As you might expect, given it was the prospect of the first new Planet of the Apes film in a quarter of a century that first got me wittering on about films in these here parts, any new activity from this particular franchise will naturally grab my attention quite firmly. And yet I have to say that, the buzz of a new trailer aside, I found myself feeling a bit conflicted as information about Wes Ball's Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes started to filter out. The trilogy of films that appeared during the 2010s was obviously very solid and accomplished and not a disgrace to the Apes name, but in a sense it felt like the actual planet-with-the-apes-in-charge suggested by the title never really arrived, and nor did the big ideas and allegorical stories which made the original films so memorable.

This would be a good spot to revisit Charlton Heston's words explaining why he was dubious about doing any sequels at all to the 1968 film – 'there's only the one story. . . you can further adventures among the monkeys, and it can be exciting, but creatively there is no film'. I suppose on some level I was anticipating the new film would just be another action-adventure post-apocalyptic runaround, which we could all probably live without.

Initially it looks like this may be exactly what's happening: the film opens with the funeral of Caesar, protagonist of the 2010s films (Andy Serkis, who played him, gets a credit as 'special consultant' in quite small print come the end credits), before moving forward in time 'many generations'. We meet Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee who is just about to come of age in the Eagle Clan, a group of apes living somewhere in what used to be the Los Angeles area. Apart from preparing for an upcoming ceremony involving an egg (the clan are, as their name suggests, keen falconers), the main thing concerning Noa is the disquieting possibility that feral humans may have moved into their territory.

Everyone soon has much bigger issues, however, as the clan is attacked by masked apes on horseback wielding technologically advanced weapons – there is a degree of burning and pillaging before the majority of Noa's friends and family are dragged off to parts unknown. As befits a young protagonist in this situation, Noa vows to find and release them.

The film has been solid enough up to this point, but it becomes genuinely interesting as Noa encounters an orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon) on his journey – Raka is one of the last of a sect of apes revering Caesar as the founder of their culture and their lawgiver (a deft call-back to the original series), and he retains a fascination for the relics of the old human civilisation which still litter the landscape. This sense of the past as an ominous, lingering presence and the different ways in which the characters try to make sense of and engage with it becomes one of the main themes of the film, and lift it above the level of a simple action adventure.

To some extent this extends to the new film's relationship with the franchise's history, as the duo encounter a mysterious, unusually intelligent human girl (Freya Allan) whom Raka proceeds to christen Nova ('we always call them Nova,' declares Raka, another neat gag). However, things take a darker turn when Nova and the group of feral humans she has joined become the quarry of a group of hunting gorillas.

This is a bit of a watershed moment for the franchise as it's the first time one of the 'new' movies has revisited a specific sequence from the original series, and it's done with considerable confidence, even to the point of reusing the original music cue (Jerry Goldsmith, the original composer is credited for 'thematic elements', which seems to me to be understating his contribution a little). It all underpins the sense that this is a movie which is very comfortable in the same sort of narrative space as the ones which made this series so famous.

The plot moves on the kingdom of the title, where an ambitious ape politician, Proximus (Kevin Durand) has claimed Caesar's mantle as the leader of the apes and is putting his people to work in an attempt to breach a vault containing, everyone believes, relics and treasures from the old human civilisation. Sure enough, soon Proximus is trying to recruit Noa and the others to help him in this – but what really lies within the vault, and are the surviving humans really as innocuous as all the apes seem to assume. . . ?

There is certainly a sense in which this is exactly the sort of summer blockbuster you might expect – it's a long, lavish production clearly made on a very big budget, and whatever you think of the plot and themes, the technical craftmanship on display is very nearly impeccable – the ape animation is excellent, and the post-apocalyptic landscapes utterly convincing and actually rather beautiful – one of the notions the film plays with is the idea that, from a certain point of view, the planet is really much better off with the technological human civilisation consigned to legend. This is part of a surprising degree of ambiguity built into the script – the main characters aren't strictly heroes, for they distrust each other and have radically different goals. Ancient antipathies and prejudices between humans and apes die very hard, and the question of just whose planet this really is has become a live one by the end of the film.

This level of thoughtfulness is slightly unusual in a big studio film, and is to be commended, I think – as is the decision to focus on character and atmosphere over big action sequences (not that there aren't a few of these). It's also interesting to see a film like this with hardly any well-known names attached to it – probably the most famous actor involved is William H Macy, whom I haven't seen in anything for about twenty years.

The fact that this is intended as the first instalment of a new Apes trilogy is made fairly apparent by the end of the film – while this is essentially a standalone, there are certainly some plot elements which are highly suggestive when it comes to the direction of future episodes. I'm very interested to see where they take this story next – the balance they have struck here between new and old, as well as commercial demands and thoughtful SF, will hopefully provide a template for future films in this series. As it is, this is probably the best Planet of the Apes film in over half a century.

Also Showing. . .

. . . Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, which is being advertised as a sporting romance, charting the ups and downs of a love triangle between a one-time tennis prodigy (Zendaya Coleman) and two former doubles partners (Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor) over a decade, climaxing when the two men play a crucial match with a huge amount at stake.

Well, that's certainly the plot (the film deploys a tricksy back-and-forth-in-time structure to great effect) but sporting? Romance? Not so sure. It seemed to me to be a somewhat uproarious melodrama about very self-centred, highly-sexed young people all trying to get what they want by any method at their disposal. This is not to say the film isn't tremendously well-made and entertaining, with great performances from the leads (this is essentially a three-hander), slick direction, and a pulsating disco soundtrack. Affection for or understanding of tennis is absolutely not required in order to enjoy this film.

Awix

13.05.24 Front Page

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