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In April 1968, student protests gripped Columbia University. Centred on Vietnam and Civil Rights, they were an emblem of America at boiling point, a presidential election looming. Meanwhile, a hit new movie became a talking point: Planet of the Apes, a schlocky but brilliant sci-fi, then mostly seen as a fun distraction. The ending, of course, was an all-timer: Charlton Heston, back in Manhattan.
Humans are nothing if not repetitive. But for all the historical rhymes, you also see signs of changed times in this week’s sturdy epic Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Audiences in 1968 got what they took for a giddy one-off; 2024 brings the fourth episode of a rebooted studio franchise, on which a jumpy Hollywood has pinned much hope for the summer box office.
It is also a film made in the full knowledge of tumult outside the cinema. While Columbia was not protesting when it was greenlit, we were still well into the era when a tale about the legacy of founding fathers would ring bells in the real world.
But if the current moment shapes the movie, so does the past. Seven years after last instalment, War for the Planet of the Apes, brought de-evolved humans and the death of primate hero Caesar, the new movie pushes us back into the future. We open fast-forwarding centuries, just as audiences did in 1968. The resemblance doesn’t end there.
The scene is a green idyll. Grasslands and treetops are home to happy, chatty apes, among them the soon come-of-age Noa (Owen Teague). This carefully sustainable world is rendered with love. Much human ingenuity and processing power has clearly been spent on a utopian vision, free of people or tech.
But what is a movie paradise for, other than being reduced to ash? So it is that Noa loses everything. One shock is the hateful culprits are other apes. Another that they claim to be acting in line with the sacred teachings of Caesar.
The rest is a quest to right the wrong: a well-turned action thriller filled with high-end VFX peril. It is also a portrait of revolution that cuts straight to Animal Farm. If James Cameron is one touchstone for writer Josh Friedman, a credited presence on Avatar: The Way of Water, George Orwell is another. Michael Crichton too. Homo sapiens still lingers, now all but returned to the caves. The sight of actors pottering in loincloths is not the movie’s finest hour. But the human throwbacks do bring to mind the famous warning of Jurassic Park: That’s how it always starts.
A subtle echo of Jerry Goldsmith’s modernist score from 1968 confirms where the story is circling back to. But the political overtones feel contemporary, and specific to one nation. (Dating back to Charlton Heston, man and ape always shared an American accent.)
Which side is represented by the bad guys in the simian civil war is predictably fuzzy. Interestingly, though, there would be a lot to cheer a conservative film-goer amid themes of government over-reach and progressive ideas got into the wrong hands. All this before we even mention the critical role for a noble eagle.
Backers Disney may now be seeking to remind voters of all stripes their money is welcome. Again: that kind of inclusivity is very 2024. In 1968, things ended with mankind being cursed as maniacs. Now, we close with the set-up for another sequel.
★★★☆☆
In UK and US cinemas from May 10
