Battle for the Planet of the Apes Battle for the Planet of the Apes
1973 Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Synopsis
The fifth and final episode in the Planet of the Apes series. After the collapse of human civilization, a community of intelligent apes led by Caesar lives in harmony with a group of humans. Gorilla General Aldo tries to cause an ape civil war and a community of human mutants who live beneath a destroyed city try to conquer those whom they perceive as enemies. All leading to the finale.
Cast
Studios
Genre
Popular reviews
More-
All knowledge is for good. Only the use to which you put it can be good or evil.
-VirgilEasily my least favorite Planet of the Apes film from the originals. Paul Dehn's vision for the screenplay being compromised is probably it's biggest problem with the limited budget being the next. If you watch the special features on the DVD/Blu-ray you'll see what Dehn's original concept for this film was, complete with original title: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Combined with the original ending of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes this could have been the darkest sci-fi franchise ever.
It's pointless to dwell on that though, what you get here is still a fun campy sci-fi…
-
For the final Planet of the Apes movie, it appears the filmmakers turned to Beneath the Planet of the Apes for their inspiration (???). The taut social commentary of the original has been almost completely scrubbed away and replaced with confusing and bizarre mythologizing, and not even John Huston's Lawgiver can make sense of it all.
Paul Williams as a highly intelligent orangutan is brilliant casting.
-
This final Apes movie is heavy on the action, but light on the story. While the previous films all were jam packed with both plot and action, this one just seems to be going through the motions. It just continues the stories already told instead of creating it's own vision. By this time, you are invested in these characters so it is still quite an enjoyable movie, but it's just a bit of a disappointing final film to this great series.
-
There's some seriously whacky casting going on in this one including John Huston, Paul Williams, Austin Stoker, Severn Darden and Lew Ayres, plus Natalie Trundy's fourth appearance in the series. Completely goofy, but still entertaining and it moves right along. Thank you, Lawgiver.
-
An okay finale. It opens in 2678, with John Huston as the Lawgiver, a wise old orangutan who teaches his class about Caesar (Roddy McDowall). The rest of the movie is set in about 2015 and involves Caesar's problems with the barbarous gorilla General Aldo (Claude Akins) and a band of mutants from the Forbidden Zone. The film brings the Apes saga almost full circle, with the humans in Ape City reduced to slaves (who can still speak, having not been lobotomized yet).
The battle scenes are staged better than in Conquest, and there's a lot of action and the usual political parallels (at one point Caesar says "Let us reason together," just like LBJ). John Landis can be seen…
-
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Recent reviews
More-
This final Apes movie is heavy on the action, but light on the story. While the previous films all were jam packed with both plot and action, this one just seems to be going through the motions. It just continues the stories already told instead of creating it's own vision. By this time, you are invested in these characters so it is still quite an enjoyable movie, but it's just a bit of a disappointing final film to this great series.
-
not bad
-
There's some seriously whacky casting going on in this one including John Huston, Paul Williams, Austin Stoker, Severn Darden and Lew Ayres, plus Natalie Trundy's fourth appearance in the series. Completely goofy, but still entertaining and it moves right along. Thank you, Lawgiver.
-
You know you're in trouble with an old SciFi sequel when the first ten minutes is taken up with clips from the last 2 movies. Following the cop out ending to Conquest Caesar is living happily with the humans until he decides to go and look for an old tape of his parents, accompanied by the one guy left over from the last film. They run into the mildly mutated humans and the pretty dull battle kicks off from there. There's a bit of ape on ape friction and there's a hint of a dark future ape war, but its all pretty badly done, with poor ape make up and an overall low budget. Easily avoided.
-
For the final Planet of the Apes movie, it appears the filmmakers turned to Beneath the Planet of the Apes for their inspiration (???). The taut social commentary of the original has been almost completely scrubbed away and replaced with confusing and bizarre mythologizing, and not even John Huston's Lawgiver can make sense of it all.
Paul Williams as a highly intelligent orangutan is brilliant casting.
-
An okay finale. It opens in 2678, with John Huston as the Lawgiver, a wise old orangutan who teaches his class about Caesar (Roddy McDowall). The rest of the movie is set in about 2015 and involves Caesar's problems with the barbarous gorilla General Aldo (Claude Akins) and a band of mutants from the Forbidden Zone. The film brings the Apes saga almost full circle, with the humans in Ape City reduced to slaves (who can still speak, having not been lobotomized yet).
The battle scenes are staged better than in Conquest, and there's a lot of action and the usual political parallels (at one point Caesar says "Let us reason together," just like LBJ). John Landis can be seen…
-
Last in a great series of classic movies!
-
An epic finale until the amazing reboot (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, not that travesty that Burton made)
-
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.