My dog just died at the vet's, I was 10, so my mother, fearing for my emotional well being, stopped at the movie house to show me this flick.
Yeah, I can understand all the criticism directed at this movie, I can understand how it doesn't match up to the original concept, I can understand how they could have gone with another storyline and it might have worked better. But 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes' was a product of its time, the studios rarely made sequels in the '60s, writers and producers were always looking for new ideas, and there were more talented and creative people in the film industry. They wanted something different, and they made it. So you gotta take it or leave it on that.
Now, back to my mother and me when I was ten. Thank God I wasn't watching some Disney movie, starring Kurt Russell and an invisible chimp, that would have depressed me more. Instead I got James Franciscus, crashing his spaceship in a nuclear wasteland, imprisoned by apes, forced to beat the crap out of a gorilla, making his way through destroyed subway tunnels, touring the subterranean ruins of New York, defying murderous mutilated mutants, killing people with spiked iron bars, punching Charlton Heston,and finally attacking a gorilla army single handed with a cool looking machine gun as the mutants are about to set off their "Doomsday Bomb". Hey-you cant get into that, you ain't even an American! They don't make them like this any more. The era of creative film-making is long over. Nowadays Bruce Willis will make the same movie ten times in a row. For all its faults, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes offered us something different, and in a very short running time too. It was meant to entertain, maybe throw in a little blatant social commentary, sell a few candy bars, and then fade away. But notice it hasn't faded away. People still watch this movie, and still like it, years after Die Hard disappears into a film vault. It has the mark of effort on it, and it's never boring.
The other reviews on here are all good, and their points are well taken. This is a sequel from an era without sequels, but it can stand on its own. I saw this never having seen the first movie. It was cool to a ten year old then, and fifty years from now, it will be cool to ten year olds of all ages.
Yeah, I can understand all the criticism directed at this movie, I can understand how it doesn't match up to the original concept, I can understand how they could have gone with another storyline and it might have worked better. But 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes' was a product of its time, the studios rarely made sequels in the '60s, writers and producers were always looking for new ideas, and there were more talented and creative people in the film industry. They wanted something different, and they made it. So you gotta take it or leave it on that.
Now, back to my mother and me when I was ten. Thank God I wasn't watching some Disney movie, starring Kurt Russell and an invisible chimp, that would have depressed me more. Instead I got James Franciscus, crashing his spaceship in a nuclear wasteland, imprisoned by apes, forced to beat the crap out of a gorilla, making his way through destroyed subway tunnels, touring the subterranean ruins of New York, defying murderous mutilated mutants, killing people with spiked iron bars, punching Charlton Heston,and finally attacking a gorilla army single handed with a cool looking machine gun as the mutants are about to set off their "Doomsday Bomb". Hey-you cant get into that, you ain't even an American! They don't make them like this any more. The era of creative film-making is long over. Nowadays Bruce Willis will make the same movie ten times in a row. For all its faults, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes offered us something different, and in a very short running time too. It was meant to entertain, maybe throw in a little blatant social commentary, sell a few candy bars, and then fade away. But notice it hasn't faded away. People still watch this movie, and still like it, years after Die Hard disappears into a film vault. It has the mark of effort on it, and it's never boring.
The other reviews on here are all good, and their points are well taken. This is a sequel from an era without sequels, but it can stand on its own. I saw this never having seen the first movie. It was cool to a ten year old then, and fifty years from now, it will be cool to ten year olds of all ages.