Rod and Karen review the latest sequel in the Apes universe, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” We also discuss movie trailers and your feedback.
Spoiled Reviews: (Protected Content)
SMR 499: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
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It’s always hard to live up to the legend of Caesar, but I thought Kingdom was really good. Definitely could’ve been cut by about 20 minutes with its pace & Proximus needed more screentime, I was mostly encouraged by what transpired. Hopefully Noa can be a little more bulky & hold his own. I enjoyed Owen Teague here. The motion capture is as good as ever, even if director Wes Ball doesn’t reach the heights that Matt Reeves did with his two Apes films in Dawn & War, it’s executed well. Looking forward to the next one.
Hey Rod and Karen. Enjoyed your review. William H. Macy is always welcome for me, but he really was pointless but I still enjoyed it. When Mae killed him that should have been a signal for Noah that though the king Caesar Proximas is dangerous and doesn’t mind killing apes, he is right about not trusting humans. Like she was gonna kill all of y’all boy. She just killed her own fellow human. Side eye. Bombastic side eye. But overall I vehemently AGREE that it was too much human. I think we aren’t as connected to Noah because of the story (for me) more than the performance. He didn’t have much of a personality, we got to see Cesar grow up and evolve over the course of the first film and have a personality and epiphany and struggles. With Noah it started out with 3 talking apes so it was already hard for me to connect. For example the orangutan character was given more personality and that actor indeed did kill it so I can’t disagree that performance matters.
On the racial aspects I agree with Rod that it may not be intentional to blackness but I do think it was an intentional choice to make this an allegory for not just religion but the battle between and all encompassing force (humans = conquering colonizers) and a group that is just trying to exist and live freely (apes = indigenous peoples). So maybe not African American but you know white filmmakers love a Native American allegory in films even if it is unconscious.
Fun fact: according to primatologist humans are apes and monkeys are not apes. I always wonder if they could pass on the intelligence and sentience to other primates outside of the ape animal category.
The movie was long feeling though. I really really enjoyed it and you simply cannot trust white women…..as written in a review on the huff post that I didn’t read but I saw did upset the whites.
All the best, Mimi
PS: I too enjoyed that Dr Strange movie.
I enjoyed this flick but throughout I couldn’t get it out of my head. Noah clearly skipped Not Like Us when other Apes were singing it smh. For me, the villain of this film was the ultimate Karen aka Meg.
I agree with Karen’s point about young people (she was pointing out African American) not knowing about their past. However, I believe that it goes deeper than that. There are real world examples of countries around the world where current generation of young people feel removed or don’t relate to past generations. It can be positive or negative, from Nigeria to Poland to India cuts across skin color. Which is why like Rod pointed out the twisting of religion and Cesar’s legacy, I think that this movie did a fine job of showing how sometimes in passing oral history it can be twisted (I’m a living example).
I’m still mad at Noah for not listening to Not Like Us. Unforgivable! Fyi first time we met Cesar, he was a baby and we watched him grow into a full leader. I’ll give Not Drake here a chance. Where’s Ape K-Dot when you need him?