Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – Film Review

Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Travis Jeffery, Lydia Peckham, Neil Sandilands, Eka Darville,

Director: Wes Ball

Synopsis: Many generations after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, a young ape goes on a journey of discovery after his clan comes under attack…

Review: When the Planet of the Apes franchise came roaring back to life after a near decade of absence in 2011, it was the foundation on which arguably the best trilogy of the 2010s was built. Centred on Caesar, a genetically advanced ape who in his lifetime, rose up and led the apes in a revolution, saw his authority challenged by a rogue ape, and later led the apes into a war against the humans before he succumbed to his injuries. Portrayed by the master of motion capture by Andy Serkis, this rebooted trilogy set an exceedingly high bar for any future films. It is a bar that this new instalment swings for but ultimately falls short of matching those lofty standards.

Set hundreds of years after Caesar’s passing, apes have become the planet’s most dominant species, with humans regressing into a more primitive and feral-like state. The apes are divided into clans, with one clan developing a strong bond with eagles, including young ape Noa (Teague) who’s being prepped by his father for an important ceremony and must complete a significant ritual beforehand. However, after his clan comes under attack from a military-minded clan, Noa must go on a journey to find any survivors and establish the motivations of this combative clan. Along the way, he encounters a human (Allen), who is being hunted by the clan as they believe she is smarter than all the other humans and has crucial knowledge to access something of great significance to the clan.

Such was the enormous cultural impact of Caesar during the previous films, a list of the best characters of the 2010s would be incomplete without his inclusion. Caesar’s shadow looms large over this new generation of apes, even several hundred years after his passing. With the passage of such a long time, Josh Friedman’s screenplay takes its time to introduce the new Eagle clan and their peaceful existence, which stands in unique contrast to the more warmongering apes. The latter have taken Caesar’s teachings and misinterpreted them as a means to perpetrate violence against both other ape clans and humans. By contrast, the likes of orangutang Raka (Macon), who is fighting hard to preserve Caesar’s teachings and their true meanings. This puts Noa in a tricky position as to what he should do with this human, and whether he should trust her, or leave her to the warmongering apes.

Teague brings a likeable presence to Noa and imbues him with a sense of honour and a determination to do what is right and to honour his family and his tribe. Unfortunately, though no one else at least in his tribe is as memorable or given nearly as much development as Noa. However, as far as the other ape characters go, Macon as Raka brings no shortage of wisdom and imparts valuable knowledge to Noa as he proceeds on his journey to rescue his family, who have fallen into the servitude of the militaristic tribe and its leader Proximus Caesar (played with a blend of charisma and arrogance by Kevin Durand). His name would suggest he is a descendant of Caesar, and while he certainly echoes Caesar’s prominent “Apes. Together. Strong” mantra, Proximus is a far cry from the legendary leader he idolises. He possesses a messiah complex and is driven by the belief that not only what he is doing is right, but precisely what Caesar would have wanted the apes to do, making the audience wish the great Caesar’s ghost would reincarnate and give him a sharp and thorough rebuking.

Having done the visual effects work for the previous instalments, the craftwork on display from the geniuses at Weta is once again nothing short of extraordinary with such photorealistic visuals, it completely makes you forget that these are human actors in some rather unusual-looking suits bringing these apes to life. Unfortunately, outside of the apes, the only human character who is given a substantial amount of development is Freya Allan’s mysterious character, whom Noa and Raka name Nova (in a callback to the character of the same name from War for the Planet of the Apes). There’s an element of mystery to her, but as the film progresses and we learn more about her, certain decisions she makes are extremely perplexing and ultimately leave the audience with more questions than answers as to her motivations. The script could have fleshed these out more.

At 145 minutes, Kingdom is also the longest movie in the series to date. While this runtime is sometimes necessary to establish this world generations after the events of the previous film, it can also be to its detriment, particularly in the latter half. With this being reported as the first journey in a brand new trilogy, it has laid solid but imperfect foundations for future films to build upon. Time will tell if this new group of apes prove to be as strong or as memorable as Caesar’s remarkable journey from genetically modified ape to messianic primate.

Retaining the visual splendour of its previous instalments, Kingdom goes for some big swings with weighty themes about legacy and differing interpretations of teachings but doesn’t quite hit the heights of Caesar’s trilogy.

