‘Planet Of The Apes’ Tells The Same Story From Different Directions
by Frank Martin
Perhaps no franchise has enjoyed a more peculiar evolution of narrative than Planet Of The Apes. What started as a single film built upon a solitary concept quickly evolved into a franchise of multiple sequels and television shows. It had such a strong fan base that decades later, studios attempted to revive it. And after one false start, a second attempt actually succeeded in giving fans what they were hoping for. It was an unexpected hit, and led to a second string of sequels that approaches the franchise from a completely different direction.
The most current entry into the franchise, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, takes place hundreds of years after the reboot trilogy, which focused on Caesar (Andy Serkis). Instead, a new character, Noa (Owen Teague), takes the lead as he tries to forge a path for himself and his village. He quickly falls into contention with a rising king named Proximus (Kevin Durand). The story also features Mae (Freya Allan), a human who is intelligent compared to the others of her kind in this dystopian future.
While the first Planet Of The Apes remake focused on the very first film in the franchise, the second attempt actually started with the first film in its fictional timeline, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. This was the story of the first ape uprising led by Caesar. The subsequent films in the trilogy focused on Caesar as he faced whatever humans remained — an echo of the final film in the original cycle, Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Kingdom brings the story into the future as it inevitably marches towards the timeline depicted in the original 1968 film. There is even a possibility that these intelligent humans will grow to become the telekenetic humans living underground, as shown in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes. So when analyzing the original series and the remake, it’s interesting to see how they take two different approaches to tell the story of the same timeline.
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is now streaming on Hulu.