Movie Reviews
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”: Disney's New Kingdom is Far From Magical (Movie Review)
Nearly sixty years removed, it is perhaps all too easy to forget just how radical of a work Franklin J. Schaffner’s original “Planet of the Apes” truly was. In adapting Pierre Boulle’s “La Planète des singes” novel into a feature film, Schaffner and co. maintained the book’s hard science-fiction intellectualism while also infusing it with a radical counterculturalism that resonated so deeply with younger audiences of the time. The resulting film often plays like a feature-length “Twilight Zone” episode in the best of ways, balancing more traditionally thrilling action sequences out with headier diatribes on the human condition, and fittingly so, seeing as it was co-written by Rod Serling himself.
After decades of sequels and one sensationally ill-advised attempt at a Tim Burton-helmed remake in 2001, the “Planet of the Apes” franchise half-stumbled into something remarkable in the 2010s. While “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was a critical and commercial success, it wasn’t until that film’s sequel, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” that a new legacy was truly cemented, with the addition of writer-director Matt Reeves. Reeves’ films, “Dawn” and “War for the Planet of the Apes,” brought a raw and immediate emotionality to the work that, when paired with similarly excellent elements such as Andy Serkis’ phenomenal lead performance and Michael Giacchino’s decadent musical score, truly brought “Planet of the Apes” to a new generation. In many ways, just as Schaffner’s 1968 film reflected the fears and anxieties of its era and spoke directly to audiences of the day in primal form, so too did Reeves’ films for modern audiences of the 2010s.
It is into this legacy that Wes Ball’s quasi-sequel/quasi-reboot/quasi-legacy-sequel, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” enters. And while Ball’s film is perfectly functional, competent, and resplendent in its technical achievements, “Kingdom” spends its entire runtime shouldering the burden of the franchise’s history, to its own detriment.
5. WEAK SPOT: THE OPENING
It truly cannot be overstated what a colossal misstep “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes in its literal opening frames. Opening on the deathbed and funeral pyre of Andy Serkis’ Caesar from the previous trilogy, surrounded by characters from those films, “Kingdom” delivers a fond farewell to these characters and drops its title card, right before hard cutting to a full 300 years later. This is so bizarre for so many reasons (the in-film ‘many generations later’ text is laugh-inducing) but chief among them is that it actively works to put distance between the audience and Noa, the primary character of this film.
Noa doesn’t know who Caesar was and is going to spend the next two-and-a-half hours of runtime finding that out as well as hearing apes debate over Caesar’s teachings and legacy. So opening with Caesar on his deathbed, surrounded by characters who mean nothing to this film, is indulgent at best and detrimental at worst. It prioritizes a quick dopamine hit of nostalgia that serves no purpose over the audience’s actual connection to the present-tense characters and story.
4. THOSE MONKEYS THOUGH
The visual effects, spearheaded by the fantastic team at Wētā FX, continue to be absolutely incredible here. With each successive film in the previous trilogy, the bar was raised for exactly how authentically a human actor’s performance could be translated to the face of a digital ape. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” proudly continues this tradition, allowing its actors’ performances to truly shine through the digital augmentation.
In addition to this, the ape-on-ape action sequences are well-staged here, especially an early one that kicks off Noa’s Campbellian hero’s journey. There’s a visceral quality to the speed and momentum with which the Apes move, which is a fantastic blend of human movement and digital enhancement from Wētā FX. Furthermore, there’s a ton of little details throughout “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” that Wētā FX gets precisely right in fascinating ways, specifically in regards to artifacts and artifice of the camera and how the apes look within the frame. The delicate way in which focus shifts occur, the way lens flares react through this digital interface—it’s all exquisitely well-constructed.
3. WEAK SPOT: REHASHING
Director Wes Ball has spoken a lot about how “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes place 300 years after “War” to introduce audiences to an “Apes” world with exciting new story possibilities. In theory, that sounds perfect for a franchise running for nearly sixty years. However, in execution, that’s not at all what “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” delivers.
