Going through a week or so of Apes movies has conditioned me into becoming skeptical of everything coming after War. Of what I have seen, everything is consistent and solid thematically and formally. The Reeves movies especially are exceptional blockbusters that double down on the misanthropy of the original films, much bleaker and darker, which can be tiring to have to sit through (how many “can humans coexist with apes?” questions can we get before we get tired?). And it does get tiring after a point, but the Apes franchise breathes new life into its political texts, almost always offering something new to explore and ponder. So to say I had some high expectations for this film is an understatement. The night before I had watched Escape from The Planet of the Apes with my girlfriend and it got me thinking about how much I loved it when the apes talked. Minor detail to get hung up about I know, she said she preferred the practical aspects of the originals, they felt akin to a stage-play, and I agree wholeheartedly. However I think I much appreciate the work that went into the 2010s Apes trilogy (she does too) and I think it’s incredible that the Apes movies in general seem to whisk you away into these worlds just by costuming and makeup and now even motion capture. Escape was much more lighthearted, more silly, and incredibly 70s, but it still retained those intriguing and familiar themes that make their home in the franchise. And that ending, Cornelius and Zira being shot by the police, not being able to prevent the end of the world in the distant future, was incredibly bleak. Suffice to say I think Kingdom channels this sort of energy. It feels akin to the original Apes film (even referencing the human hunting scene in the first) mixed with the more recent ones. Fitting since it is a sequel to War.
The film picks up where War left off, Caesar dying and being honored by his colony. We hold on the window pane icon and fade to black. Many generations later the world is apocalyptic, covered in lush greenery, abandoned buildings, and remotely no sign of humans — or echoes as they are known by the eagle clan. Introduced to us are three apes — Noa, Soona, and Anaya — who have a dynamic that my girlfriend said felt like a YA group dynamic (namely Ron, Hermione, and Harry Potter). They are scavenging for eagle eggs, which is part of a larger ceremony/coming of age for their clan, when a human scavenger follows them home. Kingdom is richly detailed in this sense, it’s incredible seeing this kind of attention to detail to the individual ape clans, since we only saw one colony in the prior trilogy. This opening sequence of the apes climbing decrepit buildings covered in foliage feels reminiscent of a video game (positive), and for the most part a majority of this opening sequence of landscapes and lush greenery feels like that. What came to mind was the scenery in Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Last of Us, I’ve seen a plethora of people say it does feel like a PS5 exclusive in the first half and while I agree I don’t find it to be an overwhelming negative. It’s paced in such a way that it cruises through this section at a rather methodical pace. What caught my eye in this section was the great attention to detail to how characters reside in frame, their positioning, the lighting, the incredible attention to detail to their mannerisms. It gave me the same feeling I had when watching Avatar: The Way of Water, just incredibly reminiscent of a Cameron film — Swashbuckling adventure that was sorely missing from big budget blockbusters.
Once Raka shows up it becomes evidently clear what the film wants to tackle. Religion and myth are central elements of the entire Apes franchise, the original Apes movie sees the apes’ colony function as a theocracy, and since this is set some 1700 years before the original film (if we are to believe these are all firmly placed within one timeline) it’s so fun seeing this develop. Though, as we see later, Proximus Caesar twists the words of Caesar to create a kingdom reminiscent of feudal systems and even Rome (as mentioned in the film). He takes these clans captive to enslave and force them to do manual labor for the sake of advancement, but at what cost. Erasure of culture at the expense of progress that, for the most part is well intentioned, seeks uniformity. Most of the film sees this struggle between ape and human become increasingly more hostile, as Mae (the scavenger), tricks Noa and his colony into aiding her for dubious means. Furthermore it explores these tensions while never really losing sight of the bigger picture: can human and ape live together? William H. Macy’s character assimilates into the ape society and accepts that they now dominate the earth, but Mae does not. He aids in further perverting Caesar’s doctrine, the phrase “Apes together strong” becomes a symbol of utilitarian society, rather than a symbol of community like it once was. The film is not biblical like War, but is more aligned with how we in our modern times view the bible or even myth in general. So far removed from what actually happened that the entire central conflict becomes rather petty when you think about it for longer than a few seconds. That isn’t to say it’s a bad conflict, rather that it communicates that religion can be incredibly untrustworthy to base your entire society on. If we can even call Caesar’s doctrine religion, myth maybe. What is our place in this world? Man dominates ape, man destroys itself, ape dominates man…ape destroys itself?
