Battle for the Planet of the Apes

In the beginning God created beast and man so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world of peace. The original Planet of the Apes film franchise closed down with a whimper as budget restrictions, general screenplay lethargy and contempt of familiarity swamps the production. Plot finds the apes and humans trying to live in harmony, but find their efforts stymied by a tribe of mutant humans living in the nuked underworld, and that of a power-hungry gorilla general. What follows is a film that sees various simian and human species throw exposition at each other in the vain belief it's literately smart. When the action comes it's half hearted and perpetrated by the least amount of actors possible. The make-up is shoddy, the fun element gone, while the acting is very uneven across the board. There's enough value in the various characterisations to at least keep fans of the series interested, and the photography belies the cheapness evident elsewhere, but really it's a sad closure to what had once been a smartly entertaining franchise. 4/10

A limp way for the original franchise to finish. Its predecessor, 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes', was a weak entry too but remained watchable, though 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' kinda straddles the other side as it's uninteresting. I didn't dislike it and it is very short at around 82 minutes, which helps. Roddy McDowall is the pick of the cast, though even his performance feels weary at this point. A 'strong' 6/10 rating from me, if such a thing exists. It was the right time for them to end this (very good, all in all) series.

Well the last film was last year, but that's ten years for an ape so we now find "Caesar" (Roddy McDowell) living with his family and presiding over what I think Shakespeare referred to as a "loose confederation of warring tribes". The militaristic gorillas, led by "Aldo" (Claude Atkins) are just itching for a fight - and they might just get their way as the humans under the command of a surviver from the command bunker last time are hot for a battle too. "Kolp" (Severn Darden) is bent on reducing their home to rubble and reducing the Simian race to slavery once again. When tragedy strikes "Caesar", things come to an head - with an heavily armed force approaching and his own source of insurrection to contend with. Can they prevail - once again? Although this isn't bad, I feel the franchise has run out of oomph now. The stories of will they survive, thrive etc. have started to recycle themselves just once too often. The characters are now too established, their morals and principles too enshrined, for there to be much scope to enhance, develop or alter the storylines and so here, though there is quite a sneaky bit of strategy at the end, it's all just a little procedural. All in all, these are quite an entertaining series of five films with some excellent costumes and make-up, just enough action and some fodder for our own grey matter to give them a value. I'm not sure we need any more, though.

**_The most comic booky of the original five films, but sociologically interesting_** A dozen years after a nuclear war, Caesar (Roddy McDowell) oversees a village of apes mixed with subservient humans. He and his advisor (Paul Williams), as well as Ceasar’s human assistant (Austin Stoker), make an excursion to the Forbidden City for important data, but this incurs the wrath of Kolp, leader of the underground mutants (Severn Darden). Meanwhile a militant gorilla is enthusiastic about the prospects of war (Claude Akins). "Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (1973) had the lowest budget of the original five movies, costing around $1.8 million (which would be equal to $7.4 million today), yet it still made a respectable profit at the box office. So, technically speaking, it’s the least impressive of the five flicks; however, it makes up for it with compelling dialogues and interesting characters, e.g. Caesar, McDonald and Virgil and their trek to the city. While the script was written by the husband/wife team that wrote “The Omega Man” two years earlier, it was polished up by Paul Dehn, who wrote 90% of the thought-provoking dialogues and altered the ending (throwing in the bit with Ceasar’s statue). Critics complain about the straight-on military attack in the last act, but I guess they never heard of Pickett’s Charge or similar military assaults. Besides, the mutants hadn’t fought such a battle since the distant atomic holocaust and weren’t in top health due to longtime radiation exposure (for instance, notice how slow they walk). The number of capable combatants available was understandably limited as well. As noted in my title blurb, the sociological commentary is interesting throughout with its observations about war, pacifism, equality, sectarianism, subcultures and the corresponding legalism. A good example regarding that last one is how humans cannot say "no" to apes, but apes can say it to each other. Now relate that to the 'n' word today. On the feminine front, blonde Colleen Camp has a small role as human Julie while brunette Heather Lowe plays the doctor of the village, also human. France Nuyen is on hand as well as Kolp’s assistant. There are several notables in the periphery, female and male, such as John Huston, Natalie Trundy, Lew Ayres, Noah Keen and so on. Despite the low-budget and comic book vibe, this is my third favorite of the original five movies, placing after the original and “Beneath.” It’s basically on par with “Escape” and “Conquest,” I just prefer it over those. It runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot at Fox Movie Ranch, which today is Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, a 33-minutes drive due west of Hollywood. The underground sequences in the Forbidden City were shot at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles. GRADE: B/B-