For many Fox-owned properties, the Disney acquisition has led to surprisingly passionate and off-the-wall new films: Dan Trachtenberg’s “Prey,” Arkasha Stevenson’s “The First Omen,” etc. But “Kingdom” doesn’t feel like a passion project brought to fruition; it feels more like Disney looked at a spreadsheet and realized “Planet of the Apes” was among the most consistently profitable franchises in their new stable and commissioned a new one regardless. Instead of new ideas or stories, “Kingdom” mostly rehashes things audiences have seen before in this franchise.
The sheer number of beats and story ideas that feel recycled, in whole or in part, from either “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” or Schaffner’s original “Planet of the Apes” is staggering. Even the film’s attempt at an emotional, stakes-heightening climax sets up more conflicts we’ve already seen. Despite the lip-service to paving the way for new stories, “Kingdom” feels like someone shuffled their “Planet of the Apes” greatest hits playlist, and this is what we got.
2. THE HOOK OF RELIGIOUS THEMING
The film’s most intriguing concept is treating Caesar like ape Jesus, despite the absurdity of the notion.
By exploring the idea that Caesar’s ancient teachings have been distorted over centuries to serve the agendas of those with darker motives, “Kingdom” stumbles upon fertile creative territory. Like previous entries in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, the film has the potential to offer a unique commentary on its contemporary era.
In today’s polarized American society, we witness manipulative figures weaponizing religious texts for personal gain. The antagonist, Proximus Caesar, and his cohorts seem poised to symbolize this phenomenon, offering the beginnings of a pointed allegorical critique.
1. WEAK SPOT: A FAILURE TO ENGAGE WITH SAID THEMING
“Kingdom” initiates an intriguing premise but fails to delve deeper into its potential. While it deserves recognition for introducing this captivating concept, the film disappointingly fails to explore it meaningfully, merely skimming the surface.
As the narrative unfolds, this deficiency becomes more apparent, culminating in a final conflict that feels rushed and disconnected from the central themes. Despite feeble attempts to link the religious motif with human involvement, it devolves into mundane ape versus human conflict, devoid of substance or relevance to the overarching theme.
(C)
“Kingdom” misses a golden opportunity to parallel Caesar’s legacy with that of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise itself. The potential for a poignant reflection on how messages can be distorted over time, akin to the franchise’s impact on generations of audiences, remains largely unexplored. Instead, the film succumbs to repetitive storytelling, recycling familiar tropes and narratives without self-awareness or innovation.
In essence, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” falls victim to its own lack of originality, mirroring the very phenomenon it could have examined critically.
Movie Reviews
1986 Movie Reviews – Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit | The Nerdy
by | May 9, 2026May 9, 2026 10:30 am EDT
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s May 9, 1986, and we’re off to see Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit.
Dangerously Close
I would love to tell you what the point of this film was, but I’m not sure it knew.
An elite school has turned into a magnet school, attracting some “undesirables,” so a group of students known as The Sentinels take up policing their school, but will they go too far?
The basic plot of the film is simple enough, but there is an oddball “twist” toward the end tht served no real purpose and somehow turns the whole thing into a murder-mystery. Mysteries only work when you know you’re supposed to be solving them, and not when you’re alerted to one existing with 15 minutes left.
Decent 80s music, some stylistic shots, absolutely no substance.
Fire with Fire
Oh wait… I may want to go back and watch Dangerously Close again over this one.
Joe Fisk (Craig Sheffer) is being held at a juvenile delinquent facility close a high-end all-girls Catholic school. One day while running through the forest as part of an exercise he spots Catholic schoolgirl Lisa Taylor (Virginia Madsen) and the two fall immediately in love because… reasons.
This film is just so incredibly lazy. The ‘love story’ really can just be chalked up to ‘hormones.’
Last Resort
Once again I am baffled how Charles Grodin kept getting work so much through out the 1980s.
George Lollar (Grodin) is a salesman in Chicago in need of a vacation. He loads up the family and takes them to Club Sand, which turns out to be a swingers resort as well as surrounded by barbed wire to keep rebels out.
