Let us frankly marvel at what technology can do. It can allow the gloss of an ape avatar to convey the most subtle and the most powerful of performances, complete with echoes of that human actor’s appearance, with flawless nuance. And so it is in THE KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. That same technology can also distract us for a fair bit of time before that sinking feeling arrives that the film’s writing here might not be quite as accomplished as its other elements. And that’s a darned shame. This was an oeuvre with so much promise subsumed into flabby plotting and an overly reverent sense of its own epic nature.
Like I said. Darn.
In this installment of the rebooted franchise, we are several generations on from when Caesar, the genetically manipulated chimpanzee attained human levels of intelligence and the power of speech, as did many of his fellow non-human primates. In the time that has passed, humans, succumbing to the same virus-delivered gene manipulation, lost their ability to speak as well as their higher powers of intellect. The apes, meanwhile, have assumed the role of dominant species on Earth, and are leading a pastoral life of community and peace with one another and with nature. Sure, there are the usual family issues, such as the ones Noa (Owen Teague) has with his father (Neil Sandilands), the chief of the Eagle Clan. That bird is more than just a totem, the clan raises eagles from the eggs they steal (always leaving at least one), which is how we meet Noa and his pals Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery). They’re scaling a decaying skyscraper in search of eagle eggs for the bonding ceremony that will link them with a bird for life.
We never get to see that ceremony because the night before, the village is raided by a band of gorilla-led apes who kidnap and/or kill the clan and burn their village to the ground. Except for Noa, who witnesses the carnage and vows revenge on his father’s grave. It’s more than personal. Caesar’s rule was that ape must not kill ape. Noa may have never heard of the first smart ape who kick-started ape civilization, but he knows evil when he sees it. The holes in his knowledge of history will be filled in by Raka (Peter Macon) a holy orangutan, and metaphor for all that is best in humankind, who will teach who has had his own run-in with the marauder. Noa is a willing student, but when it comes to the humans, and his own clan’s strict rule about avoiding them, he is less receptive to the wise old ape’s philosophy. The issue comes to a head when Raka shows compassion on the stray human (Freya Allan) who is following them on Noa’s quest. It forces the young chimpanzee to ask himself some mind-expanding questions, especially when the human proves that there is more to the species that even Raka can credit.
It’s all very mythic in a hero’s journey way: the adolescent thrown into his destiny by outside forces that force him to prove himself worthy of that destiny or die trying. It’s also an homage to the original film from the 1960’s, with a callback to the human-hunting scene complete with musical references recalling Jerry Goldsmith’s theme. Rather than urgently paced as that one was, alas, this one drags to the point of being ponderous. There are spectacular action sequences, but even they have an oddly inert quality, as though all involved wanted to give us all plenty of time to take in the post-human landscape dotted with familiar landmarks, and to drink in how seamlessly a computer can turn a human into an ape. There is certainly much at which to marvel. I found myself particularly fascinated by the flowing locks that streamed from Raka’s arms, and how the simulacrum of their reality survived even a thorough dunking in a cataract.
As for Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), the megalomaniac bonobo and self-proclaimed king of the apes who orchestrated the slaughter/kidnapping, he is the metaphor for everything thing that was wrong with humans, particularly when it comes to fanaticism and nascent religions. There is a point to be made here about absolute power and all that, but the rendering is heavy-handed with a scenery-chewing performance by Durand that redefines ham. It’s the outlier, fortunately, as far as thespian efforts go here. Even stereotypes (the devoted mother (Sara Wiseman), the audacious best friend, the devoted girlfriend) acquire some dramatic substance courtesy of the actors who give them gravitas in the case of Wiseman, and earnestness and teenage angst in equal measure with Jeffrey and Peckham). For further refreshment, there is William H. Macy as Proximus’ willing captive human, happy to trade food security and a warm bath for his freedom.
THE KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES finds its most intriguing character in Nova, whose motive and allegiances more or may not shift in the course of the film. Allan is just fresh-faced enough to make her empathetic, and complex enough to keep us guessing. Even if the script could use more focus, not to mention streamlining, she keeps her relationship with Noa, and his with her, a tantalizing mystery that almost saves the film in which they are stuck. And don’t worry, eventually we are given a logical reason about why she’s decked out in tattered jeans and a tank top when the other feral humans are clothed in the more traditional animal skins wrapped in all the right places to assure this film a PG-13 rating.
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