By the time of this, the fourth instalment of the series, they were obviously running out of money. And ideas. The set is a strange concrete jungle, chosen no doubt because it was cheap to film there.
Even leaving aside the ludicrous notion of apes as docile slaves (even chimps can easily rip a man apart as seen in recent news stories), the story does not make a great deal of sense and there are many plot holes. We are led to believe, for example, that this is some sort of police state with the police walking round in jet black uniforms (Although this may just be part of the cops as 'fascist pigs' lazy subtext, see below) yet these same police show huge levels of slowness of action (why do they wait so long before interrogating Riccardo?), incompetence (why do they not check to see if a certain character is dead?) etc. It just is not plausible even within the premise of the film, a cardinal sin.
But the worst offence in this film is that it is downright racist. There is only one black character in the whole movie and, apart from the Mexican Riccardo Montalbal who appears early on, he is the only one shown with any humanity. All the white characters, without exception, are cruel, sadistic and brutal, prepared to beat and torture apes at the drop of a hat. No doubt many of the inadequacies of the plot are due to this Apes-as-oppressed-blacks narrative which is hammered in again and again. The lead chimp, Caesar, even confides to the virtuous black man that justice can only be achieved when they obtain power, a remark straight out of every revolutionary's handbook.
This film is probably the low water mark of the POTA franchise.
Even leaving aside the ludicrous notion of apes as docile slaves (even chimps can easily rip a man apart as seen in recent news stories), the story does not make a great deal of sense and there are many plot holes. We are led to believe, for example, that this is some sort of police state with the police walking round in jet black uniforms (Although this may just be part of the cops as 'fascist pigs' lazy subtext, see below) yet these same police show huge levels of slowness of action (why do they wait so long before interrogating Riccardo?), incompetence (why do they not check to see if a certain character is dead?) etc. It just is not plausible even within the premise of the film, a cardinal sin.
But the worst offence in this film is that it is downright racist. There is only one black character in the whole movie and, apart from the Mexican Riccardo Montalbal who appears early on, he is the only one shown with any humanity. All the white characters, without exception, are cruel, sadistic and brutal, prepared to beat and torture apes at the drop of a hat. No doubt many of the inadequacies of the plot are due to this Apes-as-oppressed-blacks narrative which is hammered in again and again. The lead chimp, Caesar, even confides to the virtuous black man that justice can only be achieved when they obtain power, a remark straight out of every revolutionary's handbook.
This film is probably the low water mark of the POTA franchise.