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Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 science fiction film which is the fourth and very disappointing entry in the Planet of the Apes franchise.

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“Destiny is the will of God.

And if it is man’s destiny to be dominated, it is God’s will that he be dominated with compassion and understanding.

So, cast out your vengeance.

Tonight, we have seen the birth of the Planet of the Apes!“

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Yes, this one disappointed me a lot. So basically the story here is that Caesar who is the son of Zira and Cornelius leads the ape rebellion against humans. Apparently apes have become pets in the future which is beyond ridiculous. The rebellion itself is well handled and I loved the speeches at the end of the film as they were so powerful, but the film is stale stuff nonetheless and obviously a product of its time.

I am of course talking about the decision to turn this entry into a parallel on the Civil Rights Movement from the time. And although that metaphor fits this series like a glove, it was still presented in a particularly aggressive and obvious manner that it took away the enjoyment of the movie. It thoroughly lacks subtlety.

The characters are also very forgettable and not one of them is even remotely memorable. Caesar is solid, but not the greatest. He as the main character should have been much better developed. And the humans are pretty weak.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes also has weaker costumes owing to a decreased budget. The cinematography is particularly poor and it leads to a pretty dreary looking movie. That frustrated me a lot. The ending is good, but the beginning is weak and the film is admittedly quite boring and never as entertaining as the previous entries were.

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I realize that its story is important and applicable to the real world and the film is quite dark and serious but it isn’t well executed both technically and in the storytelling department and that is why it fails to elicit strong emotion and reaction from the viewers. It is a passable, weak film that is unfortunately the first Apes film that isn’t particularly good. And that is a shame as this story had a lot of potential. But at least we got ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ decades later and that movie dealt with this subject infinitely better.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is admirably more serious, darker and with a very good premise, but the execution is so weak with a great third act, but the rest of the film is pretty dull. The cinematography is poor leading to a dreary looking film, the characterization is very weak and the film is never particularly entertaining leading to the first unfortunate misstep in the Apes franchise.

My Rating – 3

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