No spoilers review for KotPotA
I saw Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last night and it was WONDERFUL!
Opening scene made me cry 😭 APES TOGETHER STRONG!!!
Noa is the sweetest ape with great potential to become a leader like Caesar. His journey was exciting and emotional. He really leveled up in the third act showdown. Owen Teague is perfect casting—incredible performance, great physicality and voice. I saw and felt his every emotion. He was surprisingly funny too, especially in his scenes with Raka and Mae. Loved his subtle attitude. LOVED that he had beef with a bird.
Anaya and Soona are good friends for Noa and I appreciated some focus on a female ape who actually speaks. Anaya is loveable comedic relief and Soona is a badass. Also, her character design is so pretty.
Koro and Dar were kind and loving parents. It’s unusual for main characters to even have parents in these epic stories, so I appreciated their inclusion, as short as their scenes were. Wished we learned more about Koro. The Master of Birds was an intriguing character.
Raka was such a nice surprise. Good in the trailers but an Instant Icon in the film. Very loveable. Another great mentor character. Up there with Yoda in my opinion—just as funny too. Soooo funny. Peter Macon owned this role.
Proximus Caesar was deliciously maniacal. Stellar acting from Kevin Durand. Chilling voice work. Great character design and movement. Proximus is a natural performer—he knows how to play for a crowd. I was just as hyped as his followers. Semi-spoiler: The way he responded to the gun was hilarious.
Mae has so many secrets. I heard some of them were spoiled in the ad campaign but luckily I went in blind. She and Noa are perfect co-leads and do a great job portraying another tense ape/human relationship. Very nuanced performances in their shared scenes. You want them to trust each other.
But can they trust each other moving forward?Hopefully. Mae made some controversial decisions that affected both humans and apes, but I feel that Freya Allan was able to walk that fine line. I loved her final scene with Noa and the gift he gave her.
Overall, this is Wes Ball’s best film so far. Great directing. He really knows how to shoot an action scene. The choreography was 🔥. I never got tired of watching the apes climbing around.
The world building was thorough and I loved the visual aesthetics of the film. They felt very 1968 Planet of the Apes.
As expected, the visual effects were out of this world. Seriously, how does Weta do it? The apes look more real than real apes.
Great score by John Paesano. Nods to Michael Giacchino and Jerry Goldsmith. Also adored the inclusion of apes singing.
The ending sets up some interesting ideas for a next installment—which I really want to see. I liked the parallel of Noa and Mae both looking up at the sky. It made them feel connected despite their physical and (somewhat) emotional distance, and it solidified their status as our two lead characters.
So yes, I loved this movie. 10/10.
Let me know what you thought!
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