Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
While putting aside the debate over the recent remake or re imagining of the series,I do think that the sequels to the original movie are still pretty good,not 100 per cent perfect of course,but still a good deal of fun and a perfect slice of 1970's science fiction.Allot of the fun in the later series is seeing or knowing that under the latex mask have been some major characters actors from cinema.The whole series of course has many undertones,fetishistic fascism,(the all most leather like outfits of the gorillas 's ) torture,human experimentation and of course slavery and even hinting at inter species sex. Battle for the Planet of the Apes is number five in the apes series and see's Caesar (Roddy McDowall) leader of a combined village of both apes and humans struggling to keep peace amongst his mixed tribe,with most of the trouble coming from gorilla general Aldo (Claude Akins) . On top of that we also have the remains of human civilization in the Forbidden City,,ravaged and scarred by radiation and itching to go to war with ape population.Even with there diminishing budgets,Battle for the Planet of the Apes still looks good,the major actors still have suitably good ape makeup and the ravaged city,looks well ravaged even if it is only on a small scale. Obviously the village which is supposed to be some sort of , jungle camp,.is just a few huts in a field, but J. Lee Thompson is an experienced director who makes everything look bigger and better than it really is.Plus we get a bloody great battle at the end where shit (ape probably) blows up. Its easy to pick fault with the sequels,the budgets were getting smaller and I should imagine the public interest was waning by then also,Its all hokum compared to the first two films,but its fun and enjoyable,and you really have to be a sour pus not to enjoy them for what they are.
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