Review of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) by Brian F — 04 Jan 2009

Oh my word! The most disappointing sequel that I think that I have ever seen. Where the other movie suceeded this movie entirely failed. I am just not very impressed at all. I expected so much more of this movie after the first.

The story starts off exactly where the original ended, of that I was happy for, because I was anxious to see what happened. If I had known what was coming ahead, I don't think that I would have been anxious, though. The whole first half of the movie was the same, get captured, run away plot over and over again. It became very hard to bear after a while. So, when I watched as Brent and Nova discovered the remnants of New York in a cave, I thought the story was going to take a good turn uphill. Instead, it got worse, a lot worse. Brent and Nova meet up with a race of telopaths who worship an atom bomb. I thought that it could have been well done, but the movie didn't do it right. I did like the idea of the race that didn't believe in violence, so they make their enemies kill eachother. That was probably the best thing about this movie, at least the thought behind it.

I was surprised to see Charlton Heston disappear in the first ten or so minutes, and when they brought him back for the end I was pretty excited, but nothing could really save this movie. On top of all that, people I thought would live all died. Which I hope is all part of the bigger Planet of the Apes story. Well, on to the next movie in the series to see what happens yet. Though, I am not nearly as excited to see what happens after watching this movie, compared to when I watched the first.