Easily the least of the original series. I feel like each other entry has something that distinguishes it. The original goes without saying, it’s what started it all and had a razor sharp, disdainfully introspective vision. Beneath gets weird and dives into nihilistic hopelessness. Escape is the softest and saddest, with Cornelius and Mira being its heart. Conquest is the most political and grimy, with a searing climax. This… has nothing like that. McDowall and Williams deliver good performances without much material to elevate them. Stoller has the thankless job of portraying McDonald’s identical in personality brother, and Aldo may be the weakest villain in the series, an extension of Ursus without a Zaius to bounce off of. Just ‘gorilla stupid and cruel because gorilla’. The titular battle is nothing special either, especially compared to Conquest’s uprising, and the film lacks a visual flair of its own.

To earn the bittersweet leaning towards happy ending it’s going for it needs more oomph, more set up, to make it feel earned. There’s a few short bits of philosophy and existentialism to remind you of this franchise’s strengths, but not enough. It’s not a horrible movie, but it’s hard to call it especially good either, and the original series deserved a better send off. This film only exists in this way because of the compromise made in Conquest’s final ending, and that compromise shows in this film’s rewritten script and the kind of compulsory half heartedness of the whole production. Hopefully the Reeves series finds these qualities again, but first I have a less beloved remake I have to get through first.