KINGDOM OF THE Planet of the Apes was inevitable. After 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes amassed over $490 million at the box office and snagged two Academy Award nominations, it was only a matter of time before we were thrown back into the aftermath of the tremendous human-ape war and the death of the ape’s leader, Caesar. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is one of the biggest movies of 2024 for good reason.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does everything a great sequel is supposed to do, especially when it’s the fourth installment in the reboot of a storied franchise. It introduces a new cast of characters living in the consequences of the previous three movies by setting it 300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, the largest time jump in the reboot franchise’s history. With Caesar (Andy Serkis) deceased, the film introduces new characters like a young chimpanzee hunter named Noa (Owen Teague), a self-proclaimed ape king by the name Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) who has enslaved Noa’s clan, as well as duplicitous humans Mae (Freya Allan) and Trevathan (William H Macy). There’s no more snarly arrogance of Woody Harrelson as Colonel J. Wesley McCullough or the regal leadership of Andy Serkis as Caesar. Still, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is more than a worthy entry into Planet of the Apes lore.
By setting the events of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes far ahead of the previous three films and including a suggestive post-credit scene, this film acts as the foundation for a new era in the human-ape war. The movie’s $129 million opening weekend tally at the international box office guarantees a sequel. More than anything, it’s how Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes flips the dynamic between humans and apes that creates a world that needs more than 2 1/2 hours for us to truly explore.
What is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes about?
Set 300 years after the events of War of the Planet of the Apes, this film centers on the discovery of a human vault suspected to contain advanced human technology. One ape clan’s determination to open the vault leads to an interspecies conflict among different clans of apes, resulting in one tribe of apes being abducted and forced to work on opening the vault. Noa, the heir to the abducted Eagle clan, has to watch in horror as his village is burned to the ground and his father, Koa, is murdered by the invading militia of the Coastal Ape Colony led by Proximus Caesar.
There’s also a startling new reality for humans. After the mutated Simian Flu turned humans into mentally devolved animals in War of the Planet of the Apes, they’re now fully feral creatures whose dominance in the animal kingdom is largely forgotten. That’s why Mae, a human of sound mind, aligns herself with Noa and a few other apes to take down Proximus Caesar and retrieve human artifacts she believes can help humans escape their feral state.
The film portrays Proximus and his clan as villains but complicates that by the apes discovering that Mae’s species once held them captive in zoos. By the film’s end, the question of human and ape coexistence reappears. The ending opens the door for future films to show if humans, whom apes have dominated for centuries, can regain their humanity and live peacefully with the evolved apes.
Where can I watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?
As of right now, the only place to watch this animal kingdom epic is on the big screen at movie theaters across the country. Honestly, this is the type of movie you want to see on the biggest screens you can to understand the scope of the film’s world-building properly.
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When can I stream Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?
You’ll have to wait a while before you can kick back on the couch and stream this film. Seeing as this is the first Planet of the Apes film following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which distributed this film, you’ll likely see this film on Disney+ along with the rest of the Planet of the Apes franchise.
You can likely expect Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to hit streaming near mid-summer 2024.
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