I've never known anyone say a good thing about this movie! To me it would have been far better if they had never made any sequels, the original movie was on a far higher level than the sequels ever aspired to. It was a ci9nematic masterpiece which I can't praise highly enough. I hated Beneath...it was hammy, boring and dull, with some badly judged humour and really could have been made without any actors in ape make-up, just a standard adventure. Escape had its moments, veering from cringe inducing slapstick to dark moments of intelligence, and Conquest is certainly depressing but badly misguided. Then came Battle. To be honest it looks like a tv movie, has no cinematic scale or visual ambition. What it does possess is compassion, which the other films lack. It tries to end the series in diminuendo, and for me works. The insight into the middle stage between human and ape is fascinating, and the gorillas have the menace again they lacked totally in Beneath. The most fascinating aspect is the "ape has killed ape" subplot, which is a great piece of moral soul-searching, big budget or not. Lord Of The Flies seems to have invaded the concept somewhere and the movie is pensive and reflective, and the ending is gorgeous. The allegorical tone of the first film is returned, albeit very heavy handed, but the chimp/ gorilla conflict and the school/ war games mixtures made for me a very sensible way of closing the book at long last. It's the only sequel I would dash home to watch of them all. "I guess you might say they just joined the human race."
