K.P.A.

A good, but not great reboot (Spoilers)

Many generations after the last movie, Noa (Owen Teague) is a young ape and member of the Eagle Clan. One day, invaders destroys his village while and enslave his people. Noa sets out to rescue them and becomes acquainted with Mae (Freya Allan), a young human woman pursuing her own agenda. The two of them have a mutual enemy in common.

I Know Caesar. You’re no Caesar.

Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) is a tyrant who has twisted the memory of Caesar (Andy Serkis), the first ape ruler, to justify his own ambition and conquest. As somebody who loves Caesar, that irks me more than anything anyone else does in this movie. On a separate note, fans of Durand might be disappointed to learn that he only shows up past the halfway point.

The first half of the movie is driven by Proximus’ henchman Sylva (Eka Darville), who’s the one Noa develops a personal enmity towards. Sylva leads the hunt for Mae and the attack on the Eagle Clan. He also kills Noa’s father, Koro (Neil Sandilands), and Raka (Peter Macon), another character that Noa meets on his journey and my favorite part of the movie.

Raka is the sole survivor of an order who worships Caesar as a messiah figure, wearing Caesar’s window symbol around his neck like you would wear a cross. Sadly, despite the Order of Caesar’s best attempts at preserving history, several key things have been forgotten. For instance, Raka says that they call all the female humans they encounter Nova while not knowing the significance of that name. In a more humorous instance, he also has no idea what an airport is.

The Blended Genres

Much like War for the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom sprinkles in a new genre beyond the dominant post-apocalypse science fiction one. While the preceding installment was a war, revenge, and jailbreak movie all rolled into one, this one draws heavily from the fantasy genre. There’s no magic, but you have the hero’s journey, a dead parent, a doomed hometown, the wise mentor figure, and the mysterious waif.

Mae is similar to Princess Ciri, the character Allan plays in The Witcher. She is a vulnerable young woman whom the hero must protect from the villains pursuing her for their own ends. However, the twist is that Mae isn’t nearly as innocent as she seems. Her main goal is to help restore humans as the dominant species on Earth, and she is ruthless in bringing this about. 

Proximas warns Noa that humans are untrustworthy. While Proximas is hardly one to talk, he was right about Mae. Despite developing a bond with Noa, Mae spends almost the whole movie manipulating him. After being caught in a lie about her intentions, Mae tells him that her home was destroyed too, which is such a blatant bid for sympathy that Noa tells her to knock it off and start being honest if she wants him to keep helping her.

What Happens Next?

Of course, Mae never becomes unsympathetic. She clearly feels guilt for her morally questionable actions, like putting Noa and Eagle Clan in harm’s way. When he asks her if humans and apes could live together like the real Caesar wanted, she says, “I don’t know,” instead of outright refusing. Mae also accepts Raka’s necklace when Noa gifts it to her.

While Mae might be able to rethink her human-first mindset and be willing to give peace a chance, the ending makes another human-ape war seem inevitable. Something I am not looking forward to, and I say that as a slasher movie fan. I have a decent tolerance for watching the same thing over and over again. So, it’s a good thing they’ve already said this is intended to be the start of a new trilogy.

Kingdom isn’t as good as War, but it is on par with the other installments in the reboot film series. My biggest problem with the movie is the characters. I liked Raka, and none of the cast turned in a bad performance, but no one was as enthralling as Serkis’ Caesar or Toby Kebbell as Koba. I was more interested in the Eagle Clan’s culture than the characters themselves. Still, if you’re a fan, you should give this movie a chance.