Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

It's less ambitious than its three predecessors and suffers from some silly touches, but this stand-alone sequel looks good and has sympathetic characters, as well as food for thought. The shadow of Andy Serkis' Caesar looms large in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and the lack of a similarly powerful character is deeply felt, but Noa is likable enough to carry the torch. The visual effects are extremely impressive, giving the ape characters very expressive eyes and faces and clearly felt emotions.

While the movie tries to unpack some of the earlier films' themes, villain Proximus is a bit of a problem. He has supposedly taken Caesar's teachings and twisted them for his own sinister use, but he's all too clearly just evil, ruling through fear; there's no gray area to him. Mae is difficult to get a handle on, too: Her motivations are cloudy. The earlier movies managed to suggest an equal tendency for good and evil in both humans and apes, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes uses broader, simpler strokes, perhaps saving the meat of its story for future sequels. But it still has a sense of wonder and a genuine emotional pull, and it leaves off with the suggestion of more to come and a promise of more broadly explored ideas.