Well the last film was last year, but that's ten years for an ape so we now find "Caesar" (Roddy McDowell) living with his family and presiding over what I think Shakespeare referred to as a "loose confederation of warring tribes". The militaristic gorillas, led by "Aldo" (Claude Atkins) are just itching for a fight - and they might just get their way as the humans under the command of a surviver from the command bunker last time are hot for a battle too. "Kolp" (Severn Darden) is bent on reducing their home to rubble and reducing the Simian race to slavery once again. When tragedy strikes "Caesar", things come to an head - with an heavily armed force approaching and his own source of insurrection to contend with. Can they prevail - once again? Although this isn't bad, I feel the franchise has run out of oomph now. The stories of will they survive, thrive etc. have started to recycle themselves just once too often. The characters are now too established, their morals and principles too enshrined, for there to be much scope to enhance, develop or alter the storylines and so here, though there is quite a sneaky bit of strategy at the end, it's all just a little procedural. All in all, these are quite an entertaining series of five films with some excellent costumes and make-up, just enough action and some fodder for our own grey matter to give them a value. I'm not sure we need any more, though.

A limp way for the original franchise to finish. Its predecessor, <em>'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'</em>, was a weak entry too but remained watchable, though <em>'Battle for the Planet of the Apes'</em> kinda straddles the other side as it's uninteresting. I didn't dislike it and it is very short at around 82 minutes, which helps. Roddy McDowall is the pick of the cast, though even his performance feels weary at this point. A 'strong' 6/10 rating from me, if such a thing exists. It was the right time for them to end this (very good, all in all) series.

In the beginning God created beast and man so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world of peace. The original Planet of the Apes film franchise closed down with a whimper as budget restrictions, general screenplay lethargy and contempt of familiarity swamps the production. Plot finds the apes and humans trying to live in harmony, but find their efforts stymied by a tribe of mutant humans living in the nuked underworld, and that of a power-hungry gorilla general. What follows is a film that sees various simian and human species throw exposition at each other in the vain belief it's literately smart. When the action comes it's half hearted and perpetrated by the least amount of actors possible. The make-up is shoddy, the fun element gone, while the acting is very uneven across the board. There's enough value in the various characterisations to at least keep fans of the series interested, and the photography belies the cheapness evident elsewhere, but really it's a sad closure to what had once been a smartly entertaining franchise. 4/10

**The best of the sequels** _Battle for the Planet of the Apes_ is the best of the Planet of the Apes sequels - a film packed with emotion and incident. Caesar (Roddy McDowall) seeks his parents in the ruins of a destroyrd city and irks a gang of crazed freaks who all wear silly hats and _skiing goggles_. Leonard Rosenman gives us a nice score and the photography is beautiful. The classiest looking of the Apes sequels and definitely the most emotional. Just stick with the first movie and this one. - Ian Beale