Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Review

 What a wonderful, if flawed, film!

The story line in this film was a lot different than I was expecting. I was expecting more of an action packed film, not more of a drama film. The film's pacing was really bad, as I almost fell asleep during the first 20 minutes of the movie. Luckily it picked up in the 2 and 3rd act. Loved the callbacks to the original Planet of the Apes film with Charlton Heston as well.

The acting was very good in this movie. Owen Teague managed to do a good job at creating his own role, and not trying to copy Andy Serkis' performance as Caesar. Freya Allan did a great job as well. I did not expect her to play as big of a role as she did, and she owned every scene she was in. Kevin Durand stole the show as Proximus Caesar, so I was very disappointed that he wasn't in the movie a lot more. William H. Macy's role was a lot different than I was expecting, and like with Kevin Durand, I was very disappointed that he didn't play a bigger role.

The film's visual effects were outstanding as usual. It is so fascinating how far motion capture has come since Lord of the Rings. For all the flaws this franchise has had over the years, the visual effects have never been a problem.

The action scenes were good, when there were some. I really wish this movie had more action scenes, as the trailer really made it look like this was going to be an action based movie. Hopefully the sequel has more of an action feel to it.

They have definitely set up a sequel. And I am genuinely curious to see where this goes in the end. I could see a sequel being much better than this one, or it could be a total dud LOL. We shall see though.

Off topic, Wes Ball just showed that he is the perfect director for the live action Legend of Zelda movie they are working on. His direction in this film showed that he will nail the setting, tone, scale, and cinematography for the film. Hopefully he has good writers helping him with that movie.

Out of 4 stars I would give it...

3 out of 4 stars