Thank the movie gods for Kevin Durand. He literally swings into the picture at the halfway point, and brings a charisma and energy that the film sorely needs.
To its credit, this film tries to extend on the themes of the previous reboot trilogy, particularly the focus on the ape paranoia around human motivations.
Most intriguingly, it sets up the idea of Caesar’s influence, moving from a flesh-and-blood being to a vague idea that is used and perverted in different ways.
The big problem is lead Noa (Owen Teague).
His motives are hard to track.
He starts as the son of the clan chief.
He seems to feel like he cannot live up to his father, but he seems incredibly capable of whatever task is put in front of him.
He gains some drive when his father is killed and his clan are kidnapped, but he is too reactive.The film also cannot find an angle on humans.
The film tries to create a sense of ambiguity but May, in character and performance, is a little bland.
The characters have little rapport, which makes their journey a little aimless.
The one character who makes this section interesting is orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), a historian of the dead human world.
Sardonic, worldly, slightly full of himself, he is a worthy successor to Maurice from the previous trilogy.
A hermit, his awkward social interactions with Noa bring a welcome dash of specificity and weirdness to the movie.
One wishes he was in the movie more, but then the characters meet Proximus Caesar.
Kevin Durand gives the warlord a swagger and thuggish menace. Suddenly the movie seems to elevate, and to reorient itself around him.
Why does this franchise cast Bonobos as the villains? Koba made sense as a result of human cruelty.
Proximus lusts for power and sees human history and technology as his prizes, and a way to launch apes beyond them.
If these films were realistic Proximus would not be planning world domination, but having sex with everybody.
It is hard to see where this franchise is going.
The finale teases another confrontation with humans , but that hook carries far more dramatic tension than this episode.
If the film has a hero, it is director Wes Ball.
His direction elevates the film’s set-pieces, and gives a sense of dynamism to some scenes.
There is a sense of tangibility, particularly to the action:
Noa’s running escape/fight with Proximus’s gorilla henchman Sylva (Eka Darville) is remarkable for the way water and light play on the apes’ fur. It feels so tactile.
Visually, Kingdom is sumptuous, but it lacks any real dramatic or thematic weight.
Frustratingly, the final cliffhanger teases a story with conflict that should have been the foundation of this movie. Frankly this information should have been a part of the film. As is, Kingdom feels like a fill-in episode in a bigger story, like a comic book or novel that offers a little more context to some other story.
In this respect, the film strays toward Marvel territory - Proximus never comes across as a major antagonist. He is rendered a minor threat, undermined at every turn to set up whatever the bigger bad ‘un is in the next picture.
