Despite the attention lavished on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and even Star Trek or the Alien universe, I feel like the science fiction franchise most consistent in quality is the Planet of the Apes. Sure, it's not without its duds (Burton's film) and lesser lights (the last original film, the cartoon, perhaps), but the Wyatt/Reeves reboot?/prequel? series of the 2010s defied sequel gravity and only got better as it went along. (To me, anyway. Some would say Dawn was the high point. Either way, War was still good.)
When Reeves left and Disney acquired Fox, I had some trepidation about where the series would go. Happily, it seems like Wes Ball has things well enough in hand, at least with this first installment. While it's not as good as the best of the 2010s series, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was more enjoyable and more substantial than any other existing-franchise entry I've seen in the theater since the end of the pandemic--though perhaps that's damning with faint praise.
Anyway, it's "many generations" after the time of Caesar. He has become a mythic/religious figure. His name is borrowed. and his legacy evoked by an up-and-coming bonobo tyrant who (like King Louie in the Jungle Book) wants the technology of humankind. He needs (ape) slave labor to get it at it and a mysterious, young human woman, so when he captures Noa's village and kills his father, the young chimpanzee makes common cause with the human.
There are hints of Beneath of the Planet of the Apes in here, and (perhaps unintentional, perhaps not) Biblical echoes with a hero named "Noa," but those are as they should be with an ape installment. The special effects are amazing, and it makes me mad the Marvel Cinematic Universe films often seem sloppy. I guess when your whole premise requires motion capture, you have to get that thing right.
I miss Andy Serkis here like everybody else, but he trained the new cast of apes well. It probably could have been a bit shorter, particularly for a film that is a lot about establishing a new conflict, but I'm not immediately sure what I would have cut.
All that to say, if you liked the previous ape films you should see this one. If you haven't seen any of the new apes films (which lately I've discovered a large group of folks that haven't) then you should see those and see this one.
You can also check out the watch and commentary Jason "Operation Unfathomable" Sholtis and I did of the much less good but still entertaining 70s Planet of the Apes TV show over at the Flashback Universe Blog.
4 comments:
I just cannot bring myself to enjoy this IP, and never have. JUst leaves me utterly cold, and it's been even worse with the newer CGI-heavy flicks It's odd how much I dislike it, considering Kamandi is one of my favorite comics of all time and was invented pretty much specifically to try to grab a piece of the PotA pie back in the day.
Maybe if it had more Roman tiger-people or something...
You like what you like. I don't know why CGI would make it worse though, given you enjoy Kamandi which is likewise just made up of drawings.
I finally got around to watching the first of the 2010s movies a week ago and was pleasantly surprised. I liked the other ones too so at some point I'd watch this.
The 70s ones were a bit hit-or-miss. After the original I liked the 4th one the most as it provides an origin for the Apes that also reflects a lot of the race riots and violence of the previous decade. The second one was a little off since they only had Charlton Heston for the end and the third one was kinda cheesy in parts with the apes in the "present" of the 1970s. The last one just didn't really have the budget to do much.
"I don't know why CGI would make it worse though, given you enjoy Kamandi which is likewise just made up of drawings."
CGI animation doesn't work for me in general, especially when it's used in place of practical effects. Something about the way I process things visually has a harder time suspending disbelief with CG imagery than even the hokiest old-school work. It's like trying too hard and still not quite looking natural is worse than obviously unreal model and makeup work to my subconscious.
Kamandi is all static images (and mostly Kirby - the last ~20 issues without him are dreadful), so that's apples and oranges. Not that the PotA cartoon (or Thundarr, arguably the closest animated show to Kamandi) are particularly good work either. Even for the era they weren't high-end animation by a long shot.
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