First of, the this can be cheesy as times, and it feels like there are a few obvious plotholes. Second, the ending was pretty daring, in a way, more shocking than the ending of the first movie. This is a series that took a lot of risks. I know the background of these films, making the first movie was a massive risk, but it was a huge cultural phenomenon. The makeup in these movies was so groundbreaking, it cannot be overstated how important these films were in advancing visual effects makeup and prosthetics. I recently watched the 2012 Planet of the Apes, and story wise, these films are superior and, in my opinion, the effects hold up better. The CGI in the 2012 version has not held up well. It's entertaining, but honestly it feels so much more surface level than these old films, it lacks the deep philosophical themes and became more of a popcorn action flick.
Charlton Heron is definitely woefully absent, he definitely boosted the first film, he is a much better actor than James Franciscus, who is kind of a Heston lookalike without the acting chops. He's just okay, more eye candy than anything. It's nice to see Nova again, and Linda Harrison does a fine job again. Most People will enjoy the eye candy, her outfit seems a bit more revealing than the first film.... All the Apes are well played again and believable.
On the whole, while I believe the way the plot progressed from the first film was slightly unbelievable and there are several big plot holes, somehow despite this, at the end, it still gels together and is entertaining. This wasn't written by Rod Sterling, and it shows, the writing is nowhere near the same level, the dialog is pretty bad, and again there are many things that don't make sense. Still, the themes of abuse of animals is there, but it is definitely on the backburner in order to push an anti-war message this time around.
The sets, makeup, costumes, everything is so well done, though many of the background cast members have masks rather than full blown prosthetics in order to save money. There is some really good makeup effects here, it's impressive what they've done. Of course theirs a deeper story here and it's not just surface level, there is a good cautionary tale here, and the pieces of the story are all there, the writers did not have the skills to pull off a great script, wonderful concept, mediocre writing, yet with all the other aspects of the film being so good, it ends up a good movie, but it cannot hope to match the quality of the first.
Charlton Heron is definitely woefully absent, he definitely boosted the first film, he is a much better actor than James Franciscus, who is kind of a Heston lookalike without the acting chops. He's just okay, more eye candy than anything. It's nice to see Nova again, and Linda Harrison does a fine job again. Most People will enjoy the eye candy, her outfit seems a bit more revealing than the first film.... All the Apes are well played again and believable.
On the whole, while I believe the way the plot progressed from the first film was slightly unbelievable and there are several big plot holes, somehow despite this, at the end, it still gels together and is entertaining. This wasn't written by Rod Sterling, and it shows, the writing is nowhere near the same level, the dialog is pretty bad, and again there are many things that don't make sense. Still, the themes of abuse of animals is there, but it is definitely on the backburner in order to push an anti-war message this time around.
The sets, makeup, costumes, everything is so well done, though many of the background cast members have masks rather than full blown prosthetics in order to save money. There is some really good makeup effects here, it's impressive what they've done. Of course theirs a deeper story here and it's not just surface level, there is a good cautionary tale here, and the pieces of the story are all there, the writers did not have the skills to pull off a great script, wonderful concept, mediocre writing, yet with all the other aspects of the film being so good, it ends up a good movie, but it cannot hope to match the quality of the first.