Review of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) by John P — 09 Jan 2010

The downward slope begins here.

This entry brings back the social commentary from the first two films, giving us an engaging metaphor and allegory for race riots.

Roddy McDowall plays his own son, and gives a great performance, one that is different enough from Cornelius, yet still watchable and familiar.

Yet, the entire premise is so fundamentally stupid that it almost defeats the purpose of the film's existence.

I mean, the human race was told that they took apes on as pets (and later servants), and those servants rose up and defeated humanity.

So, why the fuck would they hold apes as pets, knowing that they could take over, and also knowing that the potential leader for the ape resistance may or may not be alive?

I know asking questions like those defeats the purpose of making the movie, but it's a lazy fucking plot hole that they make absolutely no effort to address. It's as if they thought their audience was made up of children (ironic...).

The ending is another bone of contention for me. Up until the final minute, the ending is dark, and sets up the future of the franchise perfectly. McDowall's Caesar is a flawed and dark character, and a victim of his own rage. His actions are almost hypocritical, and he's a more watchable character because of it.

But then the studio decides to change the dark ending and replace it with something more optimistic, a decision which ends up contradicting the ENTIRE fucking movie!

It's like they didn't even care!

I can't fault the film for its ending, due to extreme stupidity on the part of the fucking morons who decided to change it.

I will fault the creators with the brain-dead follow-up to this.