Movie Review: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Finds a New Hero and Will Blow Your Mind

 This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." (20th Century Studios via AP)
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Movie Review: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Finds a New Hero and Will Blow Your Mind

 This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." (20th Century Studios via AP)

Fans of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise may still be mourning the 2017 death of Caesar, the first smart chimp and the charismatic ape leader. Not to worry: He haunts the next episode, the thrilling, visually stunning “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

We actually start with Caesar's funeral, his body decorated with flowers and then set alight like a Viking, before fast-forwarding “many generations later.” All apes talk now and most humans don’t, reduced to caveman loin cloths and running wide-eyed and scared, evolution in reverse.

Our new hero is the young ape Noa (Owen Teague) who is like all young adult chimps — seeking his father's approval (even chimp dads just don't understand) and testing his bravery. He is part of a clan that raises pet eagles, smokes fish and lives peacefully.

That all changes when his village is attacked not by humans but by fellow apes — masked soldiers from a nasty kingdom led by the crown-wearing Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand, playing it to the hilt). He has taken Caesar's name but twisted his words to become a tyrannical strongman — sorry, strongape.

Unlike the last movie which dealt with man's inhumanity to animals — concentration camps included — ape-on-ape violence is in the cards for this one, including capturing an entire clan as prisoners. Proximus Caesar's goons use makeshift cattle prods on fellow apes and force them to work while declaring “For Caesar!”

Screenwriter Josh Friedman has cleverly created a movie that examines how ancient stories can be hijacked and manipulated, like how Caesar's non-violent message gets twisted by bad actors. There's also a lot of “Avatar” primitive naivete, and that makes sense since the reboot was shaped by several of that blue alien movie’s makers.

The movie poses some uncomfortable questions about collaborationists. William H. Macy plays a human who has become a sort of teacher-prisoner to Proximus Caesar — reading Kurt Vonnegut to him — and won't fight back. “It is already their world,” he rationalizes.

Along for the heroic ride is a human young woman (Freya Allan, a budding star) who is hiding an agenda but offers Noa help along the way. Peter Macon plays a kindly, book-loving orangutan who adds a jolt of gleeful electricity to the movie and is missed when he goes.

The effects are just jaw-dropping, from the ability to see individual hairs on the back of a monkey to the way leaves fall and the crack of tree limbs echoing in the forest. The sight of apes on horseback, which seemed glitchy just seven years ago, are now seamless. There are also inside jokes, like the use of the name Nova again this time.

Director Wes Ball nicely handles all the thrilling sequences — though the two-and-a-half hour runtime is somewhat taxing — and some really cool ones, like the sight of apes on horseback on a beach, a nod to the original 1968 movie. And like when the apes look through some old illustrated kids' books and see themselves depicted in zoo cages. That makes for some awkward human-ape interaction. “What is next for apes? Should we go back to silence?” our hero asks.

The movie races to a complex face-off between good and bad apes and good and bad humans outside a hulking silo that holds promise to each group. Can apes and humans live in peace, as Caesar hoped? “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” doesn't answer that but it does open up plenty more to ponder. Starting with the potentially crippling proposition of a key death, this franchise has somehow found new vibrancy.



'Thunderbolts’ and ‘Sinners’ Top Box Office Charts Once More

Lewis Pullman, from left, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, and Jake Schreier attend the Walt Disney Studios special screening of "Thunderbolts" at IPIC Fulton Market on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in New York. (Photo Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)
Lewis Pullman, from left, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, and Jake Schreier attend the Walt Disney Studios special screening of "Thunderbolts" at IPIC Fulton Market on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in New York. (Photo Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)
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'Thunderbolts’ and ‘Sinners’ Top Box Office Charts Once More

Lewis Pullman, from left, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, and Jake Schreier attend the Walt Disney Studios special screening of "Thunderbolts" at IPIC Fulton Market on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in New York. (Photo Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)
Lewis Pullman, from left, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, and Jake Schreier attend the Walt Disney Studios special screening of "Thunderbolts" at IPIC Fulton Market on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in New York. (Photo Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)

Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” dominated the North American box office charts again this weekend.
Now in their second and fourth weekends respectively, the two films had some new competition, including a horror movie, a Kerry Washington action pic, a Josh Hartnett airplane thriller, and a Shakespeare-inspired musical. None of the additions made a significant impact.
“Thunderbolts” took first place, with $33.1 million from theaters in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. That's down 55% from its opening, The Associated Press reported. Internationally, it added $34 million, bringing its global total to $272.2 million. In just two weekends, the Walt Disney Co. release is already the fourth biggest of the year, globally and domestically.
The movie is also faring better than the previous Marvel movie, “Captain America: Brave New World,” which took a big 68% dive in its second weekend. The key difference was reviews, which don’t always dictate the fate of superhero movies, but good word of mouth has helped “Thunderbolts.”
“The holding power of this film harkens back to the heyday of Marvel,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “The currency of the long-term playability is more important than the sheer opening weekends.”
The studio also has another big movie coming later this summer in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
“Sinners,” meanwhile, crossed the $200 million mark in North American ticket sales this weekend, which is especially notable for an original R-rated movie. It added $21.1 million domestically, and $6.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $283.3 million. Next weekend, it’s also returning to 70mm IMAX screens “by popular demand,” IMAX said.
Warner Bros.’ other juggernaut, “A Minecraft Movie,” has made $409 million domestically and $909.6 million globally in its six weekends in theaters. It added just under $8 million to take third place this weekend, followed by “The Accountant 2” in fourth with $6.1 million.
Several new movies also opened in wide release this weekend, but none seemed to break through the noise. The biggest of the bunch was “Clown in a Cornfield,” which earned $3.7 million (a relative high water mark for its distributor IFC) and cracked the top five.
“The second weekend in May, there is typically a bit of a lull,” Dergarabedian said. “IFC picked a perfect date for this clown to scare people into the theater."
“Shadow Force,” a Lionsgate action pic with Washington and Omar Sy from “The Grey” filmmaker Joe Carnahan, made $2 million from 2,170 screens. Vertical’s “Flight or Fight,” starring Hartnett as a mercenary on a plane full of assassins, also debuted with an estimated $2 million from 2,153 screens.
In limited release, the Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd movie “Friendship” launched on six screens in New York and Los Angeles and scored the best per-screen average of the year ($75,317) with many sellouts reported. A24 plans to expand the release nationwide over Memorial Day.
Overall, it was a relatively quiet weekend, but thanks to “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners” and “Thunderbolts,” the year-to-date box office is up around 16% from last year, according to Comscore data. Compared with 2019, however, it’s down over 32%.
Next week, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” should give the marketplace another jolt before two giants debut over the holiday weekend: “Lilo & Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”