The Friendly Film Fan Ranks All 10 Films in the Famed “Planet of the Apes” Franchise. By Jacob Jones One of cinema’s most long-standing and storied series, the Planet of the Apes films have one of the most consistent hit records in the history of franchise filmmaking, especially wherein the sci-fi genre is concerned; only once has the series ever put out a generally agreed-upon bad film, and even those entrants that are less beloved than others all have something valuable to offer, whether that be an ambitious swing that doesn’t always pan out or a further exploration of philosophical concepts. Having been around since 1968, when the original Charlton Heston film wowed audiences with its twist ending, the themes and ideas examined by this world and explored by the characters within it continue to resonate with audiences to this very day. Those same audiences now have the opportunity to experience the series’ latest release, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, in all its visual glory on the silver screen, and re-immerse themselves in the world of their favorite intelligent simians, courtesy of director Wes Ball (you can find my full review for the film here). In light of this new Apes film finally hitting screens after a seven year hiatus for the series, I binge-watched all nine previous entries in the franchise over the course of three days. Now having seen Kingdom twice, I have ranked all ten Planet of the Apes films below, beginning with the worst, and of course, ending with the best. Apes Together Strong! Let’s get started. 10. Planet of the Apes (2001) The only outright bad entry on this list, Tim Burton’s perhaps always doomed remake of Planet of the Apes features none of the things that made the original great or any of its follow-ups even passible at their worst. Most notably lacking in the series’ core tenets of philosophical science and exploration of humanity’s nature, the film substitutes these ideas with a generic sci-fi action story which – to be fair – features terrific makeup effects but essentially nothing else worthwhile. The iconic lines are irreparably altered, clunkily-scripted, and none of the performances really land (Tim Roth is particularly bad here). Still, this Planet of the Apes is only a generically-bad sci-fi movie…until the ending happens and throws the entire thing off-balance. In trying to replicate the “it was Earth all along” twist, the story sees Mark Wahlberg’s character (whose name I have yet to recall without having to look it up) actually leave the planet he has been on the entire time in order to re-enter the time-warp storm that sent him there, eventually ending up on what’s implied to be Earth at the end. There’s just one (or several) major problem with this; in the original film, Charlton Heston’s character Taylor never leaves the planet of the apes, which is then revealed to have been Earth all along; how are we supposed to infer that the planet Mark Wahlberg leaves was even Earth in the first place? Did he just go forward in time? Why would the apes just make the same society humans did; isn’t the whole point of their being intelligent apes that they make a different society for themselves? If he went backwards in time as intended, how does General Thade even factor into the Lincoln Memorial in terms of the timeline implied by the film? WHY DO THE APES HAVE A LINCOLN MEMORIAL? Every answer to each question only introduces three new questions, the answers to which all contradict the previous question’s entire premise, fundamentally breaking the film – and my brain – in the process. I long for who I was before the ending of this movie. 9. Beneath the Planet of the Apes On the whole, Beneath the Planet of the Apes isn’t the outright disaster that the 2001 remake of the previous film eventually becomes, but it lacks the vision of its immediate predecessor, failing to make good on that film’s ending or explore further elements of the planet of the apes itself which were previously unseen, at least for most of its runtime. It certainly tries some interesting ideas with having an entirely new protagonist suffer the same introduction to this world that Taylor did and have to navigate it himself (albeit with a lot more help from Nova), but the film fails to explore anything else that Charlton Heston’s Taylor hadn’t already experienced; Nova simply finding John Brent and taking him back to the same ape colony with the same characters we’re familiar with is an understandable choice, but too safe for what this sequel could offer. Most of the film’s runtime after Taylor disappears in the first five minutes is spent above ground as Brent hides out with Zira and Cornelius, re-treading what happened with Taylor during the third act of the previous film in a less interesting way. It’s not until we get to the third act of this film that anything new happens at all, when – in a thoroughly ambitious and bizarre swing – we’re introduced to an underground mutant human society that worships an atomic bomb. (They have magical powers which they say are only illusions, but the mechanics of these illusions are never demonstrated, so it’s still more or less magic.) This part of the movie is definitely the most interesting, but doesn’t feel as though it matches at all with what we’ve experience to that point in terms of any sort of natural progression, and by then, the film has burned up most of its good will by wasting too much time getting there and making Nova an essentially useless character. The tail end of it, with Taylor’s poetically-tragic killing setting off the ultimate doomsday weapon after he’d been so distraught about the results of nuclear warfare in the last film does offer a slight good note for the movie to end on, but it feels like part of a better third act the film doesn’t have. I’ve certainly seen worse sci-fi sequels, but for a franchise this storied, with such an iconic opening film, it’s