Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Genre – Science Fiction/Alternate reality

Time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Platform: Theatrical Release

Director: Wes Ball

Many remakes have bit the bullet but some have been successful . The 21st century reboot of the “Planet of the Apes” series seems to be thriving and are box office hits, if the success of the 2011, 2014, and 2017 trilogy is any indication. In this new trilogy the premise of a virus that was experimented on apes saving the apes and wiping out almost all human makes a more interesting reason for the “ape planet” than the “time travel” premise of the original late 1960s/ early 1970s series. How the humans were wiped out by the virus was covered in the earlier triology 2011-2017.(Who could have thought that something similar would happen just in 2020 with the world wide pandemic).

Caesar (from the first trilogy) who succeeded in releasing the apes and banding them together, is dead. His values live on. Teenager Apes Noa, Anaya, Soona have to collect Eagle eggs as part of their initiation ceremony, which they do with great skill. However because of an accident Noa’s egg is destroyed and he sets out that night to find an Eagle egg. At night , his camp is attacked by renegade apes and Noa’s father, the clan leader who trains the Eagles, dies. Guilt stricken, Noa then sets out on a quest to find out where his mother, Anaya, Soona and other members of the ‘Eagle clan’ have been taken as prisoners by the attackers. En route he meets an old Orang Outang Raka who talks to him about how Caesar’s message of co-existence have been destroyed by the new clans. They are also joined by a human Nova who can converse with them. Raka dies saving Nova and Noa and the duo are taken to the camp of Proximus Caesar where another human Trevathan entertains Proximus by reading books. Nova promises that she can free all of them and destroy Proximus’s kingdom if the trio of Anaya, Soona and Noa help her.

Till this phase the story moves at a sedate but interesting pace.  After that its totally “action packed” which is fine . If at all anything sucks and it sucks big time, it’s the “Hindi filmy fight” between Proximus Caesar and Noa in the climatic battle. I vividly pictured our own Amitabh Bachchan and his ‘chain khuliki main khuliki chain’ from Satte pe Satta in the climax when he and Amjad Khan battle it out while his brothers say the ‘slogan’; here Noa and his Eagle clan repeat their grunts and calls, to a perplexed Proximus who has just beaten Noa to a pulp. (Alright. Almost to a pulp – else how can he give the grunt and call?)

The computer animation and effects are leading edge but they serve the story and are clearly not intended to dazzle for the sake of dazzling the audience (which is where many such special effects films fail – sort of “ma , look at the great effects I generated for this movie? ).

The  “voice overs” combined with the actions are simply brilliant. Noa (Owen Teague), Soona (Lydia Peckham), Anaya (Travis Jeffrey), Raka (Peter Macon), Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand)’s voices are brilliantly synchronised with the animation.

The way the film ends, it is definitely the harbinger of some nasty things to come for the Apes as the “untrustworthy human female” Nova, has found fellow humans somewhere.

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Special Effects – 5 out of 5

Total –  4.8 out of 5

PS : For those who haven’t seen the earlier trilogy Rise of the Planet of the Apes(2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) , these three films are available on Disney + Hotstar India.