Now that RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.the newest reboot of the Apes Franchise is doing very well at the box office,it kind of right to take a look at the whole APES film franchise.By the way, I find it mice that notorious controversial film critic Armond White gave a rave review to this new APES film, but being Armond what he is,he made a crucial mistake in saying in his review that Tim Burton's remake of PLANET OF THE APES was made and released in 2004, when in reality the film was a Summer 2001 film release, If Armond would have bothered to just spot checked his facts of his film review by checking the IMDB, Wikipedia and even the 20th Century Fox website, he would have corrected this obvious mistake. Also strange is that Armond being an African American film critic,has not commentated in anyway in his review about the new APES film that the film was partially influenced in it's main storyline by CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972) and that the Apes rebellion against the abusive humans in that film as well as in the reboot,paralels the racial tensions and rebellion of black Americans against racist whites in the 1970's, while other American film critics had recognized that similarity.But with such errors, Armond White once again demonstates what kind of film critic he is, even if he is praising the new APES film. But anyway here is my critical appraisal and overlook on the whole APES film series.
1.PLANET OF THE APES(1968) Rated **** out of ****
The first Apes film in the series continues to be the best of the whole series even after more than 40 years of it's initial theatrical release and is still a bonafide classic in the science fiction film genre together with Kubrick's 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY(1968), STAR WARS(1977) and THE MATRIX(1999) Together with great direction by Franklin Shaefner, a cracker jack and socially provocative script by Rod Serling & Michael Wilson,Academy Award winning makeup by John Chambers, fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith, as well a brilliant cast starting with Charlton Heston as Taylor the astronaut captive by the apes and Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter & Maurice Evans as the apes, right down to the amazing jaw dropping famous surprise ending at the Statue of Liberty.
2.BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES(1970) RATED **1/2 out of ****
The first sequel to PLANET OF THE APES has interesting ideas as well as a good energetic score by Leonard Rosenman, but the film unfortunately is a bit of a let down compared with the first film of the series because of a lower budget that affects the film's production values as well as sub standard direction by TV director Ted Post (HANG EM HIGH,MAGNUM FORCE)and the lack of Roddy McDowell who doesn't appears as Cornelius in the film(he was replaced by another actor) and the very little screentime that Charlton Heston has in the sequel compared to lead James Franciscus who definitely is not as compelling an actor than Heston was in the lead role.
3.ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES(1971) Rated *** out of ****
The second sequel in the series is the best yet after the great original entry in which intelligent talking apes Cornelius,Zira and Milo escape the destruction of the Earth as depicted in the previous sequel by traveling back into time in Heston's spacecraft back in 1973.There the Apes are treated as novelties and celebrities by the human race,until when interrogated by US intelligence forces it is found out that in the near future Apes will revoly against Man and dominate the planet.When a scientist Dr. Hasslein finds out that Zira is pregnant with Cornelius' child who could be also an intelligent talking ape like his parents,the doctor takes drastic measures to kill the apes in order to change Earth's history. But Zira & Cornelius escape with their child to a traveling circus run by it's sympathetic owner, Armando until the authorities catch up with Apes in a dramatic and tragic showdown which leads up to a not so surprise ending. But great direction by Don Taylor(DAMIEN:OMEN II),marvelous performances by Roddy McDowell,Kim Hunter,Ricardo Montalban and Bradford Dillman as well as another stirring score by Oscar Winning composer Jerry Goldsmith and an inventive intelligent script by Paul Dehn(GOLDFINGER) makes this a great entry in the Apes film franchise.
4,CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES(1972) Rated **1/2 out of ****
The fourth film in the Apes series tries to convey how the apes got to revolt against their Human slave masters in the near future since a space virus killed all cats & dogs and other domestic pets and apes were forced to take their place.But despite an interesting script by Paul Dehn and good direction by J.Lee Thompson(THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, the original CAPE FEAR).it's so obvious that 20th Century Fox cut costs on this film to a much lower budget that is detrimental to the film by filming it in the new and convenient Century Plaza apartment complex that is right next door to the studio.Also the studio intervened with director Thompson's much more violent original cut of the film to make the film more family friendly to get a G rating by changing the film's original pessimistic and utterly violent ending in which Caesar,the son of Zira & Cornelius and leader of the Apes revolt orders the brutal execution of the defeated humans to a more positive one in which he spares the humans deaths.But there is still very good performances as always by Roddy McDowell as Caesar,Ricardo Moltalban,Hari Rhodes,Don Murray and Natalie Trundy.The recent DVD/BluRay release of the film has the original and superior Director's cut of the film as well as the theatrical release of the film.
5.BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES(1973) Rated ** out of ****
The fifth and final film in the original Apes movie series is also by far,the weakest because of it's obviously extremely cheap low budget that gives the film a TV movie feel, despite the professional direction by J Lee Thompson,a tremendously effective score by Leonard Rosenman and the usually good acting by Roddy McDowell,Natalie Trundy,Claude Akins,John Huston, Paul Williams, Severn Darden and Austin Stoker.Also regular Apes screenwriter Paul Dehn is notedly absent from the script of this sequel although he did wrote the original storyline but in his place.THE OMEGA MAN's screenwriters Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington delivered a rather ineffective script that tries in vain to tie up all the Apes storylines to end the series in a satisfactory manner.
6.PLANET OF THE APES(2001)**1/2 out of ****
The first Apes film in more than 25 years and a updated remake to the 1968 classic PLANET OF THE APES does have inventive direction by cult director Tim Burton(BATMAN,BEETLEJUICE),fabulous Apes makeup by Oscar winning Rick Baker(AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON,THE WOLFMAN) and a really great score by Danny Elfman(BATMAN, SPIDERMAN, DARKMAN).But rather bad miscasting with former rapper Mark Wahlburg doing his worst Charlton Heston impersonation in the lead of an astronaut trapped in a planet dominated by talking intelligent apes, Estella Warren as a rather ineffectual human love interest to Wahlburg and Paul Giamatti as a wisecracking human slave trader Ape. But the action sequences and battles between the apes and Humans as well as the film's special visual effects and effective performances by Tim Roth,Helena Bonham Carter,Michael Clarke Duncan and even Charlton Heston star of the original Apes film in an amusing cameo.But the studio's decision to top the surprise ending of the original 1968 classic falls completely flat the way it is shot at the Lincoln Memorial(although it evocates the ending in Pierre Boulle's original Apes novel)
8.RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES(2011)*** out of ****
This reboot to the Apes series is quite good despite it over abundant use of CGI effects in depicting the Apes in this film instead of using real human actors in ape makeup as in all the other films in the Apes film series.But Andy Sirkis(LORD OF THE RINGS, KING KONG remake) amazingingly convincing motion capture CGI performance as Caesar the leader of the Apes revolt carries the film in a very effective manner as well as the film's script astutely takes the original central premise of CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES(1972) of a apes revolution to a new level ,managing to succeed where the 1972 film couldn't do because of studio intervention at the time. Rupert Wyatt's effective direction is especially evident in the final third act of the film in which Caesar leads the ape population thru a violent rampage thru San Francisco until the climatic battle on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.With the apparent box office success of this reboot,a new series of Apes films could be very well possible.
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