So I just watched Conquest again and I can now say that my memories were wrong about this movie. It wasn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination, I mean it wasn't a masterpiece and it is the worst of the first four Ape movies but it is rather enjoyable, is decently made, has another terrific lead performance by Roddy McDowall and features the always likeable Ricardo Montalban.
Taking place 20 years after the events of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, the surviving ape (played by Roddy McDowall) of future apes Zira and Cornelius has secretly grown up in a circus under the loving care of Montalban. During those 20 years a mysterious virus brought from either the apes of Escape or the ship they landed in has killed off all dogs and cats. So human ingenuity made apes into pets and realizing how smart (and how much smarter they were getting) they were they started turning apes into slaves. When Montalban is caught in a lie about his ape he is killed and McDowall is forced to fend for himself. He names himself Caesar, and brings upon the uprising of the apes.
McDowall is fantastic in this film. He really has mastered the ape costume and can bring about emotion and fear through his eyes and body language better in this film than he has before. Even covered by a mask he still seems sad, angry, happy or confused when he needs to be. Montalban is his usual likeable self and the rest of the cast performs well although there are no other stand out performances here. And, of course, there are the wooden actors hired as the side characters, the ones that say only a line or two, that have become a staple of the series.
Dealing with the uprising of the apes, Conquest of the the Planet of the Apes is of course the darkest of the four movies. Lots of death and violence occur throughout the movie. But at the same time (at least in the first hour) there is lots of humour. There is an air of ominousness in the proceedings right from the opening shots that is helped by the music, which is good but lacking that extra bit of magic that Jerry Goldsmith brought to his films. The scene where Caesar picks his name is well played out and well directed. Caesar stares down his 'master' for what seems like a very long time when he picks 'the name of a king', creating a mood of foreboding, a sense of foreshadowing and an overall feeling of uneasiness.
There are other scenes too that are directed well but overall the director, J. Lee Thompson, does a passable if rushed job with the film. Things happen to fast. Caesar trains and organizes the primitive apes in much too fast a time. It seems like a matter of days before he has organized them together. Even before Montalban's character is killed, Caesar seems destined to fulfill his destiny as leader of the apes. His character, which is very sweet natured at the beginning changes much to fast and before you know it has become almost to evil. The speech delivered by McDowall at the end is amazing through and through; it's venomous and hateful and evil and a sight to see.
So as I mentioned earlier, the last time I saw this film I was confused and couldn't tell what was going on. This is what made me not like the movie for the most part. So having watched it again was I just as confused? No. Was it because I am much older? No. The reason is one hundred percent because of the size of the image. In it's full widescreen glory I was easily able to follow what was going on during the uprising. Not that much really does go on, it is rather bland and repetitive and doesn't have much in cool shots or cool moments (minus the speech mentioned earlier), but I still could tell what was happening clearly. When I watched the pan and scanned cropped version all that was left was shots of apes running and all the shots looked the same and it became a blur. It became impossible to see what was happening or even to pull you into the story. This does not happen when the image isn't cropped and therefore makes for a more enjoyable movie.
So Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is much better than I gave it credit for. I was dreading, in some ways, watching this movie again as I had some really bad memories of it but those memories have been displaced. It's a fun watch, with a fantastic performance by McDowall. It's got some excellent scenes (and some not so excellent) and a lot of great humour. The healthy cigarettes are a hoot ('Funny, now that I know these things won't kill me, I don't enjoy them.') It's fun to watch and like Beneath the Planet of the Apes the first hour is more solid than the last half hour. The final battle is a little bland and could of used more creativity in the fighting but Caesar's speech afterwards brings the picture back up a few notches.
The fourth entry in the Planet of the Apes series has turned out to be the worst of the four. But that isn't saying it's bad rather it's just not as good as the other three (it's pretty much on par with the second though). If you are a fan of the series and have liked what you have seen so far in Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Escape from the Planet of the Apes then you will definitely like Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It's a fun watch, darker and more ominous than the previous entries and comes off better than expected and better than it should of after four movies.
And Please!!! If you watch this movie make sure it is the widescreen edition otherwise you are just wasting your time.
Film Rating: 67%
Breakdown (How Conquest of the Planet of the Apes scored 67%):
Production Design: 7 out of 10
Cinematography: 6 out of 10
Re-playability: 7 out of 10
Originality: 6 out of 10
Costumes: 7 out of 10
Directing: 6 out of 10
Editing: 7 out of 10
Acting: 7 out of 10
Music: 7 out of 10
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