Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Following on from the ‘Planet of the Apes’ ‘reboot’ trilogy, comes a fourth movie in the series, intended to kick off a new trilogy following the story that began in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. This movie, ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’, takes place 200 years after the events of the previous movie and places us in a world where the apes are dominant species and any semblance of human civilisation is mostly gone from the landscape. In this time period, the apes have established themselves into numerous clans and it is through one of these clans that we find our protagonist Noa (Owen Teague), a chimpanzee belonging to a clan who practice falconry.

After a brief introduction to Noa and his clan, we soon come across the villains of this movie and for once, they aren’t humans. Led by the brutal gorilla leader Sylva (Eka Darville), a group of ape raiders are traversing the country killing and abducting fellow apes, with the aim of bringing those abducted back to a waterfront settlement next to an old human vault. When Noa’s family and friends are taken, he sets off on a quest to save them, bringing him into contact with an elderly orangutan (Peter Macon) and more surprisingly, a human girl called Mae (or Nova to the apes, played by Freya Allen), who joins him on his quest.

The recent apes movies have been surprising in big budget blockbuster terms for being remarkably thoughtful and managing the tricky balance between exciting action and insightful, thought provoking drama. ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ maintains that approach, although I’d perhaps argue it is a step down in quality from the previous movies in the series and dare I say feels like it is retreading some of the themes already covered. I did like how it ponders the relationship between apes and humans going forward, although would argue that the primary antagonist in Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) isn’t all that different in outlook from Woody Harrelson’s colonel from the last film. The effects remain incredible, the new characters are good, and the storytelling remains more ambitious and challenging than your average blockbuster.

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ is a solid continuation of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ saga and while it isn’t the strongest entrant in the series so far, there’s enough here to suggest there is mileage yet in this franchise.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Wes Ball

Starring: Owen Teague, Freya Allen, Peter Macon, Kevin Durand, Lydia Peckham, Travis Jeffery, Sara Wiseman, Neil Sandilands, Eka Darville, Ras-Samuel, Dichen Lachman and William H. Macy

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11389872/