**© Universal Pictures and Radio Silence Productions**

Abigail – Film Review

Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Alisha Weir, Giancarlo Esposito

Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Synopsis: A group of criminals kidnap the daughter of a criminal overlord, only to discover she has a penchant for drinking blood…

Review: As mythical creatures go, vampires are up there with the most iconic and recognisable and have become a staple of modern popular culture. Taking many forms over the years, from the instantly recognisable and iconic Dracula to the less iconic sparkly variety. If you had to imagine a typical vampire, they’d probably picture an imposing figure in a black cape gleefully drinking the blood of their victims. You’d probably never expect a vampire to appear as a ballerina-loving girl, which is precisely what makes the latest film from the filmmaking duo known as Radio Silence so fascinating and entertaining.

A crew of criminals, overseen by the ringleader Lambert (Esposito), are recruited to kidnap a young girl named Abigail and hold her captive at an isolated mansion. The crew, who are told not to use real names while they’re on the job, consists of former army medic Joey (Barrera), ex-detective Frank (Stevens), hacker Sammy (Newton), driver Dean (Cloud in his final onscreen role), sniper Rickles (Catlett) and enforcer Peter (Durant). They are promised a $50m reward to be split between them if they can keep the girl safe and unharmed for 24 hours. The crew then make themselves comfortable and try to deduce the real identities of each other, all while Joey is tasked with ensuring Abigail is comfortable throughout her ordeal. This is until when some of them begin to be picked off by a mysterious assailant and it soon dawns on them that Abigail is no ordinary 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with ballet but is, in fact, a centuries-old vampire who wants to feast on their blood.

Based on and a reimagining of the 1936 film Dracula’s Daughter, the opening scenes of the titular character pirouetting to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake as she practises her ballet is probably the last way you would expect a vampire movie to open. It ensures the film stands out in a crowded genre by having a creature of the night feast on her victims while dressed in a tutu. In the same vein as how Ready or Not was a thrilling splice of horror-comedy and a deadly game of hide and seek, the script by Guy Busick (co-writer of Ready or Not and the two recent Scream movies) and Stephen Shields is cut from the same mythical cloth. Horror and comedy once again go splat, except this time it’s a heist movie that goes very very wrong for this crew of people, who frankly, are mostly so deplorable you are willing for Abigail to feast on their blood, because as she puts it “likes to play with her food”.

For a film centred on the premise of a ballerina-loving vampire, it is slow to get to the main course of the movie, where the crew realise what it is they are up against and how could they possibly defeat a creature of the night, which provides ample opportunities for some amusing and meta references from existing vampiric pop culture and how do they deal with the not-so-insignificant matter of a bloodthirsty vampire. Barrera, having been a central part of the revived Scream saga under Radio Silence, is the member of this crew who gets the most development. We learn about her circumstances and why she is in desperate need of some extra money. This plight, and her role as the one who is solely tasked with communicating with Abigail allows her to build trust between the two of them, which may come in handy when Abigail’s desire to drink the blood of every last member of this group of criminals takes hold. Every crew member gets a moment to shine, with no one having as much of a bloody good time as Stevens’ Frank.

However, the star of the show is unquestionably Alisha Weir as Abigail. Having announced herself onto the scene with her incredible performance as the titular character in 2022’s Matilda the Musical, this is another film where she not only plays the titular character but more than holds her own against her more experienced co-stars. She commits absolutely everything to the role in terms of the dancing and the twirling moves of a ballerina as she gleefully and gracefully hunts down her prey, effortlessly switching between the dual personality of a sweet and innocent ballerina-loving girl and a ferocious and bloodthirsty vampire.

Speaking of blood, because you simply can’t have a vampire film without it, after dabbling with the gritty real-world violence of the Ghostface killings, the switch back to the more supernatural setting allows Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet to return to the over-the-top violence similar to Ready or Not. If you thought that film had a considerable amount of blood, it is nothing compared to the torrents of the stuff unleashed here. It would not be a shock to discover if it broke a world record for the most fake blood that has ever been utilised in a film. It takes a little while for the film to raise the stakes (pun absolutely) intended, but once she gets her fangs and the feeding frenzy begins, it is an absolute bloody riot. A monstrously fun time is to be had by all, well apart from those who end up having those fangs buried deep into their necks.