“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” Review: Those Monkeys Still Got Muscle

Owen Teague plays the chimp hero in the 10th fantasy film about evolution gone wrong

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the latest extension of Hollywood’s mighty simian franchise, moves us still further into an age — a distant future — in which the human tide has receded and the monkey has continued its advance.

Evolution hasn’t done anyone any favors. The apes, capable of speech and wearing substandard breastplates that might have been bought at a Roman Empire warehouse sale, have taken over the world. But to what end?

They’re as brutal as their former human overlords (who are now lowly creatures, speechless and sadly lacking in hygiene). They have no hospitals, no cars, no takeout, no Wi-Fi. They live in a maze of detritus that looks only slightly better than the tenements of Gangs of New York. It will take at least another 15 films before we get to something as civilized as Pickleball League of the Planet of the Apes.

Related: Owen Teague Says He Needed 'Human School' to Unlearn Monkey Mannerisms After Planet of the Apes (Exclusive)

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But Proximus (Kevin Durand), the apes' tyrannical ruler, is certain the secrets of human civilization are hidden, like treasure, in a sealed bunker. Day after day he drives his poor minions — apes captured from weaker communities — to pull down its colossal doors. He also retains one still-articulate human factotum (William H. Macy) to read from tattered old books. (Reading is and will always be fundamental, no matter what species is running the show.)

Dramatically this is good, rousing stuff. There’s a churning sense of tumult and a string of strong action scenes.

Related: How to Watch All of the Planet of the Apes Movies in Order

You have to be patient, though. The first chunk of the film, which feels like a furrier Avatar, focuses on Noa (You Hurt My Feelings' Owen Teague), a chimp in one of those weaker, soon-to-be-conquered communities.

Noa is stressed out over his relationship with his father — it appears to be complicated — and a coming-of-age ritual involving falconry and eggs. And we should care about this why? But eventually he finds his footing as a proper hero.

CGI and motion-capture technology have now gotten so sophisticated that the apes are more real than the actors playing the ratty humans — with the welcome exception of crinkle-browed Macy, fretfully and cynically servile to Proximus. Freya Allan, as Noa’s secret ally, a woman called Nova, just about squeaks by.

Expect an 11th film.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in theaters now.

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