A Series Review: Planet of the Apes – Part 4
Posted by jat59072Others: Reviews, Series
Read the Planet of the Apes Series Review Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.
Movie #4: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Welcome to the distant future: 1991. In the twenty movie years since Escape From the Planet of the Apes, not only have all of the cats and dogs on Earth died from a mysterious plague, but humans have taken apes, who have suddenly gone through hundreds of years of evolution and look like their future relatives, as slaves when they realize their learning potential. With the sudden reappearance of Milo (now known as Caesar), who had been supposedly killed along with his parents, Zira and Cornelius, for the preservation of the human race, the stage is set for an ape revolution with Caesar as the head of the army.
Now, if any of this sounds familiar, it’s due to the fact that most of the events portrayed in Conquest come directly from Cornelius’ description of the downfall of the human race in Escape. The biggest problem with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is that the humans of 1991 here have become so unbearably stupid that they completely ignore the story of their own downfall, and have gone out of their way to guarantee their own doom. If an ape-man from the future tells you in great detail how your species will die, wouldn’t you not do exactly what he says you are going to? This lack of common sense could just be another lesson from the writers about the human condition, how we choose to ignore all warnings when our convenience is at stake. However, it comes off as more of a continuity error, as none of the characters ever interfere with the system or comment on how strongly it resembles the future Cornelius described, leaving the audience to believe it’s just another mistake, similar to the many that can be found in the previous installment.
Aside from this monumental character error, the explanations for ape slavery and seeing the unfolding of the simian revolution give the series some of its most dramatic and cinematic moments. Roddy McDowell, playing the son of his now-dead Cornelius, is given some really meaty dialogue here, including a pretty incredible monologue near the end of the movie as he addresses his legions of ape followers. This is the kind of stuff that’s normally reserved for Shakespearian tragedies, but the writing here is as strong as any of those, with the ideas of human and animal rights overlapping, and whether destiny is inevitable or must be forced, along with some other heavy topics.
Unfortunately most of the interesting material here is saved for the last half-hour, with the rest of the movie used up introducing us to the inner-workings of the ape slave trade and following Caesar as he traverses the training facilities used to domesticate his brothers, showing us his growing hatred of the human race. There’s nothing really wrong with any of this, but it gets old fast, turning into a tour of a futuristic world, instead of a movie. The action and conflict in the end mostly makes up for this, and makes me very interested to see how it all ends in the next, and final, installment. But until then, I’ll leave you with the greatest scene in the series since the ending of the first film, Caesar’s philosophical discussion with his only human supporter, and his final rousing address to his army of ape revolutionaries.
7 out of 10.
Related posts:
- A Series Review: Planet of the Apes – Part 5
- A Series Review: Planet of the Apes – Part 3
- A Series Review: Planet of the Apes – Part 2
- A Series Review: Planet of the Apes – Part 1
- A Series Review: Friday the 13th- Part 10
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