After a long shift at work, I looked to enjoy a nice movie with my co-worker to finish off the night. Yet, as I stepped through the Celebration Cinema doors, I had a weird feeling, as this movie had come out just days ago, so the poor attendance was appalling. Regardless, I kept my hopes high but was let down faster
than my popcorn bucket emptied. Let’s dive into the crazy-banana movie “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”
“Planet of the Apes” is a long-lasting s
eries of ten movies that began in 1968. As the title suggests, the plot is based on apes taking over the world and overthrowing the humans.
The main character is an ape named Caesar, the bravest and most courageous in the group, who leads the anthropoids to success throughout the series.
Director Wes Ball, however, didn’t replicate Caeser’s characteristics, as he took no risks throughout the directing of the movie. The film was very bland and boring, and a few people at Celebration Cinema even ended up leaving before the film ended. “Planet of the Apes” is well known for the action scenes between characters, yet these scenes weren’t included in the newest movie.
“I usually enjoy these movies due to the fight scenes between the apes or the apes and humans,” said senior Valentin Hernandez, “yet when I watched the newest movie, the most action we got was from the birds.”
A big addition in the newest film was a “bird ape” and he could control all birds in the jungle. This ended up being a big role throughout the script and ended up saving the new main character “Noa,” as his father is the famous “bird ape,” “Koro.”
All of these unnecessary additions made for a boring film, and it was the longest movie in the franchise, according to Screen Rant, with essentially the worst plot. The whole point of the franchise was slowly converging the apes into human society with the end goal of completely taking over. With the decline of the human population in the previous movie, “War of the Planet of the Apes,” this pattern was expected to continue, yet, in the newest movie, there are nearly zero humans left, and the apes are magically speaking English.
“It really threw me off when the apes were speaking English because in the other movies only Caesar could speak it and even he could barely say much,” said sophomore Eddie Lopez. “The apes speaking English could have been a good change, but I wish we could have watched them learn it.”
Unfortunately, the mess of this movie may lead to the downfall of the series. It was a great idea that led to many amazing movies, but after this most recent film, people may not want more from this series.
“I honestly think that this should be the last movie, just to save the reputation of the franchise, because from here, they will just be dragging along horrible plots that will ruin the “Planet of the Apes” name,” said Hernandez. “I think if anything, they could make a different series that is more light-hearted with a non-serious plot and a load of fight scenes.”
Due to the terrible outcome of this movie, it would have been better off as a video game. They added some new locations and characters that would be a great angle for a video game, but the execution in the production of the movie was poor, and I don’t recommend making the trip to your local theater to watch this snooze-fest.
