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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great Planet of the Apes sequel, November 22, 2008
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is by no means "a very bad film" as the first reviewer here put it. It's actually a very well thought out film that does reflect some of the social upheaval in the United States during the late 60's and early 70's. Planet of the Apes films have always been a comment on the social climate during the period they were made.
Conquest is the darkest film of the Apes series, and the two different versions on the Blu-ray disc have varying levels of violence. The uncut version is very in your face and bloody and ends on a very violent note, which if you discount the fifth movie in the series Battle for the Planet of the Apes, makes a perfect transition to the first Apes film which is set after Conquest chronologically. In the first Apes film men are hunted for sport by apes, used for medical experiments and treated like animals. It was a pretty violent film for it's day as well.
The PG rated version of Conquest ends on a much more upbeat note that the timeline may have changed and that things might not end up so badly. There is still violence but not as much blood as the uncut version. It's really great to be able to see both versions of the film so that you can see where the film makers originally intended it to go and what the test audiences did not like about the movie before it was re-edited.
The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson who also directed The Guns of Navarone. And the look of the film is very deliberate. I suppose one could complain as the previous reviewer did that the artistic use of colors in the film is distracting, but I feel it shows that the creators of this film actually put some thought into how they wanted the audience to react to the characters and environments on the screen. One also has to remember that this movie was made several years before Star Wars came on the scene and changed the way we look at special effects in science fiction films. But for the period it was made in the costumes and effects are very well done. Personally I love the look of the city in the film but then I'm a bit of a apes fan to begin with.
Anyway in my opinion this is my favorite of the Apes sequels. If your an apes fan or you've seen the first three but never checked out the fourth, the Blu-ray version is the one to get. You get to see both versions of the film in very good video quality with great sound as well.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keep telling yourself, "It's only an opinion...", May 24, 2010
I just watched this last night after having not seen it for at least twenty years. Compared to all of the other "Apes" sequels, this one holds up the best for me.
"Beneath" feels like "Apes" lite: I kept thinking, "When are we getting back to Charlton Heston?"
"Escape" is probably the silliest to me (although it has one of my favorite soundtracks in the series.)
And "Battle" just comes off as cheap and shoddy. Most of the run time is spent in a grove of trees with treehouses.
In "Conquest", I like the colors of the apes' jumpsuits. I also like the sets, and the use of Century City was a great choice as the nameless "futuristic" city of 1991. The actors did a good job. Don Murray made a wonderful villain and Ricardo Montalban and Roddy McDowall were both excellent.
If you're hyper-critical and are going to be bothered by a reality check, you probably shouldn't watch movies like this one (or maybe ANY movies, because they're an escape from reality.) If you enjoy sci-fi with a fascist Orwellian setting (kind of like the present time we live in) this is fun.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN APE!, August 2, 2007
This is the forth installment in the POTA's series and I'm aware that this film was severely cut before releasing it in theaters. Fortunately they have restored the edited scenes in an extended version available only on Blu Ray. This was done to "Battle for" on standard DVD a few years ago. The theatrical release of the film is pretty good, but a bigger budget would have helped it a great deal. The problem with most of the POTA sequels is that they were pushing for a G rating so kids could go see them. This is the studios idea, not the directors of the films. The sequels are too middle ground. Too violent for the kids, but too tame for adults! I don't mean to be harsh on these films as I am a big fan! I saw them all at the theaters growing up and have seen them many times now. This is a good film that could have been much better....hopefully the Blu Ray extended version retores the original vision of the story. The DVD transfer is very good and I will add more once I've watched the Blu Ray.
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