Planet of the Apes movies best to worst
The Planet of the Apes movies ranked from best to worst, soon to be updated with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
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- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsCharlton HestonRoddy McDowallKim HunterAfter being kept in hypersleep during a long expedition into deep space, an astronaut crew crash-lands in the 40th century on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant and humans are enslaved.A true classic science fiction film and dawned what is probably the first true science fiction film franchise before even Star Wars or Star Trek. Deserves to be in the IMDB top 250.
- DirectorMatt ReevesStarsAndy SerkisWoody HarrelsonSteve ZahnAfter the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
- DirectorMatt ReevesStarsGary OldmanKeri RussellAndy SerkisThe fragile peace between apes and humans is threatened as mistrust and betrayal threaten to plunge both tribes into a war for dominance over the Earth.A good Apes film albeit a rather predictable one, i.e. pretty much what you expect to happen happens, it meets expectations but doesn't really exceed them and for that reason it is not quite as memorable as Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
- DirectorRupert WyattStarsJames FrancoAndy SerkisFreida PintoA substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.This is essentially a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes with the obvious difference being that there is no pre-destination paradox so thus it is a total reboot. This means while we know basically where the story arc is going we know it will be different than the original franchise at the same time. The story arc was compelling enough but the ending seemed a bit abrupt, perhaps this will be resolved in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which I am looking forward to.
- DirectorTed PostStarsJames FranciscusKim HunterMaurice EvansThe sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission searches for the only survivor of the previous expedition. He discovers a planet ruled by apes and an underground city run by telepathic humans.An underrated sequel that is the second best in the franchise after the original. The ending is bold and daring and deserves more credit than it gets.
- DirectorDon TaylorStarsRoddy McDowallKim HunterBradford DillmanThe world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.This movie is a prequel within a sequel with the use of time travel or in other words it creates what in science fiction is called a predestination paradox. That aside the movie starts out almost as comic relief with the apes from the future trapped in our modern day world but ends very dark but the transition works.
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsRoddy McDowallDon MurrayRicardo MontalbanIn a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity.This movie depicts a distopian future with great brutalist architecture as a background, filmed in the newly built Century City complex in Los Angeles but set in the early 1990's. There is a lot of social commentary that parallels what was happening when this movie was made in the early 1970's. Continues the predestination paradox story arc set up in the previous film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, a convincing entry.
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsRoddy McDowallClaude AkinsNatalie TrundyTen years after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.The conclusion to the original franchise as well as the ending to the predestination paradox started in Escape from the Planet of the Apes and continued in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It is a mediocre conclusion at that. The movie suffers from it being so low budget and showing, it literally looks like it was shot at a summer camp or something. That being said it has a satisfactory story and we do see how some things are set up in the future we saw in the first movie, in particular in the bookends of the movie set hundreds of years in the future from the main story, those two brief segments are the best parts of the movie and alone makes the movie worth a watch.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsMark WahlbergHelena Bonham CarterTim RothIn 2029, an Air Force astronaut crash-lands on a mysterious planet where evolved, talking apes dominate a race of primitive humans.The bottom line is that I think this is a terrible movie. I only saw it once when it came out in theaters in 2001 and have not seen it in it's entirety since. Totally forgettable plot that didn't grad my attention at all and the ending was nonsensical and stupid. Aside from that the most memorable part of the movie is when Charlton Heston the star of the first two films of the original franchise and playing a cameo role as an ape in this film in an obvious homage to the epic line in the first film says "Damn them, God Damn them all to hell", I actually wonder if he was secretly saying that to the people who made this film, I know that is exactly what I was thinking.
