Review of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) by Harry W — 19 May 2013

Beneath the Planet of the Apes barely has relevance to its famous predecessor and improvises characters along with a brief appearance by Charlton Heston. Of the few positives there are, the makeup and costuming for the characters are good and it serves as a piece of 1970's counterculture told through a science fiction story which is interesting to witness, as are the interesting sets used to tell the story. So on the surface of the movie, certain things look good visually.

But Beneath the Planet of the Apes practically serves as two films. One that rehashes the plot of its predecessor and one that isn't the slightest bit relevant and is rather a stupid science fiction story about humans who can create fire in the blink of mind against the backdrop of a planet ruled by apes and so the mix of the two plots is completely tedious and nonsensical, and above all isn't entertaining. It's pointless and confusing right until the end and frankly I don't believe in the slightest bit that psychic humans would live underground and wear strange masks for some reason.

There's nothing comprehendible about Beneath the Planet of the Apes and little to enjoy since it's two science fiction stories that don't intersect well at all and are both sufficiently boring and nowhere near as thought provoking as its famous predecessor, and it is too far from a story about apes to be entertaining since the role the apes played could have been done just as easily with any other character or creature, and essentially it just becomes too stupid for anyone's good. Still, at least they were able to get Charlton Heston back, even if it was for a brief time.

So Beneath the Planet of the Apes lives up to its title because its too beneath a story about a planet of the apes to be considered one and if anything it's a mix of two stories aimed at the wallets of viewers who don't mind forking over money to monetarily-driven film sequels.