Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Memorable, crazy movie

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This fifth and final entry in the initial theatrical "Apes" series is the weakest of the bunch. It seems as if it was limited by budgetary considerations. After "Conquest" set up the rise of the simians, this story is rather small in its scale, focusing on one ape / human community, the woodsy "Ape City", that doesn't seem to have that many residents. The apes and the people peaceably co-exist, but trouble is on the horizon. First, ape leader Caesar (the always great Roddy McDowall) decides on an expedition to the "Forbidden City" to seek out audio and video of his long deceased parents, incurring the wrath of humans suffering radiation sickness. Second, a fanatical, aggressive gorilla general, Aldo (Claude Akins), is just itching to start something.Even at its worst, this series was never completely without interest, and this entry does have some good dialogue and moments. It also has some pretty decent action sequences towards the end, with lots of gunfire (but virtually no gore) and lots of explosions. Unfortunately, story author Paul Dehn and screenwriters John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington just couldn't come up with a tale that was particularly compelling. Still, director J. Lee Thompson, who'd also directed "Conquest", keeps things watchable and reasonably entertaining. The main value lies in the performances of old pros like McDowall and Akins. They're ably supported by Lew Ayres, Paul Williams, Natalie Trundy (who was in four of the "Apes" films), Severn Darden (as the crazed villain, Governor Kolp), Austin Stoker (who plays the brother of the Hari Rhodes character in "Conquest"), France Nuyen, and Paul Stevens. A young John Landis has an acting role as one of the apes; the great actor-filmmaker John Huston appears in wraparound segments as the wise old Lawgiver.Watchable for its duration, but it has to rate as something of a disappointment.Available in both a theatrical version and an extended version which runs about 10 minutes longer.Followed by a TV series.Six out of 10.

The last in the original Planet of the Apes film series and easily the worst and least interesting of the lot. Surprisingly, they still managed to draw in much of the same actors, including Roddy McDowall as Caesar, the original smart ape in this timeline.This movie suffers largely from the same problems as its immediate predecessor, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It tries to bridge the time gap between the third and the original film, explaining how the events and the world of the original film could have come to be, but it does so wanting to use the characters from the two previous films, which forces the timeline to be too compressed, thus not allowing it to make any sense. Things have happened unrealistically fast, destroying the illusion and making you question the whole thing.But, whereas the fourth film at least had some good characters and a grand ending, this one is just boring. Caesar is barely in it, the villains are boring iterations of characters we've already seen in the previous films and even the battle scenes lack the intensity and scope of the ones before them.Watching the series, you can also really see how the budgets kept getting smaller and smaller with each subsequent film. So you can only imagine how this, the last one, looks. Like so often happens with long-running series, this one ends as well, not in triumph but with a whimper.

I conclude my original PLANET of the APES film series review, with the fifth and final film, BATTLE FOR THE PLANET of the APES.After the success and mixed reaction of CONQUEST OF THE PLANET of the APES, Fox said that this would be the last film in the original series of the APES film. J. Lee Thompson returned as director. Series writer Paul Dehn submitted a treatment, but illness forced him to leave the film before completing the script and John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington to write the screenplay. This film also continued Conquest's focus on racial conflict, like the other two films for me.BATTLE follows Caesar as he leads the apes and their human subjects after a devastating war that destroyed much of the planet. He contends with both an attack by radiation-scarred human mutants and a coup attempt as he attempts to build a better society for both apes and humans.This story is actually, along with BENEATH THE PLANET of the APES, is the second worst of the series. While I like the direction of this film, I could not stand the way the story was written out. The Corringtons just took this story and ruined it in the best way that they possibly can.The make-up and effects -- this was the only movie for me that I think that none of those are really great -- the filmmakers had only a small budget of $1.2. million dollars and that is just cheap. The make-up is stupid, and the visuals are cheesy and out of place.The music in this film was terrible and the pacing of this movie is short, but is way too short. The movie is supposed to be an hour and something minutes long but this movie is just crazy and awkward in the whole darn thing.The acting is just dreadful. Only credit that will be given is to Roddy McDowall as Caesar, he does a great job. The other actors is just out there and makes very little effort to put on good performances. The only performance kind of worth mentioning is John Huston as the Lawgiver, but even then his performance is physically over-the-top.So, overall, I hate BATTLE FOR THE PLANET of the APES as well and this is getting a 2.3 out of 10.

In my opinion this film is underrated it is not a great film by any means but is better than Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. This is the fifth and final chapter in the ape saga and in my opinion it didn't disappoint the planet is a desolated place, Ceasar wants apes and humans to live together however ape has the edge over man as leaders and the humans fight back... This film stars Roddy McDowell, Claude Akins & Natalie Trundy this film was directed by J.Lee Thompson i recommend this film even though it has a low rating on IMDb it is an enjoyable film so watch and enjoy THE FINAL CONFRONTATION***/*****