We are big fans of the Planet of the Apes movie series, but it wasn’t always that way. 🦍
It was one of those things we were aware of, mainly from its TV series and Cartoon in the Seventies, when growing up.
But if we saw the movies, we had no real memory of them.
In fact we didn’t really discover the movies, until the late Eighties, when we saw the brilliant performance of Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer, in one of our all-time favourite films, Fright Night.
If we were truly honest, we didn’t really feel anything for the movies, until the series was rebooted and reimagined by our favourite director, Tim Burton.
However, as much as we love the work of Tim, and we do enjoy his version, it is not our favourite.
For us,the one that ignited a real love again for the franchise was the most recent trilogy of Rise, Dawn and War of the Planet of the Apes.
So, with a new movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, out in May, which will continue on from that trilogy, we decided for April, we would make it Ape-ril by revisiting all Nine of the movies again.
Starting with the original five movies, these movies are a bit of a mixed bag.
The original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston remains an all time SyFy classic.
Yet it’s first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is probably our least favourite of the movies.
It is all a bit silly, as an astronaut (played by James Franciscus) is sent to try and find the Charlton Heston character who went missing from the original movie.
Not only does he find the ape planet, but an underground city with telepathic humans, and will be mostly remembered by its ending, which is just as shocking as the original film, if not more so.
The film is also the only one of the original five to not feature Roddy McDowall, maybe he knew?
But the third film is probably our second best of the original five.
Escape From the Planet of the Apes finds two apes who using the spaceship from the first film travel back in time through the same portal that Heston’s character went through to get to the ape planet in the original movie.
The film plays like a fish out of water movie in parts, such as California Man, as the two apes become instant celebrities and have to learn about human customs and sees them shopping as an example.
However as per the previous two movies, it has another not particularly happy ending.
Leaping forward we end up in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, where Apes are now trained and are used as slaves.
Caesar, the monkey saved from the previous movie starts an uprising against the humans.
The original series ends with Battle for the Planet of the Apes and Caesar must maintain control of the Ape planet from rival apes and a cult of humans.
Conquest and Battle have a lot of promise, but and most notable with Battle, the budget is reduced, and a decision to head to TV and end the franchise had been made, so they are both weaker entries.
Tim Burton would then reimagine the original Planet of the Apes movie in 2001, with Mark Wahlberg.
It has some positives, mainly Rick Baker’s incredible ape make up work and a great Danny Elfman score, but it doesn’t really add much.
It does redeem itself slightly, as like the first film it does have a strong ending, which would have set up a sequel, had it done well.
For fans of the original movies it does also feature cameos from original stars Charlton Heston and original Nova, Linda Harrison.
Whilst it may seem cool to hate this movie, we do enjoy it a lot, as well as holding fond memories for us as was the first film we saw at the Odeon Leicester Square.
Ten years later and the new trilogy would begin, and as trilogies go, this one is pretty much perfect.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes explains the origins of the ape rising, done in a way that seems plausible and is the start of the journey of Caesar (Andy Serkis) as the first talking ape.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a sign that perhaps apes and humans could get along and gives hope, until a rogue Ape sets his own agenda.
Which led to War of the Planet of the Apes, which much like the original Battle movie, sees a human (Woody Harrelson) want to rule the planet and wants to wipe out the apes.
As stated, we think the trilogy is pretty much perfect, but we look forward to see if Kingdom will start a new trilogy or end the franchise again.
Our ranking of the Apes movies, in reverse order.
9️⃣ Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
8️⃣ Battle For the Planet of the Apes (1973)
7️⃣ Conquest for the Planet of the Apes (1972)
6️⃣ Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
5️⃣ Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes (2001)
4️⃣ Planet of the Apes (1968)
3️⃣ War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
2️⃣ Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
1️⃣ 🥇 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
At the time of writing, you can find all 9 of the Apes movies on Disney+
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