hard to recommend this follow-up to anyone who asks. 8. Escape from the Planet of the Apes For many, this is considered the best of the original sequels, but for my part, it is without doubt my least favorite. The only reason I’ve listed it above Beneath despite how it frustrates me more is due to my admiration for the hugely ambitious swing it takes with the premise: having Cornelius and Zira go back in time to 1973, before the John Taylor mission ever launched. Reversing the formula to place the intelligent apes into regular human society is an inspired decision, even if the spoof comedy style it introduces at first it has no actual intentions of committing to. The tone switch, once our main characters are on the run in the latter portion of the film, becomes far less interesting after the story has spent the past hour of zaniness rendering Zira less intelligent than any of the humans around her, and the addition of yet another “twist” ending – which by this point one could see coming a mile away – made this one a little more annoying to sit through than its immediate predecessor, even if it does have a little more to offer on the whole. 7. Battle for the Planet of the Apes Many may call this the least successful of the original Apes sequels, due to its looking extremely low-budget and not having a ton going on apart from its battlefield skirmish, but overall, it’s the most well-balanced of any of the sequels offered by the original set of films, even if it’s not the most exciting overall. The story is well-told across the runtime, without ever feeling too long or as though the structure of the film leans too heavily in one direction or the other. The ape/human society discussions are further rooted in the more philosophical musings the series began with, and even though Aldo’s whole plan for the humans makes no sense once you think about it too long, all the Caesar stuff is generally pretty solid. Plus, there’s a certain charm to the human army rolling up to the battle with a school bus as one of their transport vehicles, all Mad Max-style. This one has a lot more in common with the future Dawn of the Planet of the Apes than any other film in the franchise, and while we’ll get to that film later on down the list, this one is not a half-bad prototype on which to base that kind of story. 6. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes While Battle may be overall more well-balanced and a generally better movie than this one, Conquest’s second half goes so hard that I can’t deny its innate power, which elevates it slightly over its sequel. The first half is a bit wonky though, especially in the editing. That’s not to say that nothing about that first half works; the Orwellian ape slavery society we see is interestingly set up, especially since we’re only privy to what we can see in the Century City portion of the world, but what doesn’t work kind of overwhelms whatever is working. At two points, by my count, it seemed as if there were entire transitional scenes missing from the film; a character would say something and the movie would immediately cut to the result of what was said, but without any indication that a cut was even coming. The film also starts rather slow, with Caesar (renamed from “Milo,” thank god) simply biding his time in learning about the ape society itself, meaning he has to spend a lot of time with the human characters that aren’t especially interesting. All that said, once the second half of this one gets going and the revolution begins, the film doesn’t stop until the credits roll. The prison break sequence is one of the great set pieces across the Apes franchise, and while the plaza showdown is overlong, it remains surprisingly tense and thrilling to watch play out, all culminating in Roddy McDowall actually getting to show off some acting chops under the mask and deliver a killer monologue which sets up the next film beautifully. Of all the original sequels, this one is my personal favorite. 5. Planet of the Apes (1968) Though a few of its sequels have terrific individual elements or thrilling sequences in a vacuum, the best of the original Apes films remains the 1968 classic starring Charlton Heston. It’s not exactly as flawless as one might hope on a rewatch – the interior sets seem a little too closed off even for this world, and the pacing isn’t exactly smooth sailing the whole way through (plus Heston’s performance is a tad wooden, even for him) – but it holds up rather well when compared to its immediate counterparts, and is still one of the best sci-fi films of its era full-stop. It really mostly feels more like a series of interesting scenes set in different rooms than one fully fleshed-out story from beginning to end, but that could also be due to what we know is coming later on down the line, and the film’s notorious twist ending buys the movie a lot of good will – it’s all too rare to see a twist like that executed as well as this one was. If you haven’t revisited this one since seeing it the first time, I don’t think a rewatch would be too disappointing. 4. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes As alluded to in the intro for this piece, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the most recent addition to the Apes canon, and falls for me about where the next entry on this list does, though the pacing isn’t quite as strong and some of the character work seems too broadly-painted by the film’s end. Still, these are largely minor complaints in a film which is clearly the first entrant in a series of new Apes stories set many generations after Caesar’s trilogy, and which still features some terrific cinematography, excellent visual effects, and expert-level compositing, as well as really solid performances from the entire cast (especially Owen Teague and Kevin Durand). I don’t want to spoil too much of what goes on in this one, given how new it is, but the journey it takes the viewer on is much more of an adventure film than anything that came before it, and the confidence Wes Ball clearly has in his ability to not lose the audience despite the long runtime is something that can’t be taught to many directors. This is the largest scale at which these films have ever been made and you can see the money spent very wisely up on screen. The official word is that the producers of this new set of Apes films want this to be a nine-film saga, the beginning of which would have been Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and if the storytelling for this second trilogy in that saga can improve enough from here to whatever comes next, in the same fashion the previous trilogy improved, we’re in for something really, truly special. 