Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Memorable, crazy movie

A Masterpiece!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Based on the strong positive response to Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Fox ordered Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, though it provided a comparatively low budget of $1.7 million. Paul Dehn returned as the scriptwriters and the producers hired J. Lee Thompson to direct.Thompson had worked with Jacobs during the planning stages of the first film, but scheduling conflicts had made him unavailable to participate in the series. For this film, Thompson and Dehn focused heavily on the racial associated the apes with African-Americans and modeled the plot after the 1966 Watts Riots and other episodes from the Civil Rights Movement.Following the events of the third film, this film is set in a near future where humans have turned apes into slaves, Caesar rises from bondage to lead an ape rebellion.The story is amazing and confusing as well, but I like it because it is like that. The action is over-the-top, but it works and is really fantastic. The music is really good as well and the other films musical scores' were amazing, well, with exception of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes".The acting is just amazing and dreadful at the same time. Roddy McDowall plays Caesar again, the son of his previous character Cornelieus.The late Ricardo Montalban returned as Armando and he does a good job as well. The new members including Don Murray, Severn Darden and Hari Rhodes playing new roles and they are really amazing in this film and the acting could have never been better.The music in the film is just stupid, but a few themes are amazingly well done and the make-up / visuals are really good and fantastic.Overall, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET of the APES is a little confusing, but spectacular in a few areas and I give this film a 6/10.

When I saw this for the first time in the 1980's I was really excited by the style of the film. The art direction gave a really good feel for a totalitarian regime in the future and it had a very clinically sterile look about it which emphasizes the authoritarian '1984' environment the film attempts to depict.The storyline is simple enough. The apes are being used as slaves in a fascist culture which is allegory for Orwell's warning in the novel 1984, also a film. The ape central to the story is educated and can speak. He emerges as the great hope for his species to emerge from slavery. Revolution ensues as the slaves attempt to overthrow their masters.There's nothing complicated about this movie and was the second best of the five films with the original starring Charlton Heston obviously the best.

The fourth Planet of the Apes movie takes place many years after the events of Escape. Apes are now the enslaved pets of man. Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the son of Cornelius and Zira, is an intelligent ape who can speak. He's been raised by circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban). The government has never given up the search for the child of the future apes so Caesar must keep his intelligence a secret. This becomes increasingly difficult for him when Armando takes him to the city, where he witnesses human cruelty to apes firsthand.The series takes a slight step down with this entry but it's still a smart, thought-provoking film. The humor is scaled back and the social commentary magnified. Roddy McDowall, playing the son of his previous character, does an amazing job. It's a good movie, despite some plot hiccups. The ending was notoriously altered after test audiences reacted poorly to the original darker end.

The fourth installment in the ape saga was a let down it stars Roddy McDowell, Don Murray & Ricardo Montalban. The film is set in the future people have substituted cats & dogs with apes as their household pets and apes are also used as slaves or "personal assistants" this carry's on until one advanced ape (McDowell) to lead a revolt that marks the beginning of the ape revolution. In my opinion this is the WORST one in the ape series if you have read my other reviews you will know that the 1968 Planet of the apes is my favourite in the series. The fourth installment was directed by J.Lee Thompson.**/*****