Planet of the Apes 4 is the best Avatar replacement we’re getting this year

We haven’t been lacking in science fiction blockbusters lately. Last year, Gareth Edwards captured a captivating vision of the future with The Creator, before Dune: Part Two took him to the desert of Arrakis a few months ago. Both films feature epic sci-fi panoramas. With the breathtaking worlds of images but they couldn’t keep up with Avatar: The Way of Water.

James Cameron’s mega-blockbuster is one of the most visually stunning films ever and is probably only surpassed in terms of immersion by its successor, Avatar 3. Around the to bridge long waiting times, it can’t hurt to go to the cinema. Because Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom is a film there that moves impressively in the slipstream of Cameron’s sci-fi epic.

Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom jumps 300 years into the future and shows us an evil Caesar

New Kingdom lays the foundation for a new Planet of the Apes trilogy. The series has been with us in the cinema since 1968. Gollum actor Andy Serkis took on the role in the 2011 reboot Planet of the Apes: Prevolution Role of the monkey Caesar, whose story continued in Planet of the Apes: Revolution and Planet of the Apes: Survival. Caesar’s legacy lives on in New Kingdom – but with a twist.

You can watch the trailer for Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom here:

Around 300 years after the last film, the ape Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) twists the teachings of his namesake and uses them to strengthen his own position of power. The young Noa (Owen Teague) experiences this firsthand, as his peaceful village is surrounded by Proximas’ followers attacked and destroyed becomes. From then on, Noa looks for his abducted friends… and meets a human, Mae (Freya Allan).

The eschatological worlds of its immediate predecessors have become a post-apocalyptic jungle in Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom. The remnants of humanity are hardly recognizable anymore. Here and there, crumbling high-rise buildings rise into the sky. But nature has taken most of it back. With energetic movements, Noa climbs through a blooming adventure playground as if he were on Pandora.

Incredible water effects like Avatar: Wes Ball flood the new Planet of the Apes film

Director Wes Ball, who thanks to the Maze Runner trilogy is very familiar with the implementation of complex sci-fi material and effects-laden blockbusters, attaches great importance to this Exploring the cinematic spaces. For a long time we watch the monkeys move around the area without any dialogue. Similar to Avatar, the boundaries between real and computer-generated footage are blurred.

Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom is one of the science fiction films that you can really immerse yourself in. Just like the characters, he takes us on a journey that amazes us with fascinating locations. After that we get lost in the heart of darknesswhere a merciless fight for survival takes place in a huge ruined ship that resembles a rusty remnant of the Waterworld set.

At this point at the latest, the element of water becomes more and more important. Here Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom has copied some tricks from Avatar: The Way of Water. In his production, Ball not only goes wild in the countryside, but also floods the entire film in the epic finale – with the noticeable force of an unleashed currentwhose origins from the computer can hardly be guessed at.

Despite massive effects: New Kingdom has not forgotten the most important lesson of the Planet of the Apes films

The fact that the Planet of the Apes films are incredibly good at transforming actors in gray suits into lifelike apes has been well proven since the Caesar trilogy. However, Ball goes a step further when it comes to interaction with the environment. Regardless of whether Water, mud or dirt: Something is constantly flying around and sticking to the sophisticated textures of the digital effects.

Diverse action that makes the most of the technical possibilities: sometimes we find ourselves at dizzying heights, as if we were diving over abysses in a video game. Let’s move through this Labyrinth of an old bunker complexwhile in one shot the camera follows the nimble movements of the monkeys as they effortlessly move from one level to the next – a total rush.

As impressive as all of this is, the new Planet of the Apes film doesn’t quite reach the level of Avatar: The Way of Water. James Cameron works with a different force and conviction in his pictures. Ball simply has it not enough experience yet collected. Nevertheless, every fiber of his film is full of ambition to use and test the technical means at his disposal.

New Kingdom scores as a fluidly staged sci-fi adventure. But the greatest feat is not the limitless bombast of digitally expanded worlds of images. As with Avatar and the previous Ape films, the most powerful moment turns out to be when the Emotions are tangible despite and thanks to (!) countless effects and a brief hesitation conveys Noa’s doubts as to whether he can really trust the strange Mae.

Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom has been running since then May 8, 2024 in German cinemas.