La bataille de la planète des singes

This final installment in the series may be a bit corny, but it sure as hell does provide us with some action. Humans and apes are again at war, and as a result a lot of stuff explodes, that's pretty much the summary. The usual philosophic remarks are thrown in, but they just work up to the battle the title promised. The action scenes are pretty chaotic but still look good, especially the scene early in the movie where they enter the forbidden zone/undergrond parking lot works out well. By this time the actors knew what they were making and seemed to be loving it, Claude Akins hams it up like crazy. His portrayal of man-hating general Aldo has one dimension, and that dimension is really built to last. We meet Aldo and he's angry, we see him again later and he's angry, and then finally he's well what do you know, angry. His best scene comes near the ending though, you'll know it when you see it. You can say a lot of negative things about this movie, but boring it ain't.

A limp way for the original franchise to finish.

Its predecessor, 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes', was a weak entry too but remained watchable, though 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' kinda straddles the other side as it's uninteresting. I didn't dislike it and it is very short at around 82 minutes, which helps. Roddy McDowall is the pick of the cast, though even his performance feels weary at this point.

A 'strong' 2½* rating from me, if such a thing exists. It was the right time for them to end this (very good, all in all) series.

So the final entry in the Planet of the Apes series takes liberties with the timeline and the plot wanders through other prior installments, but I feel the movie delivers a degree of pathos seldom seen in a sequel. The bookend scenes involving the Lawgiver, John Huston in heavy make up, speaking to a group of schoolchildren--apes and humans--tie up the saga nicely, leaving open the future for more sequels.(Tim Burton in his dreadful remake should have filled in the blanks instead of "reimagining" a different world of apes. Only my opinion.) Things I like include the character Mandemus, keeper of the armory(Caesar's conscience), the trek to the radioactive city, Caesar's viewing of his dead parents in the Hall of Records and the final ambiguous shot of the movie. The money allocated to Leonard Rosenman's impressive score was well spent. The pop singer Paul Williams display a deft touch for acting in his debut. Try and catch this screen gem on Fox Movie Channel and you will be treated to additional scenes involving the always looming doomsday bomb. And special praise to J.Lee Thompson for delivering more with less.

In my opinion this film is underrated it is not a great film by any means but is better than Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. This is the fifth and final chapter in the ape saga and in my opinion it didn't disappoint the planet is a desolated place, Ceasar wants apes and humans to live together however ape has the edge over man as leaders and the humans fight back... This film stars Roddy McDowell, Claude Akins & Natalie Trundy this film was directed by J.Lee Thompson i recommend this film even though it has a low rating on IMDb it is an enjoyable film so watch and enjoy THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

***/*****

Definitely the weakest in the series...but alas...my favorite. The final human battle to take over what's left of the Earth is good. One major flaw in the actual battle is when the battle starts we see Aldo and his cavalry charge----then we don't see them again until the battle is over...throwing grenades in the bus. I had this film on Super 8 back in the seventies (the color 9 minute version) and it was a favorite of the neighborhood.