A Reign too long for my liking, silence can be golden.
Last week I decided to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I can’t say I’ve truly followed the series. I appreciate the original movie starring Charlton Heston, I remember seeing the Mark Wahlberg reboot vaguely. I saw the first in the series that spawned the current iteration starring James Franco. Planet of the Apes (1968) and its twist provided thought-provoking, timeless ideas. It gives the viewer an abstract view of humanity, and the audience gets a sense of the emotion Charleton Heston (Taylor) portrays when he discovers humanity has destroyed itself leaving the world to be ruled by apes in their stead.
I did not have expectations going into Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Entertainment is subjective.
The movie generously spends time world-building and providing context for the protagonist, Noa. As a result, we follow Noa as we learn he is the son of a leader and is selfless and courageous through his actions. We also find that Noa is put into a revenge plot-type situation. We get views of the world of man long gone, mostly unrecognizable at this point giving time context for just how far along this society of apes has had to grow and how nature has adapted since the fall of man. We see the level of intelligence in the tribe’s daily tasks, a brief look at their belief system, and a heavy slice of life as we see how they live.
None of it needed broken human English to tell the story and I found it extremely distracting. I’m not sure if the other movies in the series since the 2011 reboot follow the same pacing but if I had watched one and they did, I would not have considered watching this movie. I cannot help but think that if I were forced to observe the apes and their interactions without language, I would have felt way more engrossed in what felt like the first 30 minutes of the movie. Choosing the right moment to reveal they do speak could add weight to their words and why they prefer to use language in those moments. If broken English is a must, it would make it tolerable because you understand this is a society that rarely speaks.
As a lover of comics, one thing I’ve heard time and time again is a summarized quote from Stan Lee “Every comic is someone’s first comic”. I believe a movie in a series should follow the same premise. I interpret this quote as any serialized work should be able to stand on its own. An audience’s understanding of who the characters are, their motives, and what their relationships are like are learned quickly so you can move on to the conflict or the plot.
I know from the trailer there is a human.
I also know this because I stayed long enough for them to be seen on screen briefly. I don’t know who the human was. I know it was said that humans cause trouble, and this one did so indirectly through their actions as well as per the exposition provided. At the beginning of Noa’s journey as a leading character, I decided to walk out. I didn’t feel invested. I enjoyed the fight between him and the fanatical Caesar-worshipping tribe leader. That should not be the moment a moviegoer should walk out of a movie.
It is difficult to express that level of dissatisfaction for something I can tell a large group of people put an immense amount of effort into creating.
I’ve taken one week off since initially writing this review. I did not want the conclusion to be a completely negative one.
I still agree with my initial analysis, but I think the focus shouldn’t be placed solely on this film. It’s a problem that many movies suffer from today as the film industry continues to look for established intellectual properties to make movies from.
I’m sure there are movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that a casual viewer would also have the same problem with. I imagine Spider-Man : Far From Home confused some audience members when both Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield arrived on screen.
The antithesis of this experience is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I have not watched most of the movies in the series, but it is also a post-apocalyptic tale providing social commentary on conflict and humanity. Furiosa does not speak for much of the movie and yet I wanted to follow her and see her revenge journey to its natural conclusion. I left the theater feeling like I watched a character I wanted to follow, and I saw their story arc completed even though the world around them was completely absurd. We quickly are shown she comes from a Utopian colony that is heavily protected until one day outsiders from a society that has fallen apart stumble upon a piece of paradise and that conflict carries throughout the film.
We are shown her intelligence, determination, and cunning through engrossing action and I enjoyed every minute of it.
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