A review of the new blockbuster movie “Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes”

Following “Rise Of ..” (2011), “Dawn Of ..” (2014) and “War For ..” (2017), we now (2024) have the fourth film in the current series which makes a total of 10 movies in the whole “Planet Of The Apes” franchise that started as long ago as 1968 (I was in the cinema then). 

This work jumps many generations after Caesar’s death from the last in the current series to a world in which apes are well-established in a variety of different communities and humans have become feral. It tells a story of how young ape Noa (Owen Teague) befriends female human Mae (Freya Allan) and defeats tyrannical ape Proximus (Kevin Durand). 

As always, it poses questions about the thesis of species superiority and the dangers of intra-species conflict. The settings – it was filmed in Australia – and the motion capture performances are impressive and the film is a worthy addition to this successful rebooting of the franchise. But, at two and a half hours, it is another blockbuster that is simply too long.