Review of Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) by Harry W — 11 Aug 2013

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is merely the product of a dying film series attempting to squeeze one last film in to make money off whatever fans remain of the series, but its qualities are beneficial only in minuet manners.

These manners include the fact that Battle for the Planet of the Apes was shot on a decent location with some decent cinematography, and features some decent action. And John Huston gave a decent performance where his iconic booming voice was played to his benefit.

Elements of Battle for the Planet of the Apes are decent, but there is not a decent amount of decent elements to make Battle for the Planet of the Apes a decent film as a whole.

Primarily because for one thing, since the Planet of the Apes series has run for so long the ideas are getting low, and so Battle for the Planet of the Apes borrows characters from its worst film in the series, Beneath the Planet of the Apes to tell its thin and uncreative story.

And it isn't strongly scripted nor is it well directed by J. Lee Thompson, and frankly $1,710,000 is too big a budget for him to understand anymore since he squanders it on colourful visuals as supposed to what usually constitutes a good film, primarily a script, a plot, a cast of good actors and a reason for audiences to keep watching after they've waned through the preceding 4 films in a film series inconsistent in quality. Battle for the Planet of the Apes is surely the place to end the series, and the best thing that the film does is realise that, even though it succeeded with its intention of making a few million dollars. Essentially, Battle for the Planet of the Apes is an example of bringing a shark back from the dead so you can jump it all over again, because the shark was jumped by the second film in the series, and never really recovered, save from the decent quality Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Battle for the Planet of the Apes really had no thought into it as you can tell by the plot, and save from the presence of John Huston and the action, there is minimal appeal in watching the end of a dead series.