested. I honestly could've just watched the apes live in their village and be satisfied. The adventure doesn't take long to begin and where we are taken was essentially a rescue mission and along the way we learn what has happened many generations after Caesar. Where the film benefits is in the apes of course and when the humans are introduced it becomes a balancing act between the retrieving of the main characters' family and the humans slowly trying to reconnect with each other. It works for the most part, but there are moments where I wished it followed just the apes.

Owen Teague takes the lead as Noa in this new story and I loved his performance. He delivers so much warmth and innocence through his eyes and the compassion he has for his friends and family. I liked that he was constantly learning about the world beyond and above his village. As the film progress, he matures quickly from the young boy type to a man fighting for his clan. Its a classic coming of age story for a young warrior that works everytime. Lydia Peckham and Travis Jeffery were great as his friends Anaya and Soona. You feel the tender care and building of a relationship between Noa and Anaya that was sweet. The bond between Noa and Soona was fun and their banter in the beginning was great. I wouldn't mind another adventure with just the three of them together. Peter Macon was excellent as Raka and I loved his jovial nature. He was a wealth of knowledge that Noa needed to see and hear about and I loved the time we spent with him. He highlighted the real ideals of Caesar and he even felt like a preacher more than a historian. On the human side, Freya Allan joins the franchise as Mae and I thought she was great. The survivalist nature of humanity always bounces between the background and foreground in these films and she was no different. She didn’t take up space and I liked that for the majority of the film she was silent and showed off her physicality in conveying emotion and thought. William H. Macy was fun as a more dare I say, domesticated human to Proximus Caesar, Trevathan. He was so defeated, fearful and yet at ease with giving up the thought of the before apes ruled. He gave a different yet familiar view of stockholm syndrome. Speaking of Proximus Caesar, the very underrated and outstanding Kevin Durand delivers an incredible and dominating performance as the antagonistic king. He exudes power and ambition as the one thing he desires is yet a few feet from him. He had a vision even if it was a cruel and sometimes violent one. Through him and thanks to Trevathan's teachings, you see a complete mirror of how the Roman Empire created civilization, but in ape form.

Composer John Paesano brought to life this new look at the world in a very emotional and epic way. His score elevated the pain of loss during the bridge scene and highlighted the tension when Noah meets Proximus. Visually the film is as stunning and rich as the previous films and the CGI used to bring the motion capture performances to life is some of the best this franchise has ever seen. As I've always said since the beginning of the current wave of Apes films, I care more for the apes than the humans. If this film was solely following the journey of Noah and no humans were in it, I would be even more happy. This was still a great entry to the franchise and Director Wes Ball has done an incredible job bringing us back to the Planet of the Apes franchise. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in comments below. Thanks for reading!