491. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970)

Starring: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans

Director: Ted Post

Running Time: 95 mins

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes is an American film and the sequel to Planet Of The Apes. As history repeats itself, a man sent to find and rescue Taylor from the distant planet crash lands on the planet of the apes, and after discovering the chimpanzee society above ground, he encounters an underground society of highly intelligent human rebels…

Well, this is such a disappointment in comparison to the original film. This fails to live up to the sense of adventure, mystery and tension that the 1968 story created so well, and ends up being a preposterous, dull, painful and seemingly pointless hour and a half to spend watching a film.

Honestly, this is another case of a series that just doesn’t need any sequels. Once the ultimate twist ending, which was hugely shocking, was revealed at the end of Planet Of The Apes, it feels as if everything has been solved, and there’s nothing more at stake now that the truth of the planet has been discovered.

That’s what really sets the original apart from this follow-up. Before, you had no knowledge of what was going on on the planet, as well as feeling extreme solitude for the character of Taylor, trying to make sense of when and where he is while also surviving at all costs.

However, in this film, all of that atmosphere is swept away. You already know the big secret of the planet, so there’s no tension or mystery at all, while the new protagonist, Brent, is always accompanied by Nova, from the last film, and that takes away the lonely, more dangerous feel of the story.

Plus, at no point until the very end is there any conflict between the humans and the apes. This means that you have a film which details a standoff and indirect confrontation between the two species, and that’s not at all exciting to watch, because the story is just so notoriously dry and dull.

That dullness also really makes this film drag on for a long time, and as nothing really appears to be at stake in this story, and it’s just waiting and setting up for another future film, it feels like an eternity watching a couple of people walking around a barren planet doing barely anything.

Overall, I’ll give this a 5.0, because it’s just a really dull, unexciting, disappointing and pointless sequel to what was originally a great film.