Disney premiered 13 action-packed minutes of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” at CinemaCon, ginning up excitement for its reboot of the science-fiction franchise.
Set generations after the events of 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the movie follows a young chimp named Noa (biblical allusions clearly intended) as he embarks on an epic journey after his village is torched by a band of gorillas (we think — we’re no primatologists here). It also finds Noa (played by “It” and “To Leslie” star Owen Teague) scaling the rocky face of a cliff on the prowl for eagle eggs. He’s accompanied by two, less daring and much older members of his clan. Things don’t go entirely according to plan, with Noa nearly falling hundreds of feet to the ground before after the angry bird returns to his home. Vertigo sufferers be warned.
There was also an extended look at a nighttime raid of the village, one with a high body count, as well as a glimpse of Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar, an ambitious bonobo monarch who serves as the movie’s main antagonist. Humans don’t appear to play as prominent role, having been pushed to the edges of civilization, although Noa does ride to one’s rescue. A young woman is about to be pummeled to death by a ferocious ape when he appears on horseback, snatching her away from certain death at the last minute.
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Wes Ball, the filmmaker behind the “Maze Runner” series, directs from a script by “Avatar: The Way of Water’s” Josh Friedman. The plan is to create a new trilogy centered around Teague’s Noa. That is, if audiences turn out in force when “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” debuts on May 10.
