Really wanted to like this. The previous trilogy is excellent, and I'd even say it's one of the best genre trilogies ever made (LOTR is #1, of course). Dawn is especially a masterpiece of intelligent sci-fi adventure spectacle, a movie that is both exciting and intelligent. The entire trilogy is emotionally engaging and Caesar is an incredible lead.
Unfortunately, this film doesn't have any characters as good as Caesar. In fact, it feels like a lesser retread of the same ideas and themes of the previous trilogy. There's nothing really new here. You've already seen a better version of this movie before.
With that said, let me get the good out of the way first. The cinematography is excellent. The visual effects are still incredible, both as a technical and artistic achievement. The first 45 minutes of the film are really solid. There's a lot of good visual storytelling in the opening act.
However, once we meet the main antagonist, things kinda fall apart. The pacing is off. Some scenes drag, while major character moments feel rushed. There's a friction between two major characters that doesn't feel earned, especially since the characters kinda come to an understanding, and then a few scenes later they are butting heads. What could and should have been an interesting dynamic feels incomplete, like entire scenes were cut out.
The main antagonist could have been really cool. The idea of a cult-like warlord obsessed with human history, there's so much they could have done with that idea. But he simply doesn't have enough scenes to really make him anything more than Koba Part II. And Koba had better motivations and more complexity. None of the characters here are as well written as the previous trilogy and the last 10 minutes feel more like a TV finale than a movie.
Oh, and the music score is pretty generic and forgettable. Really disappointing, because I love the music from the other movies. Caesar's theme is so good. Nothing here comes close.
Anyway... Kingdom is far from terrible, but to quote another major franchise with a movie coming out May 2024: "Mediocre!"
