Beneath the Apes

Next movie is a direct follow on, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

And yet... it takes half the movie until they get Beneath the Planet! The first half is simply a repeat of the previous film, astronaut lands, gets captured by the apes, runs away... and then we find out the humans are still dicks. And idiots. And able to pad the movie with unnecessary fight scenes. Very little of this movie actually advances the plot at all.

While Charlie is back... for a small part, we get James Franciscus instead. It's easy to see why the apes can't tell them apart, 'cos they do look similar. Linda, Kim and Maurice are all back, but Roddy McDowell has transformed into David Watson! Still, it's easy to recast when their faces are hidden. (Was it just me or were the masks more rubbery/less realistic this time?) And James Gregory does a good Christopher Lloyd.

The movie is rather disappointing, with a lot of running around but very little progression. I'm finding it hard to believe this is little more than a cash grab to create an Ape franchise. (There is probably a huge backstory to all this, but I have no idea.) Still, with that ending, how can there be any more movies?

At least I now understand this:

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