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Previously, on "THE FRANCHISE"...
Don't *** me off, Dr. Zaius, because if I press this button, the whole planet will explode!
Bah, I don't believe it.
You don't?
How were they going to continue the story, if they had destroyed the whole planet?
THE FRANCHISE, Chapter 5: THE PLANET OF THE APES RETROSPECTIVE, Part 2
CONTINUITY
The producers took Paul Dhen aside and told him:
Paul, my friend! This continues to give us money! Write the script for a third movie!
Er... But we have destroyed the whole planet... What do you espect me to do?
I don't know! Just figure out something.
Well, we could always face the audience with 90 minutes of this:
That's not a bad idea but it's quite risky... Try to figure out something a little better.
Oh, my lord...
But, surprisingly, mr. Dhen managed to write an acceptable script.
So the producers hired the director of The Island of Dr. Moureau and...
What was this sequel finally about?
THE PLOT
The films begins.
OK, we are in the 70s... What is this, a prequel?
"NO"
A journey back in time?
"YES"
OK, so a spaceship has landed in the sea, wich looks suspiciously similiar to Taylor's.
In fact this IS Traylor's spaceship from the first movie. Who may be inside...?
Three astronauts come out...
"Welcome, gentlemen, to the United..."
Oh, my god.
They are Cornelius...
...and Zira!
And a third ape who we haven't meet yet.
But Cornelius and Zira are alive! They survived to the planet explosion!
So, ejem, we should take them out of the bin!
Ups, sorry!
The third of the monkeys is Milo.
He is played by Sal Mineo, who you may remember from "Rebel without a Cause".
They had no budget to show us what happened between the second and third movies
so they teach us through dialogue:
Apparently, Milo is a mad scientist who recued the wrecked Taylor's spaceship from the first movie
and he piloted it into space, inviting Cornelius and Zira to the voyage.
But, when they wanted to return to Earth... well, you know.
And because of the demands of the scrip, they travelled back in time
and arrived on planet Earth in the middle of the 70s.
Obviously, Dr. Milo will be a very important character who...
Mommy, people die in these movies.
The two remaining main characters find themselves in the same position than Taylor in the first film.
The humans confine them and treat them as a menace.
But, just as Taylor, they also find people who help them.
Oh, hi, Natalie Trundy! I told you the actress appeaed in more movies.
The villain of the movie is Dr. Hasslein, who had already been mentioned by Taylor and Brent in the former entries.
"According to Dr. Hasslein's theory about Time in a vehicle travelling almost at lightspeed..."
"We must have missed the Hasslein curve. A Time Warp."
Indeed, this is the scientist responsible for all the time-travelling theories that plague this series.
Although his explanation for the nature of time is a tad confusing...
"Here's is a landscape painting"
"The artist who painted the landscape sais to himself: Something is missing. What is it?"
"He himself is missing from the landscape he painted"
"So he makes a picture of the artist painting a landscape"
"But there's something still missing: His own person painting the picture of the artist painting a landscape"
"So he paints a third picture, of an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture of a landscape"
"So he paints a fourth and a fifth picture, resulting in"
"a picture of an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture"
"of an artist painting a picture of a landscape"
Oh, thank you very much Dr. Hasslein! Now everything is as clear as water!
You know what? I have another example! What about a photo...
...of a guy taking a photo of a guy taking a photo of a guy watching "Estrenos Críticos"?
As I said, Hasslein is a villain in this movie
so when he discovers that, in the future, Humanity is going to be dominated by talking apes
and that some mutants are going to destroy the planet by means of a doomsday bomb,
He decides to convince the army of destroying these refugees from the future.
While they are running away from the army, Cornelius and Zira hide in a circus,
where she gives birth to a baby ape, which she gives to the owner of the circus.
This circus owner is played by Ricardo Montalban and is called Armando.
Remember him, he will be important in the next movie.
And the ending...
well, in the former movie they destroyed the whole planet, so they can't possibly reach that level of tragedy again.
Happy endings are not a trademark of this series.
In this movie, they "only" kill the main characters, Cornelius and Zira.
So now we already can throw their names to the rubbish bin.
There they go, the only characters remaing from the original movie.
Well, at least their son, Caesar, is alive.
RATING
This is an awesome movie.
The first one had the idea of reversing the roles of humans and monkeys
and this third entry reverses this idea back, to show us how do the monkeys feel trapped in cages.
Also, this is a time capsule where we can see the society of the 70s and talks about hot subjects from the era.
That's why I grant it an 8/10. Almost as good as the original one.
If you liked the original, this one is almost mandatory.
"Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" was called in Spain "The Insurrection of the Apes"
Why do you change the name if you are going to call the next one "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"!!!???
THE PLOT
"North America - 1991"
This fourth entry takes place some years after the former.
This is Caesar, the son of Cornelius and Zira.
He has grown up and is still under the guardianship of Armando, the circus owner.
