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Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Mutant humans leave a radioactive 'dead city' to destroy a colony of monkeys and men. Roddy McDowall returns for this lacklustre final chapter in the Apes saga
North America, 2670 AD. The revolutionary ape leader Caesar (McDowall, returning as the son of the character he originally played) now rules over a small rural community of humans and apes. Man and beast try to co-habit peacefully but the militant gorilla General Aldo (Atkins) has other plans. He wants to overthrow Caesar and wipe out the humans forever. In an attempt to see what the future holds, Caesar and orang-utan Virgil (Williams), accompanied by their human friend MacDonald (Stoker), set off on a mission to the radioactive 'dead city'. They sneak in to the government archives and listen to broadcast reels from Caesar's parents about the fate of the Earth. It's not great news: gorillas are set to destroy the planet in the year 3950. They also run up against a group of mutated human survivors, ruled over by Governor Kolp (Darden). Kolp's disfigured army follows Caesar and gang back to their nearby settlement and wages an attack. This fifth and, thankfully, last film in the series is baffling, disappointing and frequently just plain silly. The monkey make-up hits an all-time low with only seasoned ape-actor Roddy McDowall able to perform through his muzzle mask. The legendary director John Huston appears in the opening sequence as an ape 'Lawgiver' but is mercifully (and perhaps contractually) unrecognisable in costume. The elderly orang-utan armourer and sage Mandemus (Ayres) looks more like a Crufts-winner than a primate. The pivotal battle scene lacks any gusto and, with the humans herded up into a corral, it deteriorates into an old fashioned western-style shootout between the apes and Kolp's mutant soldiers. The whole sorry affair drags its hairy knuckles towards the climax. But what unforgettable image can director J. Lee Thompson possibly conjure up to rival the original film's iconic vision of destruction? A showdown up a tree. As one of Kolp's aides says, "Somewhere along the line of history this bloody reaction has got to stop. A destroys B; B destroys C; C destroys A and is destroyed by D who destroys E. Before anyone knows where they are, there won't be anyone left to know anything anywhere!" Quite. Verdict More 'A Field Full Of Chimps' than the Planet Of The Apes. Cheap, unfathomable and regrettable, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes ends the series on a whimper. |
