KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
A thrilling ape epic with a redemptive, Moses-shaped heart.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the decision. This is the best of the recent APES movies — a thrilling, engrossing adventure with wonderful effects, grand set design, and excellent performances. More than that, it carries a genuinely redemptive heart: family honored, mercy exalted, and a beloved leader remembered as a Moses-like lawgiver who led his people out of bondage.
The cautions are modest but real. Two moderate "s" words. Strong action violence — a village torched, captives taken, a father killed before his son's eyes. A faint hint about one supporting character's relationship, never developed. And an undercurrent suggesting the apes are more trustworthy than humans, softened by an ending that hopes the two might yet get along.
So: if you and your older kids can handle intense action, take the trip — this is a rich, moving film worth seeing on the big screen. For younger children, wait. Movieguide rates it a caution for older pre-teens and young teens.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESMany generations after the death of Caesar, a young adult chimpanzee named Noa lives in an isolated village where the apes raise eagles to hunt fish for the clan.
Then a small army of gorillas descends. They kill, they burn, they carry off Noa's mother and fellow villagers to serve a power-mad king by the sea. Left for dead, Noa wakes and sets out to bring his family home. Along the way he meets a wise orangutan who speaks of mercy and unity — and a human woman who can talk, and who has her own hidden reasons for opposing the king.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars, and they're earned. Despite a few questions about its plot points, the movie is thrilling and engrossing from start to finish. The computer-generated and motion-capture effects are wonderful, and the grand set designs build a realistic, incredible new world you believe in.
The acting is excellent across the board. Peter Macon is the standout, delivering a heartwarming performance as Raka the orangutan — the moral heart of the film. And the hero, Noa, is more than a figure buffeted by obstacles; he's genuinely changed by Raka's words about mercy, compassion, and peaceful unity. That inner journey is what lifts this from a good action film to an emotional, even profound one.
The Worldview
This is a strong, morally uplifting film, and its best instincts run parallel to Scripture. It exalts family: Noa honors his father and especially his mother, and his whole quest is to rescue his kidnapped people and bring them home. It exalts mercy, kindness, and compassion, spoken into the hero by Raka, who dreams of a world where apes and even humans might work together in peace.
Its biblical texture is unusually clear. The deceased Caesar is venerated as a Moses-like "lawgiver" who led his people out of bondage, and the film distinguishes good laws from bad — the villain twists Caesar's memory into an evil, self-serving tyranny, a kind of demonic counterfeit of the real thing. There's a reference to the Book that gives speech to those who cannot speak, and Noa himself delivers his family and friends from a flood. The film opposes the villain's big-government tyranny and champions liberty from oppression, even as it flirts lightly with a communal, utopian vision of apes united for a common goal.
A few things to weigh. The villain speaks of ape "evolution" as a path to power. A supporting ape calls a slain male companion "family," a single line some may read as more than friendship, though nothing further is said. And the story leans toward the idea that apes are more trustworthy than humans — though the ending holds out hope, however small, that the two might one day get along.
Beneath it all lies the longing for a better world where enemies are reconciled. Scripture names that hope: a day when "they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain" (Isaiah 11:9), and calls us now to "look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:4).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
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Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Strong moral Christian worldview overall with morally uplifting, redemptive values promotes family, kindness, mercy, compassion, and the hope, though slight, that apes and humans might someday be able to get along, with clear references to the Book that can give speech to those who cannot speak, thus presenting an underlying biblical storyline with historical Roman elements such as references to an Emperor (one character mentions the Roman history elements), plus the hero clearly honors his mother and father though his father is depicted as a little tough and hierarchical, and father’s pet eagle doesn’t like the son, but the son eventually earns the eagle’s respect (you have to really see the movie to understand the character development here because it is a little bizarre), a beloved ape leader in the past is overtly venerated as a “lawgiver” who brought other apes to a “promised land” (previous APES movies had also compared this character to Moses), Noa delivers his family and friends from the flood and the movie strongly opposes the tyranny of the ape villain in the story and promotes liberty from oppression, but mixed with a light communal aspect appears in the movie, which sometimes supports the idea that apes should work together for utopian goals, an opening scene shows apes lifting their arms in the air at the funeral pyre of their beloved and benevolent ruler, the villain makes a self-aggrandizing reference to ape “evolution,” and there’s a very light politically correct connotation when a supporting ape character says the bad apes killed his close male ape companion (nothing further is said or revealed about this relationship other than this one comment, however) as well as a politically correct humanist implication that the movie’s apes and monkeys and primates are still more trustworthy than humans (the ending, however, offers some hope, though perhaps small, that apes and humans someday will learn to get along)
Foul Language
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Two “s” obscenities and no profanities
Violence
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Strong and light action and conflict violence includes apes climbing tall trees and a high cliff sometimes fall and slightly injure themselves, chimpanzee hero comes across some dead ape bodies showing that a scout sent by his father and his community’s elders died during a battle with a small army of gorillas, the army of gorillas carrying cattle prods with tasers on the end hunt for the hero and then ride horses to his village, hero runs after them, and the gorilla army are torching his village and carrying off captives while battling the chimpanzees who resist, the gorilla army tasers and beats up and kills the apes who resist, hero watches his father being killed, large gorilla tosses hero off one of his village’s eagle towers (the villager bond with and train eagles to hunt for fish for them), but the hero survives though he’s left for dead, the gorilla army harasses a small tribe of non-talking humans, a final battle occurs, a large explosion happens, tons of sea water invades a hidden human facility, and there’s some fighting during this, and human woman deliberately breaks the neck of an older human who was prepared to rat her out to the villain
Sex
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No sexual content, but it’s clear in one scene that the hero has romantic feelings toward a female ape friend
Nudity
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Apes sometimes have their chests exposed naturally, but nothing salacious or explicit is shown
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Villain has his gorilla army kidnap other apes, moneys and primates to work for him and bow down to him in obeisance and apes find a beginning reading book for human children with drawn pictures of humans visiting the zoo with animals, a gorilla and monkeys in cages.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Noa risks everything to rescue his mother and bring his people home. How does his devotion reflect the way we're called to honor our parents and care for our own?
Exodus 20:12 · 1 Timothy 5:8Raka teaches Noa about mercy, compassion, and peaceful unity. Where in your life is God calling you to show mercy instead of taking revenge?
Micah 6:8 · Ephesians 4:32The film honors good laws and condemns the villain who twists them for his own power. How do we tell the difference between just authority and tyranny dressed up as leadership?
Isaiah 10:1–2 · Romans 13:1–4The story hopes, faintly, that enemies might one day get along. What does Scripture promise about a coming world where hostility finally ends?
Isaiah 11:6–9 · Revelation 21:3–4The Final Word
This one surprised us: a blockbuster with a redemptive spine, beautiful to look at and genuinely moving, built around family, mercy, and liberty from oppression. It's intense enough that little ones should sit this out — but for teenagers and adults, it's worth the trip — ages 12 and up. Bring the older kids and talk it over on the way home.
