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Kingdom of POTA -- a review

I had always been a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes movies, from the moment my father took me to see Beneath the Planet of the Apes at the theater when I was very young. Beneath was the sequel to the original, seminal POTA, and it was a horror show dealing with subterranean humans who peeled off their faces to better worship their “God,” which was a super thermonuclear bomb. Just a toddler at the time, I fondly remembered my father abruptly pulling me into a tight hug every so often in the theater, and loving it then. But I didn’t realize, until much later, that my dad was actually making sure that I wasn’t staring at the screen whenever some of the still-disturbing images in Beneath occurred.

I was greatly impressed with the smartly done POTA remakes that were recently released, starting with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and so I looked forward to seeing the latest, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and I wasn’t disappointed. Taking place several generations after the reign of Caesar (played in the first remake trilogy by motion-capture acting master Andy Serkis), Kingdom is now closer to the true Planet of the Apes that we’ve always known and loved: a post-apocalyptic saga with apes at the top of the food chain.

In Kingdom, humankind has been largely reduced to half naked, animalistic savages living in the jungles, their destroyed cities forgotten and overgrown. Small settlements of apes have sprouted up here and there, including the home of Noa (motion-captured by Owen Teague), which falls under attack by the gorilla warriors from the ape Kingdom of the film’s title. Just barely surviving the attack, Noa takes it upon himself to track down the survivors of his clan and rescue them.

Kingdom is enthralling from the very first frame, having been very well directed by Wes Ball. The opening sequence showing Noa and friends traversing across one of the shattered human cities manages to out-Avatar James Cameron’s overblown Avatar films in how its both visually stunning (like Avatar) while instantly making you care for these three characters (unlike Avatar). All of the apes in this film are wonderfully well-rounded, including an extremely sympathetic Orangutan monk named Raka (Peter Macon), who worships the word of the long-dead Caesar.

Freya Allan (from Netflix’s The Witcher) is also very good as Mae, a young human woman who is seemingly another dumb human savage--or is she? Her enigmatic character’s storyline is a fascinating one that runs through the whole film, leading to an ending that’s both shocking and satisfying at the same time. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a thrilling, action-packed film that still deals with some big, heady themes, just like any good work of science fiction should be expected to. It’s highly recommended. --SF

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is available on streaming, as well as on physical media.

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