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Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
This one gets back to the root of the films a little bit better then the third in that it tries to deal with an idea or theme. It doesn't do it nearly as effectively as the original one does, but it is on par with the second. Overall a step up from the third one, but doesn't come close to touching the first.
This one deals with the idea that has been present through all of them, the idea of race and racism with it being shown how everything started on the "Planet of the Apes". It is interesting as it deals with slavery and the oppression on that level, but I think the best point that it makes is about how power can and generally will corrupt. The humans who are enslaving the apes have been corrupted by their power, but when the apes take power, the level of corruption by the power isn't really all that much different. There is a slight difference, but not an exceedingly big one, and there is a difference in how long the power has been had. After a few hours of having power, the corruption of the power is clearly starting to take place.
Acting wise I feel like this film continues the downward trend of the acting in these films. The main ape isn't bad, but all of the roles are just generally pretty pedestrian in how they are done. Everyone acts as you'd expect them to, but no one really gives a performance that goes beyond and above just a basic level of solid acting. Roddy McDowell is one of the very few holdovers from the original film, and he is playing a new ape in this one, which is probably why that apes performance was the strongest of all of the performances in the film.
Visually the budget for this one also appears to be lower. The production values really don't drop much in that area, but there isn't as much. The first two had some quite impressive, beautiful shots of a lot of different landscapes and areas, this one feels much more constricted in some ways with how it was shot. It works decently well for the film, but compared to the original, it isn't nearly as good.
Overall this is a solid installment, it doesn't come close to the first one, but I don't know that any of the sequels would be able to as the first one was extremely good. This one does pick it up a bit more from the third one, putting it nearly on par with the second.
Overall Grade: C+
Story: B-
Acting: C
Audio/Visual: C
This one gets back to the root of the films a little bit better then the third in that it tries to deal with an idea or theme. It doesn't do it nearly as effectively as the original one does, but it is on par with the second. Overall a step up from the third one, but doesn't come close to touching the first.
This one deals with the idea that has been present through all of them, the idea of race and racism with it being shown how everything started on the "Planet of the Apes". It is interesting as it deals with slavery and the oppression on that level, but I think the best point that it makes is about how power can and generally will corrupt. The humans who are enslaving the apes have been corrupted by their power, but when the apes take power, the level of corruption by the power isn't really all that much different. There is a slight difference, but not an exceedingly big one, and there is a difference in how long the power has been had. After a few hours of having power, the corruption of the power is clearly starting to take place.
Acting wise I feel like this film continues the downward trend of the acting in these films. The main ape isn't bad, but all of the roles are just generally pretty pedestrian in how they are done. Everyone acts as you'd expect them to, but no one really gives a performance that goes beyond and above just a basic level of solid acting. Roddy McDowell is one of the very few holdovers from the original film, and he is playing a new ape in this one, which is probably why that apes performance was the strongest of all of the performances in the film.
Visually the budget for this one also appears to be lower. The production values really don't drop much in that area, but there isn't as much. The first two had some quite impressive, beautiful shots of a lot of different landscapes and areas, this one feels much more constricted in some ways with how it was shot. It works decently well for the film, but compared to the original, it isn't nearly as good.
Overall this is a solid installment, it doesn't come close to the first one, but I don't know that any of the sequels would be able to as the first one was extremely good. This one does pick it up a bit more from the third one, putting it nearly on par with the second.
Overall Grade: C+
Story: B-
Acting: C
Audio/Visual: C