Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024, now streaming on Hulu)
I watched the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last night. I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time. It was a solid installment although it's not clear to me where this film falls in the ape film universe chronological order. It seems like we could be headed towards a prequel to the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. In the film, which takes place generations after Caesar's death (which is depicted in the beginning of the film), the apes have spread out and are living in isolated clans/villages. Meanwhile humans have been afflicted by a virus that have crippled the vocal cords and language abilities of most (but not all) humans. The apes, who have been unaffected by the virus, have evolved and gotten smarter and developed some weapons, the chief one being a spear like weapon whose head contains a taser like electric charge, that stuns and shocks the victim. The apes see the humans, who are nomads, as "echoes" and "scavengers", so that there is an almost complete role reversal as in the original 1968 Charlton Heston film. As a warlike ape clan begins to conquer other ape clans, a talking human emerges on the scene, who seems to hold the key to understanding the technology that the humans refined and which the apes would like to have. The ending of the film leaves open exactly how far the human technology advanced before the virus, whether the apes will acquire it, and whether both species will be able to live side by side in the future.
The production values of the film are good. There are some scenes where the ape protagonist, Noa, a member of a clan focused on falconry and birds of prey, must acquire an eagle's egg for a coming of age ritual. The way the ape characters move around, swing from tree to tree, and climb up rock orifices are quite well done. It's how you would expect apes to move around if they had the intelligence to do what these film apes have to do.
By the way William H. Macy plays one of the talking humans in the movie, whose role is to read to the leader of the warlike apes, Proximus Caesar, books on the Roman Empire which the apes have discovered. The Macy character is basically an "Uncle Tom" to the apes who believes in the inevitability of ape domination.
There is a scene steal from the original 1968 Planet of the Apes which is not quite the same, but similar, to mark the entrance of a talking human into story, namely this one:
