STORYLINE: The new Apes movie is set many years after the conclusion of 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes. Many apes societies have grown from when the Moses-like Caesar brought his people to an oasis, while humans have been reduced to a feral-like existence. Some ape groups have never heard of Caesar, while others have contorted his teaching to build burgeoning empires. In this setting, one ape leader begins to enslave other groups to find human technology, while another ape, who watched his clan be taken, embarks on a journey to find freedom. A young human woman becomes key to the latter’s quest, although she has plans of her own. (IMDb) 

     I have been a fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise for as long as I can remember. The 1968 Charlton Heston classic is not only my favorite science fiction movie but features my favorite ending in all of cinema. 

    Additionally I throughly enjoyed the prequel trilogy that started with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The trilogy told the story of Ceaser and how apes came to be the dominate species after the down fall of man. 

    Imagine my excitement when I read the announcement of Kong dom of the Planet of the Apes, the first film in a new cycle of films set between the prequel trilogy and the science fiction classic I love so much.  

   Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, like many franchise entries these days, has an epic run tomime of almost two and a half hours. It goes by on a blink. The film grabs the viewer instantly with beautiful images and the visual effects hold the same high quality throughout the film. The movie also has many exciting action sequences that fill the two and a half hour runtime. This of course is all tied together, by the most important part of the film, a thrilling story. A great story is the origins for any great movie.   

    Throughout the franchise there have been an equal part apes to human ratio of characters and storylines, no matter who the story’s perspective is being told.  What I found fasinating about Kingdom of the Plabet of the Apes was how minimal the human presence was on the film. In fact there was not a human in the entire first act.

     Cone awards season I expect this film to be a strong contender in the tech categories such as visual effects and sound.  Until it does I throughly enjoyed the movie, as I wanted to.

    Until next time I will see you at the movies!