There are a lot of talented people in this movie such as Phil Hartman and Megan Mullally, but the film lets them down at every turn with half-baked ideas of jokes. Supposedly, Grodin rewrote nearly the entire script and I think that explains a lot about how this film feels like unfinished ideas. It’s a Frankenstein monster of a script with half-complete ideas that feel like they are from completely different movies.
Short Circuit
Lets just get this out of the way: What in the world was Fisher Stevens doing?
NOVA Laboratory has come up with a new series of military robots called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport). Following a successful demonstration for the military, Five is struck by an electrical surge and finds itself needing ‘input.’ After inadvertently escaping the lab, it wands into the life of Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who cares for animals and takes Five in. Dr. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) is trying to get five back, while the security team wants to destroy it.
Overall, the film is thin, but harmless. The 80s did seem to love a ‘technology being used for the wrong reasons’ theme, and this falls into that camp. What is mind-blowing, however, is Stevens as Ben Jabituya, Crosby’s assistant. Not only is he wearing brown face, but he’s doing a horrible Indian accent and later reveals he was born and raised in the U.S.
His whole character is mystifying.
Honestly, a couple of decades ago I may have recommended this movie, but it’s a definite pass now just for being offensive.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on May 16, 2026, with Sweet Liberty and Top Gun.
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: May 8th, 2026 / 08:34 PM
AFFECTION movie poster | ©2026 Brainstorm Media
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne
Writer: BT Meza
Director: BT Meza
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: May 8, 2026
AFFECTION is an odd title for this tale. While it is about a number of topics and emotions, fondness isn’t one of them. Obsession, definitely. Love, possibly. The kind of general warm fellow feelings associated with “affection”? No.
There have been a lot of movies lately in which characters – mostly women – are grappling with false identities and/or false memories imposed upon them, mostly by men.
Let us stipulate that the protagonist (Jessica Rothe) in AFFECTION is not an android or in an artificial reality. However, we can tell something is way off from the opening sequence. A car is stalled on a tree-bordered highway. Rothe’s character is lying face down on the asphalt beside it, possibly dead.
But then the young woman rises, dragging a broken ankle. She experiences a full-body seizure. Fighting to recover, she sees oncoming headlights and tries to run, only to be hit by a car.
The woman wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize, next to a man (Joseph Cross) she likewise is sure she’s never seen before. One big confrontation later, the man says his name is Bruce – and that the woman is his wife, Ellie.
Ellie insists that her name is Sarah Thompson, and she is married to someone else, with a son. When she sees her reflection in a mirror, she doesn’t relate to the face looking back at her.
Bruce counters that Ellie has a rare neurological condition that causes her to block out her waking life and believe her dreams are real. This is why they agreed, together, to move to this isolated house, without the kinds of interruptions that can hinder Ellie’s recovery.
The set-up is presented in a way where we share Ellie’s skepticism. But Ellie and Bruce’s little daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) immediately identifies Ellie as “Mommy!” Alice appears to be too young to be in on any kind of deception, so what is going on here?
AFFECTION eventually explains this via a helpful videotape, though it’s so convoluted that viewers watching on streaming may want to replay the sequence to make sure they understand the exposition.
Writer/director BT Meza musters a sense of menace and lurking weirdness, as well as making great use of his location.
We still have a lot of questions, many of which are still unanswered by the film’s end. It may not matter to the points AFFECTION is trying to make, but a better sense of exactly how all this started might help our investment.
As it is, despite a heroically versatile performance by Rothe, a credible and anguished turn by Cross and appealing work from Layne, we’re so busy trying to piece together what’s important and what’s not and how we’re supposed to feel about all of it that it can be hard to keep track of the action as it unfolds.
Agree or not, Meza’s arguments are lucid and illustrated clearly by AFFECTION’s events. However, the movie is structured in a way that becomes more frustrating as it goes. We comprehend it intellectually but can’t engage viscerally.
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Deanna: ★★★★.5
Allison: ★★★.25
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