Anonymous Andy (Minus_The_Beer) Appropriately yet ironically titled, "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" marks a steep drop-off from the indisputable sci-fi classic "Planet Of The Apes." When the original proved to be a major hit, striking a chord in the imaginations of audiences everywhere, a sequel was rushed into production. With half the budget and half the talent (a reluctant Charlton Heston agreed to appear only in cameo form and with the caveat that his character takes action to ensure there are no more sequels -- ha!), "Beneath" apes its predecessor in more ways than one. Not only does new leading man James Franciscus look and act a lot like Heston (so much so that even sympathetic ape lady Zira confuses the two characters) but the plot has a distinct whiff of been there, done that. Well, until that zany last act, anyway.It would be all to easy to dump on the film for all of its shortcomings. "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" at least gets a few elements right. The attempt to push the narrative forward and pick up at the point where the original left off is a good start. Not too far into the film, Taylor (Heston) and Nova (the striking Linda Harrison) are separated, leaving room for newly landed astronaut Brent (Franciscus) to accompany her. As tensions among apes builds - - some of the film's most memorable images are that of a peaceful ape protest that is broken up with brute force -- the twosome are forced underground, where they discover the remains of their lost civilization. And mutants. Telepathetic mutants at that, hellbent on destruction and worshipping the atomic bomb. Yeah, that's right. This movie goes there.By far the most bizarre and inconsistent film in the franchise without Tim Burton's name attached to it, "Beneath" at least gets by on its bizarre digressions and admittedly chilling visions of a decimated New York City (condemned to the underground, "Futurama" style). If nothing else, it's never dull. Thankfully, the series would make a much needed course correction with the melodramatic but much improved "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes" and its even more politically-minded "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes." But in the context of the original five "Apes" films, this one feels perhaps the most extraneous. Lots of good ideas lost in muddled execution. It's also -- for lack of a better term -- completely and utterly bananas.

roystephen-81252 While the first movie in the series, the adaptation of Pierre Boulle's excellent novel, was a somewhat mixed bag and ultimately a disappointment compared to the original material, the second one, Beneath the Planet of the Apes is simply an all-round disaster with a mind-numbingly stupid plot, horrible acting, incompetent directing and editing, and the lousiest special effects ever put on the screen.Mutant humans with telepathic powers worshipping a nuclear bomb in a temple set up amidst the ruins of a subway station? Did the filmmakers deliberately pick the dumbest idea they could find? And what was the message? It is better to blow up the whole planet than to cede our power to apes or mutants?But in the end, it's not the witlessness of the plot that counts but the execution. Make it exciting and at least semi-believable, and all will be forgiven. Unfortunately, Beneath the Planet of the Apes fails in every single department. It is both extremely boring and ridiculously cheap-looking, even for its time. By far the worst instalment in the series, a horrendous movie in itself, and quite possibly THE worst sequel of all time. (Although looking strictly at the extent of drop in quality, there are many serious contenders from Futureworld and Exorcist II or Speed 2 to The Force Awakens.)

jake-law123 Right away, I knew this was not going to be as good as the original, (which is mostly because I love the original so much). That being said, I was curious on how they'd follow up. All I can say is, w.t.f! Every moment of plot progression from the other ship to the underground telepathic community with the nuclear bomb straight up knocked me off my ass. Some stuff was interesting, others were kind of stupid.After realizing the extinction of man, Taylor, (Charlton Heston) disappears, and his mute love interest, Nova, finds another survivor of a rescue expedition who has also landed on the planet, determined with the help of Nova to find Taylor.I gotta give this movie credit...it kept my interest. Regardless of how goofy it got at times, it made me want to figure out what was going on the whole time. It felt way more intense with the war between apes and man. It actually felt more brutal and intense than the original, though that wasn't the original's intention understandably. A few things in the writing make it sound like it was written by a hippie, talking A LOT about peace and love. I think they might have hammered in the "nuclear warfare is evil, we're all going to blow ourselves up" talk that was popular around the early 70's.The film doesn't get necessarily boring, but it takes a few too many risks, some work, some don't. Overall, it wasn't that bad. I felt genuinely worried about the main character's and their mission and all the conflicts going on. It does kind of dismiss the goings on in Ape City a little abruptly, but that's what more sequels are for I guess. Recommended if you watched and enjoyed the original.

WakenPayne I recently watched the original Planet Of The Apes and I actually enjoyed it. It offered a better look into what people were thinking at the time of "Science Vs Faith" That may still be argued to this very day. I watched the sequel because I managed to find a box set containing every single movie to do with the Planet Of The Apes up until Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and this is probably the first movie in the series I didn't like.So the movie opens with a rescue party for the astronauts in the first movie that also crash lands on the planet... Which I have to ask how NASA knew they were in any kind of danger considering their expedition would take 1000 years, but I digress, he then finds Nova from the first movie and one thing leads to another and that leads them to the Apes where he escapes and goes to find another group of humans that have evolved to a higher plain of evolution.My biggest problem with the movie is the ending. So Taylor and this other guy escape the "Higher humans" prison cell and when they make their way out the Apes attack and it ends with them blowing up the world, basically killing all life. They kill their own lead characters off for almost no reason whatsoever for what?... To make no sequels? I really want to know what the though process was behind literally killing this entire franchise and I know that there are more but how exactly can someone write their way out of "We blew up the world in the last movie". Even still, without this in mind I still think it's a horrible ending.And even with all this in mind there is still a lot to which I didn't like. The worshiping of an unexploded nuke like they're going to Sunday Mass made no sense to me. Wouldn't they know that going into an underground church where there's something that's still functional that obliterates almost everything in the area be more feared then worshiped, another thing that bugs me is that the bomb is worshiped in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as Christianity. Isn't every religion meant to be celebrated differently? It just doesn't add up.Aside from that ranting and even more things to complain about this movie is not without it's benefits. The sets of the underground cave are really well done and the make-up is better then ever and the cinematography works for what it's trying to do.So it's not entirely awful it just has some really big problems that just detract from the enjoyment of the movie. I will finish watching all the Apes movies but this won't really be one I'll come back to in time.