After getting burned that the reboot franchise of the Apes films are something special ( They're not ) I thought I'd revisit the original franchise . What that series did expand upon a circular storyline of a film that must surely have been conceived as a one off movie with a twist ending . By the third film of the franchise the producers had moved in to themes of time travel and self fulfilling prophecies that resemble cerebral time paradox that you'd later see in the likes of THE TERMINATOR . The problem with doing this is that you're in danger tying yourself up in knots and painting yourself in to a corner . Certainly I thought CONQUEST a much more entertaining and enjoyable film than RISE which mirrors this film to a large extent but the lack of internal logic is very problematic
CONQUEST is set in 1991 , almost 20 years after the film was produced and is a future where cats and dogs have died out and apes have replaced canines and felines as pets initially but have now effectively become slaves . The scenario quickly falls apart when given much thought . Is a gorilla a type of pet you'd want ? I'm guessing it's very difficult to keep even if it's toilet trained and a fruit bill alone would make keeping one prohibitive . One fact is that a chimpanzee is the most vile , violent and vicious of primate . An adult male chimp can literally tear a human being from limb to limb so there's no way anyone would want to have one in the same household . It's pointed out to the humans in the previous film that humanity will be replaced by the apes as the dominant species so what does the human race do ? " I know let's breeds millions upon millions of apes , keep them in every city on Earth where they outnumber us because they're cheap labour " I understand both greed and short termism but if anyone had any common sense this problem would be easily averted . I'm certain it'd also be impossible to condition apes in to doing relatively complex tasks but I guess you have to suspend disbelief or otherwise there would be no story
This is a shame because Paul Dehn's screenplay does contain rich food for thought . I found this America of the future absolutely fascinating along with the locations that have austere functionalism and are entirely credible . Bad enough about apes but there's a very large elephant in the room where bad things happen to " troublemakers " no questions asked . The fact this type of fascism is specieist rather than racist doesn't make it anymore commendable and the first half of the film is much more compelling than the second as we're shown glimpses of this scenario and allows the actors to give incisive and economical performances with their roles , especially Severn Darden who resists the temptation to do any goose stepping and underplays everything . The second half of the movie concentrates on the Ape revolution and probably isn't violent enough for my liking but I'm guessing I've only seen PG version where much of the violence is excised . It is very noticeable that the fascist militia seem to suffer from tunnel vision and can't see apes creeping up on them from the flanks
Despite all the numerous flaws CONQUEST is a fairly enjoyable film and I liked this much better than the remake / reboot / reimagining from 2011 . It does however require turning off your brain in order for the narrative to work and sometimes this is a bit too difficult especially if you remember the internal continuity of the previous and following film
CONQUEST is set in 1991 , almost 20 years after the film was produced and is a future where cats and dogs have died out and apes have replaced canines and felines as pets initially but have now effectively become slaves . The scenario quickly falls apart when given much thought . Is a gorilla a type of pet you'd want ? I'm guessing it's very difficult to keep even if it's toilet trained and a fruit bill alone would make keeping one prohibitive . One fact is that a chimpanzee is the most vile , violent and vicious of primate . An adult male chimp can literally tear a human being from limb to limb so there's no way anyone would want to have one in the same household . It's pointed out to the humans in the previous film that humanity will be replaced by the apes as the dominant species so what does the human race do ? " I know let's breeds millions upon millions of apes , keep them in every city on Earth where they outnumber us because they're cheap labour " I understand both greed and short termism but if anyone had any common sense this problem would be easily averted . I'm certain it'd also be impossible to condition apes in to doing relatively complex tasks but I guess you have to suspend disbelief or otherwise there would be no story
This is a shame because Paul Dehn's screenplay does contain rich food for thought . I found this America of the future absolutely fascinating along with the locations that have austere functionalism and are entirely credible . Bad enough about apes but there's a very large elephant in the room where bad things happen to " troublemakers " no questions asked . The fact this type of fascism is specieist rather than racist doesn't make it anymore commendable and the first half of the film is much more compelling than the second as we're shown glimpses of this scenario and allows the actors to give incisive and economical performances with their roles , especially Severn Darden who resists the temptation to do any goose stepping and underplays everything . The second half of the movie concentrates on the Ape revolution and probably isn't violent enough for my liking but I'm guessing I've only seen PG version where much of the violence is excised . It is very noticeable that the fascist militia seem to suffer from tunnel vision and can't see apes creeping up on them from the flanks
Despite all the numerous flaws CONQUEST is a fairly enjoyable film and I liked this much better than the remake / reboot / reimagining from 2011 . It does however require turning off your brain in order for the narrative to work and sometimes this is a bit too difficult especially if you remember the internal continuity of the previous and following film