With the last movie it could have all been over, yet as seems almost only an excuse for future sequels Zira and Cornelius managed to escape their dying planet with Brent's ship (I assume it was Brent's since Taylor's was buried beneath the waves), and end up on Earth again - two thousand years or so before the disaster, in a time when the world is run by humans.
Once it's revealed they can talk they're accepted kindly, yet the unintentional revelation that apes will grow to dominate the planet makes some people a bit uncomfortable.
How this happens? In the future: dogs and cats are all wiped out by a plague. Apes become pets, then slaves, and then in the culmination of their mistreatment one of them rises up and speaks: NO. As the humans have told him so many times.
It's the start of a revolution, and as the humans wage war against the apes they also wreck havoc upon their own civilization, and both crumble, making way for a world where apes eventually become the superior breed. Or so was their history. Now that it's all been revealed: will things turn out differently? Will humans be able to prevent their eventual downfall?
The revelation gives our two protagonists one dangerous human enemy, with influence, but they do have friends as well, and when push comes to shove they escape their captivity and make way for the forests. If only Zira hadn't dropped that bag along the way...
It all ends with Zira and Cornelius shot dead, along with their human foe, yet Zira was pregnant, and their baby - cast out into the water, drifts away uncertainly... wonder what happens to him?
It's an interesting twist with Apes in the Human world, rather than vice versa, and at least in the beginning it makes for plenty of comical situations. Even though that's far from the main focus, this makes the movie feel like one of the more light-hearted segments of the series.
From this movie and onward: Roddy McDowall becomes the central figure in this series, having played both Cornelius (as he does now), and soon also his more prominent son, for the duration of the entire series.
William Windom played the president too. I didn't know he was as known as he was before I looked him up along with this movie, but he's one of the greats! Maybe the most prominent actor in all of these movies. They all put on a good act , and the intrigue follows old patterns while tackling the topics of social injustice and what it means to be human. It feels relevant even today.
This is however unfortunately also where the overall quality of the Planet of the Apes movies starts to dwindle, but if you've been along for the ride so far you might as well keep going till the end of it, a mere two years and sequels away.
rated 3/5: not bad
Comments
This was pretty damn interesting. And yet, nobody's spoken! Be the first!
© CyberD.org 2024
Keeping the world since 2004.
The Comment Form