The latest installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot takes place 300 years after the reign of Caesar. The film follows the young ape Noa (Owen Teague), who crosses paths with a teenage girl on his journey to find freedom. Caesar, the central figure of the previous trilogy, is far from forgotten: his character’s world view threads through the story in the form of the fables and dogma that Noa’s new ally, Raka (Peter Macon), learned as a young orangutan and shares with his friends. With visual effects on par or better than its 2017 predecessor, the Oscar-nominated commercial and critical success War for the Planet of the Apes, this film is also a thoughtful drama with topical themes. Freya Allan, who plays the human, Mae, is best known for her breakout role in the Netflix series The Witcher.
“What makes Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes powerful, in the end… [is that] it probes how the act of co-opting idealisms and converting them to dogmas has occurred many times over.” — Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
“Sincerity and conviction are now rare qualities in the blockbuster field, but this is a film that puts its monkey where its mouth is.” — Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
Wes Ball
Patrick Aison, Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa
Freya Allan, Owen Teague, Peter Macon, Kevin Durand, William H. Macy
United States