I told you that Armando, played by Ricardo Montalbán, would appear in the next movie!
Although not for much time...
The society has changed dramatically since the last movie.
We are not in the 70s anymore, but in a hipothetical future and distopic 90s.
Cats and dogs have died because of a strange illness.
Humans first began to replace them for the apes as mascots
But now they have tame them to the point of slavery.
For the moment, the only one who speaks is Caesar.
By the way, he is played by Roddy McDowall, the same who played his father Cornelius in the first three movies.
I already told you that McDowall is the only actor who appears in all five of the classic movies.
The first three he plays Cornelius, and the last two he plays Caesar.
Caesar is captured and subjected to the worst tortures...
Oh, hi again, Natalie Trundy!
As I said, the WORST tortures.
But he manages to escape and begins a revolution among the apes in order to defeat the humans!
Have you recently seen trailers of a movie about an ape called Caesar who leads a revolution against humans?
Yes, the film that is now in theaters is technically more based in this sequel than in the original from 1968.
But "Conquest" and "Rise" are very different in a lot of ways. I'll talk about "Rise" when we reach it.
RATING
This one is, well, interesting.
Since the former entry we already had guessed that a revolution of the apes was going to take place eventually.
And we could esaily imagine that the leader was going to be the son of Cornelius and Zira, or his descendants.
But this film is interesting for the ficticious society that it portrays:
totalitarian, distopic and racist.
Reminiscent of the novels "1984" and "Brave New World", and I'd even dare to say
that is has a little of the future Blade Runner.
Very different style from the previous movies. (The first two ones in the desert and the third in the real world)
Also, one the revolution starts, it turns out to be very hiperrealistly violent and dirty.
Just like our contemporary Batman version.
A curious trivia: This film if so realist in its violence
that the producers feared that it may inspire actual violent revolutions in the real world.
So they slightly changed the original ending so the apes didn't lynch the human president.
But it's not much of a difference actually.
I give it 6/10. It doesn't bother the main story and even adds some interesting contributions.
"Battle for the Planet of the Apes" was called in Spain "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"
just like the original title for the fourth entry.
Why did they want to confuse us this way???
"Damn you, spanish translators!"
"Damn you and your free translations! Damn you to hell!!!"
CONTINUITY
They were releasing one movie per year, and each of them were commercial succeses
but this success was slowly decreasing, so the producers gave less budget for each.
So, when they reached the fifth movie, the production costs were down to a minimum.
Paul Dhen, who, as I said, was scripting all of them since the second one,
wrote a treatment for the fifth story but, when he saw the budget, quickly left the franchise,
and others had to finish the screenplay for him.
So this one, the final chapter, had brutal budget constraints and a nearly unfinished script.
How do you think this turned out?
THE PLOT
Ten years have passed since the Revolution and civilization has regressed inmensely.
All of the apes have learned to talk already, and they live in this little city... or village... or summer camp.
They are led, of course, by Caesar, who is married to... Oh, hi again, Natalie Trundy!
This is the last time you appear, right?
The apes try to live peacefully with the humans, although they still have bitter memories of the past slavery
so humans are something like second-class citizens.
In the outside, there is also a Forbidden Zone, just like in the first movies
and there exists some humans that maybe in the future will turn into the mutants from the second film.
And they should have the doomsday bomb too.
This bomb was supposed to appeared in this one, but...
Caesar goes to investigate the Forbidden Zone and then comes back
and there's a B-movie battle against the mutants. Nothing important, really.
Oh, I almost forgot! The villain from this movie is the gorilla Aldo
who wants to usurpate Caesar's throne, and kills his son in order to do so.
I didn't bother to introduce Caesar's son because we would have to send his name to the rubish bin as quickly as this.
Caesar avenges his son's death and determines to free all humans.
The story concludes 600 years later, with a John Huston cameo, who is telling the movie in retrospective
for some ape and human children who are living at peace and harmony.
John Huston, what are you doing in such a tiny movie, I would dare to ask?
The final shot takes us to a close-up of a Caesar's statue, who drops a tear.
What does this tear mean?, the fans ask.
Is it a tear of joy, given that apes and humans are cohabiting this world at peace?
Is it a tear of sadness because the events of the first and second movies may be unavoidable nonetheless?
Or does it represent sorrow and misery for the outrageous quality of this final movie?
RATING
Its artistic and technical aspects are negligible and the screenplay is very dissapointing.
Being the final chapter, it doesn't contribute anything fresh or new
and leaves out some plot points that could have been interesting like, I don't know, the doomsday bomb or even the statue of liberty.
3/10. The worst entry of the franchise by far.
Well, we just concluded the five original films, so now we will talk about the Tim Burton remake, right?
TO BE CONCLUDED.
Subtitles by FJ GARCÍA. If you want me to subtitle something for you, send an e-mail to fjgarciasaura@gmail.com ;)