Hidden inside THR’s summer box-office recap is how Wes Ball’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is seemingly being turned into a trilogy over at 20th Century.
‘Kingdom’ is being referred to as a “test” that passed with flying colors. The film earned $400M globally against a $160M budget. It helps that it was a “good” movie with wonderful world-building on the part of Ball. A continuation to the film seemed inevitable.
Matt Reeves did an admirable job directing 2017’s “War For the Planet of the Apes,” that was the very best one of the previous trilogy. We didn’t really need any more ‘Apes’ movies, but Ball did an efficient job of setting up new stakes in ‘Kingdom.’
Although Ball’s film was narratively old-fashioned, and felt a tad too familiar, the special effects in ‘Kingdom’ were second to none. Never once did my mind wander into thinking the apes were motion capture. The attention to detail, as with all of the ‘Apes’ movies, was staggering. In a way, that’s what continuously saved Ball’s film, the way it made you believe in the realism of this fantastical world.
I know I keep going back to how Reeves did it better, and there’s good reason for that, he was the absolute perfect filmmaker for this franchise by infusing mythological essence and cinematic flair to the stories. Ball, on the other hand, is not as talented. His sense of pacing is not as efficient. You suspect where the story is going, and some of the characters come off as cardboard. His film didn’t go into the darker, more brooding places the Reeves tackled.
With full awareness that the odds are against Ball to match Reeves’ previous films, I don’t mind having another ‘Apes’ trilogy. The question now remains as to when exactly we’ll be getting the second film. Ball is currently working on his “Legend of Zelda” live-action movie, and he’ll be taking up most of his time on that project, which might start shooting next year.