We talk about how incredible it is that the Monsterverse is already a decade old. Yeah but the Planet of the Apes franchise was reborn before that, with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes! That was so long ago it was fronted by James Franco! You couldn’t get that guy in a movie nowadays even if he was the one under the fur suit. So it’s been a long time for these films which are entering a new phase with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the start of a brand new trilogy.
Directed by Wes Ball, who successfully led the Maze Runner trilogy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a leaner film than the previous, big-budget ones. Gone are the A-list casts because…well, the humans aren’t what audiences pay for and the apes are motion-capture, anyway. So you get a cast led by Owen Teague, who is joined by Freya Allen, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Dichen Lachman, and Kevin Durand.
Here’s the synopsis: Set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign. Apes are the dominant species living harmoniously with one another, and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape will undertake a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
This film feels like it’s bringing things back around again to a point when apes and humans will coexist. But first, there must be more fighting! This is one of the big franchises to survive the Fox/Disney deal and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes in the long run.
20th Century Studios has dropped a new IMAX trailer that should go a long way in convincing fans to see it in the larger format.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on May 10th, but the early IMAX previews start on May 8th.
