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User Reviews for: Beneath the Planet of the Apes

JC230
6/10  10 months ago
Not anywhere near as sharp or well crafted as the original- and two movies in Nova still isn’t an actual character- but it’s even more cynical in a way I can respect. It takes the pessimistic worldview of the first movie and takes it even further. Evolved humans and ape are equally cruel, equally foolish, equally arrogant. It is in both their natures to destroy, and to covet their tools of destruction, and there’s only one way that ends. It’s a great theme, and the ending is very daring. As cheesy as the effects are, the bleeding Lawgiver and the nuclear shrine are excellent setpieces and very striking.

But as much as I like some of the weird sci fi, it’s not pulled off well enough to make up for how jarring it is compared to the first film and how it set itself apart from sci fi like this. I like the idea of the mutants, but they don’t ever feel as realized as the apes. Ureses never fully coalesces either. The first half is a pretty middling retread of what came before. Brent is just Taylor again but less realized in character and performance. Heston outshines him in the smallest moments like his delivery of ‘why not?’ and his last moments with Zaius. Zaius refusing to show empathy even at the end of all things is what dooms them all, proving Taylor’s nihilism from the very first scene of the first movie correct. For all its faults, this is an ambitious, pessimistic movie that lives up to the original’s legacy even if it doesn’t match it.
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