Zanobard Reviews

John Paesano’s Kingdom of the Planet Of The Apes is an impressive score, forming a pretty perfect bridge between Michael Giacchino’s wondrously serene and Jerry Goldsmith’s iconically eerie prior works for the franchise while also introducing some excellent new themes of its own, and binding it all together in an Apes musical tapestry that’s more than worthy of the franchise.

The score for Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes begins with the six minute “Discovery”; quietly solemn piano notes open the piece, evoking the gentle serenity of Michael Giacchino’s War For The Planet Of The Apes score in tone. The gentle piano notes then echo sombrely through for the first ninety seconds until more noble but similarly quiet strings start to play, introducing the first new theme for Kingdom – the Discovery theme. Vocals and brass soon join the strings as the music starts to swell, and overall this new addition to the Apes thematic catalogue does an excellent job of capturing the wondrous yet serene tone of the franchise while also being pretty memorable in its own right, especially as the track draws towards its end and the theme moves from quietly hopeful to boldly epic. A tense crescendo is then rapidly reached at the start of “The Climb”, with rapid strings building on the wondrous atmosphere introduced by the first cue. Things then get very stylistically interesting in “Maybe Echo”, as those iconic clattering percussive elements from Jerry Goldsmith’s original 1968 Planet Of The Apes score reprise moodily before briefly bursting into frenetic action. The music then simmers down in the cue’s back half, with that eerie percussive atmosphere that made Goldsmith’s score so dissonantly memorable echoing creepily through.

So Paesano’s score here is centred around three new primary themes. The Discovery theme debuts in the prior cue as mentioned, and the other two are then introduced in “Eagle Clan”; the first, for the aforementioned Clan, appears in dramatically hopeful form on brass and strings through the first half of the track (with the latter instrument going on to evoke a keen sense of wonder throughout the four minute piece). Towards the end of the track, the third motif – a gentler piece for Noa, the main ape character of the film, described as a ‘young chimpanzee hunter’ – debuts on quietly noble brass. The eerie Goldsmith-esque percussion then strikes a jumpscare-horror chord in “Broken” with the same moody tone also continuing into the subsequent “Marauders In The Mist”; tension builds for much of the first half of the track with the same moodily malevolent percussion and bursts of tense brass, with frantic action then leaping into centre stage for the final minute.

“For Caesar” continues this rapid pace, with the Goldsmith-esque percussion joining forces with brass and strings that then thunder along at an absolute fever-pitch throughout the four minute track. Solemn vocals and piano notes slow things back down for the first half of “Noa’s Purpose”, with the new Eagle Clan theme playing gently before strings begin to build and a more noble tone emerges in the back half with Noa’s theme reprising. This hopefulness continues into the subsequent “I Am Raka” alongside some rather ominous Goldsmith-ian percussive rattles. “Memories Of Home” then evokes a similar tone to that of the opening “Discovery”, with pensive serenity building into dramatic nobility with the Eagle Clan theme in centre stage. Echoes of the Discovery theme then sound quietly through in “Caesar’s Compassion” and towards the end of “She Is Different” on gentle piano notes.

Action track “Human Hunt” unsurprisingly leans heavily into the Jerry Goldsmith side of things, evoking the dramatically chaotic style of his infamous “The Hunt” action cue from the original Planet Of The Apes score throughout its five minute runtime, to some pretty impressively tense and naturally percussion-heavy results overall. Even that tribal-esque horn representing the Apes reprises (which certainly got a smile from me!). The eerie downward-spiralling piano motif from the main title of Goldsmith’s Apes score (the closest thing it has to a main theme, I think) then appears in “New Weapon”, with the horn for the Apes from “The Hunt” bursting into centre stage in brass-heavy action for the final minute of the track. Deafeningly malevolent brass is then centre stage in “A Kingdom For Apes” alongside eerie Goldsmith-esque percussive rattles, with this new sinister air continuing into “What A Wonderful Day”; low-pitched moody brass and ghostly vocals build to a thunderous crescendo in this three minute piece.

Noa’s gently noble theme reprises on quietly wistful woodwinds at the start of “Together Strong”, before strings and brass join the fray and the theme then builds to a wondrously emphatic crescendo. At three uninterrupted minutes long it’s the closest this motif has to its own theme track, and it absolutely shines as a result. The eight minute “Very Clever Apes” then reprises the Discovery theme in its opening minute on serene percussion, before some rather horror-like strings build tension for several nail-biting minutes until sinister vocals, hammering drums and a burst of violent brass reach a thunderously malevolent finish. Eerie Goldsmith-esque ambience then occupies much of the subsequent “Simian Summit” and “A Past Discovered” cues, before the musical tension then dials up dramatically in “Cannot Trust A Human” with moodily malevolent brass in centre stage until action bursts in right at the end, leading directly into action setpiece “Ape Aquatics”. Frantic strings and pounding percussion lead a thunderous charge through the first minute of the track, with tension then briefly giving way to heroism at the ninety second mark as an intensely triumphant rendition of the Eagle Clan theme powers through.

With the score now rapidly approaching its end, Noa’s theme reprises twice more in “It Was Ours”, firstly on gently noble brass in the opening minute before then practically exploding into triumphant heroism as the full orchestra arrives at ninety seconds in. From there the track then quietens into peaceful strings-based serenity to its end. “We Will Rebuild” then reprises the Giacchino-esque piano notes and ethereal vocals in its first half before the Discovery theme then thunders emphatically back into frame for the final two minutes, building in both volume and intensity until a loudly hopeful crescendo is reached with the full orchestra once again playing. To end the album final track “A New Age” then sets a curiously sinister finishing tone, utilising frantic strings, bursts of moodily downtrodden brass and eerie vocals to build ominous tension up to a thunderous final crescendo just before the track draws to a close.

Overall, John Paesano’s score for Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes achieves something pretty damned incredible, in being a pretty perfect bridge between Jerry Goldsmith and Michael Giacchino’s distinct musical approaches to the Planet Of The Apes franchise while also breaking ground in its own right. The music here expertly recaptures that gently serene but also rather wondrous tone of Giacchino’s Dawn and War scores (particularly the latter), while also incorporating the eerily unnerving percussive elements from Goldsmith’s iconic work for the 1968 original film (and even some of his thematic elements in the horn for the Apes and the downward-spiralling piano motif from the main title). Paesano brings these very tonally different approaches together seamlessly here which is no easy feat, and does not only this but also introduces some excellent new themes of his own with his trifecta of the wondrous Discovery (see “Discovery” for the best rendition of this), noble Noa (see “Together Strong”) and hopeful Eagle Clan (see “Ape Aquatics”) motifs. These themes together with the aforementioned elements from Goldsmith and Giacchino and some truly wonderful orchestration throughout not only make for some pretty fantastic standout moments (see the above cues as well as “Human Hunt” and “We Will Rebuild” for examples of this) but also an Apes score that’s well worthy of the iconic franchise.

Score: 8/10

Standout Cues: 1. Discovery/16. Human Hunt

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