Battle for the Planet of the Apes

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' 2½* rating from me, if such a thing exists. It was the right time for them to end this (very good, all in all) series.

The Ape uprising has taken place so many years ago, and now in 2003 (by my figuring) Earth has went back to a primitive state in the new era of Apes and Humans living together, yet not equal.

Roddy McDowall reprises his role as Caesar in this one. He is more benevolent than in "Conquest..." in that he is mellowed out and Humans are not as evil as he visioned them in the last film. McDonald is his Human companion and voice of reason when the anti-Human sentiment comes to his mind. As in the end of "Conquest...", McDonald is the Human advocate for mercy for the Human race.

After the Ape uprising an offscrean nuclear war took place, demolishing the big cities of Humanity. Apes are now the superior race, yet rely on them to teach the Apes grammar and such. The Humans are subservient to the Apes, yet under Caesar's rule, they are given latitude when they inadvertently revert to the days of old (when the word "no" is uttered by a Human to an Ape, a grave misdeed in these times). A general by the name of Aldo seems to harbor visions of seizing control of the Ape civilization and directing it in a way much different than Caesar.

Caesar verbalizes his wish to have heard some words of wisdom from his long deceased parents, Cornelius and Zira. McDonald says it is so since the parents were under surveillance upon their coming to 1970's Earth, and that filmed records exist as to the revelations about the future of the Earth. Caesar immediately organizes a party of himself, Virgil, and McDonald to visit the Forbidden City (which is radioactive due to the fallout of the nuclear war) to learn about his parents. They go to the archives and find the records they were seeking. Yet meanwhile, there was a group of survivors that lived in the forbidden city that found out that Caesar was there. These humans were terribly disfigured due to the vast nuclear fallout. They recognize Caesar right away and want to gain vengeance for their fate. Caesar and his entourage flee from the Forbidden City once the Human Mutants go after them.

Anything past this will spoil the ending. This was decidedly the last of the POTA's films, and they left an open ending as to whether Humans and Simians can live together in peace.

This final installment in the series may be a bit corny, but it sure as hell does provide us with some action. Humans and apes are again at war, and as a result a lot of stuff explodes, that's pretty much the summary. The usual philosophic remarks are thrown in, but they just work up to the battle the title promised. The action scenes are pretty chaotic but still look good, especially the scene early in the movie where they enter the forbidden zone/undergrond parking lot works out well. By this time the actors knew what they were making and seemed to be loving it, Claude Akins hams it up like crazy. His portrayal of man-hating general Aldo has one dimension, and that dimension is really built to last. We meet Aldo and he's angry, we see him again later and he's angry, and then finally he's well what do you know, angry. His best scene comes near the ending though, you'll know it when you see it. You can say a lot of negative things about this movie, but boring it ain't.

MORD39 RATING: **1/2 out of ****

For starters, it's true that this film is the least in the series. But it's still enjoyable and it's got values (something we could really use these days).

The missing scenes involving the nuclear missile were essential to the intelligence of the film; without them, it suffers. I'm basing my review on the full, uncut edition (as a major APES addict, I have it). If there is a real problem with BATTLE, it's mostly due to the lack of a great story and new blood. Each of the previous films gave us some kind of new direction to explore, whereas this fifth movie is more of a rehash.

I disagree about the casting of Paul Williams as Virgil. I mean, was that guy born to play an orangutan or what!? Similarily, I think Claude Akins as gorilla general Aldo was also an inspired piece of casting.

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES should be a film anyone can enjoy somewhat, and especially by someone claiming to be a fan of the series. Can anyone tell me what film series has an exceptional fifth chapter?

One decade after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.

Screenwriters John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington were brought in after the success of their film "The Omega Man", although prior to that neither one of them had written any science fiction films and, indeed, Joyce Carrington later admitted they had never seen any of the Apes films prior to being hired to write the script for "Battle".

Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review, stating, "Battle looks like the last gasp of a dying series, a movie made simply to wring the dollars out of any remaining ape fans." As usual, Ebert is spot on. This feels nothing like an "Apes" movie at all, and the continuity starts to get a little strange. Even ignoring the paradox of the time loop, there is no explanation of how the apes became able to speak and so forth. If Caesar had a mate and this was 500 years in the future it might make sense, but apes simply do not have the ability to speak!