In this final installment of the Planet Of The Apes quintology, Roddy McDowall has emerged as leader of the Ape civilization and is now trying to create a new simian dominated world. His task not unlike George Washington as our first president. But he's got both human and simian opposition to consider.

Severn Darden leads a race of humans in an underground city to which McDowall goes to find out about his own origins. He's quite mad, suffering the effects of radiation, no doubt human kind went nuclear to stamp out the ape revolt.

On the homefront a militant and thug like gorilla played by Claude Akins is challenging McDowall for leadership of the simians. Akins is a ruthless opponent, but when he breaks the first new simian commandment, that's his downfall.

I have to say I enjoyed seeing both John Huston as the profound lawgiver in the prologue and epilog and Lew Ayres as keeper of the simian armory in heavy ape makeup and costume. Their voices are unmistakable as is Paul Williams playing McDowall's confidante.

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes is a fitting end to a grand set of science fiction films.

Okay, by now the series had just about run its course and it was obvious that it would be concluding soon. However, there was one final film for the original series to go and they actually managed to come up with a credible reason for a followup. It was NOT so easy to make movie #3, as the Earth had just blown up and no logical reason could resurrect the series (so, in the 3rd film, they came up with a totally illogical reason!).

This film was set only a few years after the fourth film, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Unexpectedly, the new society that Caesar set up after the last film was pretty egalitarian and the humans were not all confined to become slaves--though there were a lot of rumblings from the gorillas who for some odd reason carried a grudge after being tortured and enslaved by the humans! One serious flaw with the film, though, is that although this only takes place perhaps a decade later, all the apes are civilized and can talk, use guns, etc. as well as any of the humans! I am a school teacher and I only PRAY that I get students this smart!! Anyways, back to the review. It turns out that although this society is functioning pretty well, not all the humans have fallen to the apes. Nope. Ignorant and nihilistic humans STILL hold out hopes of wiping out the basically decent apes and re-asserting mankind's hold over the planet. Well, without getting into the complex plot, the film boils down to a final battle with the bad humans. The apes win, but in the process the evilness of the gorillas is exposed, as they murder Caesar's son! It seemed the bad gorillas SHOULD have teamed up with the bad humans after all!! The film concludes leaving the viewer to ponder what will become of the perfect ape society--will it actually degenerate to what it would become in movie #1 or would all the positive changes in this movie avert that awful future and the destruction of the Earth?!? I guess we'll never know.

The first time I saw this movie, I didn't like it very much. However, in seeing it again, it had a good plot, acting and was a worthy conclusion to the series.

A few points in conclusion: it was cool to see the singer Paul Williams as an ape in this movie (it probably took less make-up than usual), there was a short-lived TV series that followed, and if anyone thinks the remake from 2001 was great is an idiot.

It's 12 years after the conquest in the previous movie. This is the 5th and last of the original apes movies. Caesar (Roddy McDowall) rules Ape City trying to live in peace with the second class humans. There are two main rules. Apes do not kill apes. Humans are not allowed to say No to apes. Caesar is married to Lisa with a son named Cornelius. His human assistant MacDonald tells Caesar about an archive in the ruined city. They travel to the radioactive city with orangutan Virgil and find Cornelius and Zira's testimony predicting the end of the world by the gorillas in the 3rd movie 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes'. The surviving irradiated humans chase them away. Gorilla general Aldo is barely literate and plots to overthrow Casesar. Human survivors led by Governor Kolp attack the apes.

The story isn't too bad but the battle fails the movie. There are problems in tone especially considering the humans are now second class citizens. The movie is able to mostly finesse that problem. The ruin city is weak. It's no more than a bunch of industrial sets. There are some other weaknesses but it's the battle that is truly weak. The humans walking up to Ape City is silly. The apes winning by ape combat is even sillier. The franchise is no more than a B-movie series aiming to wring the last few bucks.