Everyone’s favourite CGI ape (Andy Serkis) isn’t back in this 10th instalment of the franchise that has survived nuclear blasts, time warps and a brief association with James Franco.

Set 300 years after the death of chimp leader Caesar, the apes are living in dignified clans while humans have been reduced to the brain function of a presidential candidate. But one night the peaceful falconry clan is attacked by a gorilla army, leaving young chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague) to rescue his bipedal brethren.

The fourth instalment in the rebooted franchise is similar in setup to 1973’s Battle for the Planet of the Apes, with apes and humans finding a queasy post-apocalyptic co-existence – the difference being that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes doesn’t look like it was filmed in a local park. The simian series has come a long way since the swinging ’60s, evolving from rubber monkey masks to grade-Ape CGI that makes Kubrick’s chimps look like chump change.

But like Battle, the film struggles without a clear power dynamic between the apes and humans, which makes it feel slightly aimless. It suffers from classic fourth-film syndrome, following up a perfect trilogy with some more movie for the sole purpose of drumming up monkey business. It’s like Toy Story 4 if Woody had been slain in battle.

That said, Kingdom is barrels of fun, the jungle action as gripping as its prehensile characters. But its broader, adventure movie tone seems a step down from the grown-up sci-fi of the previous trilogy, throwing in twists, timeframes and plot elements that leave you scratching your head – none more so than when William H. Macy shows up. The human characters are generally poorly handled, as the attempts to make them morally ambiguous actually just muddles their motivations.

Gibbon those flaws, the film falls short of apepointment viewing. While one cannot fault its focus on our fellow primates, ironically the movie is ruined by humans.