Wow… I can’t believe the way that I am feeling with the latest Planet of the Apes movie titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The newest entry, directed by Wes Ball, finds a new clan of apes set generations after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes who is now living peacefully in their community. When a new clan lead by Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) steals his people, Noa (Owen Teague) sets on a quest to free his people along with the help of a human named Mae (Freya Allan) and an orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon).

Before going to see an early screening of the film, I felt like it would be best to finally see the original series, and rewatch the latest material to a better critic of the overall franchise. The franchise starts off very strong with its original and torpedoes in its quality throughout its remaining original series. Luckily, we had an amazing trilogy that makes up for lackluster Mark Wahlberg version. With the latest trilogy having such great quality and ending on a high, how could this franchise possibly continue? Fortunately, this film answers that question.

Needless to say, I have been a fan of the franchise since seeing Dawn. I really should have seen the others a lot sooner, but there was something so special about the trilogy that I felt content with. Adding Wes Ball as a director made me nervous to say the least when considering his previous work on The Maze Runner trilogy, yet seeing the marketing of the film and Ball’s comments on the franchise made me hopeful. I came across the director’s reddit’s Q&A recently and it became abundantly clear that this man loves the franchise, and it is shown on screen from start to finish.

When the film opens up, I immediately got emotional, because of my connection with this franchise. It’s a nice way to honor the original trilogy, while letting you know that we are moving forward. The story is incredibly unique here. Just as you think things are going one way, it instead goes into another, which make the film an exciting to watch. The film follows a new character named Noa, who is the perfect new character to introduce as he has a lot of similarities to Caesar. As he embarks on his quest, you can see where he can connect on a human level, much like Caesar, and that’s where it’s easy to connect with this new character.

As the longest running film in the franchise, you have to be sure that it counts, and for the most part, it does. There’s maybe a few things that I would personally take out and they all involve particular side characters that have no real character development and only drive the plot. Without diving into spoilers, there is one character that I felt like could have done more to explain his decisions, yet they are only placed to serve the plot and one singular main character. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the film by advancing the story for a new generation, while honoring what came before.

As we saw before, the visuals for the apes, in particular with Caesar were phenomenal. What’s great here is the fact that the film primarily focuses on the apes. There’s hardly any human characters. The fact that they can achieve such visual detail without missing a beat shows that the people making this are pouring their heart & soul into this. At times, I felt like this world would be perfect for a video game due to its grand landscape thanks to its cinematography and production design. They really immerse you into this world effectively.

One of my concerns going into the film was the on-screen talent. In the past, we have always had the perfect casting of Andy Serkis, and we also always had at least one famous actor in each movie. That was not the case here. We have a brand new actor, played by Owen Teague, taking on the main role, along with Freya Allan taking on the main human role. It’s hard to market a film where there’s not any recognizable faces; the film succeeds in its direction and storytelling. After this, Teague & Allen are going to be big! They are insanely good here. You can see where these characters have to go back and forth with their motives, not because they are bad, but because of this world they live in. They have the right motives, yet it doesn’t mean they are universally correct, which makes for a terrific dynamic, especially when you put Peter Macon’s character in to ground the two.

One aspect that I was surprised by in the film is how the film honors everything that came from before it from playing music from the original movies to its themes. I really love this franchise, not because of its action and characters, but because how they each have integral themes to relate to today. The villain, Proximus Caesar, is the best way to keep the franchise going. We all know the real Caesar from before, so to see someone else twist his legacy into their own good even can relate to today and how people try to manipulate one’s legacy for their own benefit. Mentioning of the character, Kevin Durand is menacing in this role. He has rather a brief amount of screentime, yet I’d say I haven’t been this excited for a villain in a science-fiction franchise of this caliber since Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Finally, without any spoilers, I want to bring up the finale. While I wouldn’t say that it negatively impacted my view on the film, the conclusion and the way things are wrapped up does feel a bit too corny. It just goes on a bit too long and tries too hard to get you excited for the next movie instead of giving you a contained story.

Overall, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes really surprised me. It is effective from its performance to the story to the visuals to the action. It continues to serve an important piece in the overall new series as way to continue Caesar’s legacy and shows why keeping history accurate is vital. While it is not perfect by any means, this is the kind of blockbuster that I think everyone wants to see in the theater.

VERDICT: Amazing