3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes The first chapter in the Planet of the Apes franchise’s first prequel trilogy, Rise of the Planet of the Apes has us bear witness to the origins of Caesar, the original intelligent ape, as he’s brought up by Will Rodman (James Franco) following an ill-begotten test of a brain repair drug which is implied to have the ability to cure Alzheimer’s. The subsequent rise of Caesar from intelligent ape to leader is one of the great protagonist formations in one of the great starts in movie trilogy history, a start which would only be surpassed by the film’s immediate sequels. Above all else, this movie is exceptionally well-paced, clocking in at just over one hour and forty-five minutes, the efficiency in storytelling never waning for a second. To be fair, this can cause one or two edits to feel a little off, and the speed at which the film moves does cost somewhat in terms of the quality of CG compositing and some backgrounds still looking digitally-rendered, but even the early visual effects on the apes look remarkable for where they began. Hearing Caesar say “no” for the first time still takes my breath away, and the Golden Gate bridge finale is a fantastic action set-piece. The film’s other flaws are a little more noticeable, like the fact that Frieda Pinto’s character feels fairly inconsequential to the story beyond just being James Franco’s girlfriend and isn’t present at all for the Redwoods finish despite having been with Will and Caesar for five years to that point, and the fact that David Oyelowo’s fun scenery-chewing character eventually just morphs into straight-up cartoon capitalism villainy (then again, art imitates life, so what are you gonna do), but they’re not heavy enough to detract from what the film has going for it positively. This is still a terrific first film for this trilogy to open with, and an incredibly fun watch for first-time viewers just now getting interested in this franchise. 2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes For a long time, this was my favorite of the most recent Apes trilogy, and on some days, it still is, with good reason. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the first of the two Matt Reeves films in this franchise, and it’s under his astute vision for this world and the characters within it that everything is elevated to another level, from the visual effects to the characters themselves, to the conflicts they have with each other, to the tension from scene to scene, to the performances from both ape and human actors to some of the franchise’s greatest action set-pieces and image-making. At no point during my first ever watch of this movie in theaters did I know exactly where it was going, and on no viewing since have I wanted it to go anywhere else. There are two or three shots in this film that are absolutely goosebump-inducing: the 360 one-shot on the tank, the crane shot above the tower as Caesar and Koba are about to face off, and of course, Toby Kebbell’s Koba – the greatest antagonist in Planet of the Apes franchise history – on horseback, bursting through a wall of flames with a machine gun like a demon spawned straight from hell. Kebbell’s performance matches Andy Serkis’ evolved character of Caesar with a tragic rage no villain in this franchise, or most sci-fi series, has ever had in such nuanced terms, and it can be so easy to get lost in just how good a character Koba is before remembering that it’s all being done by an actor in a mo-cap suit. He still never outperforms Andy Serkis as the mo-cap king, a more insurmountable task with each passing film in this trilogy, but he more than holds his own, as does Gary Oldman despite rather limited screen-time. Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and all the other human actors also turn in good work, but it’s the previous three mentioned that steal the show. And even with all of that, no one steals the show here from Matt Reeves’ directing. From the first moment after the film’s brief virus recap to the last frame, Reeves has total control over this narrative, and knows exactly how to evolve this story organically without playing a single false note, and I have no doubt that it’s this movie that got him the job for The Batman in 2022 (it certainly was the reason I wanted him for it, anyway). If this one is still your favorite, you will not hear an argument from me. 1. War for the Planet of the Apes Having gained some distance from initial pre-release expectations and marketing which didn’t really sell the right movie, War for the Planet of the Apes is my new #1 film in this franchise, and in bingeing them all concurrently, it was an amazing thing to see the final film in the series to this point be the franchise’s strongest. Everything in this film is operating at the top of its game. Somewhat victim to the same misnaming issue that Battle for the Planet of the Apes suffered, the film opens explosively before reminding us that the war we’re witnessing affects characters we care about in deeply personal ways, and it only gets more personally affecting from there. The choice to journey inward, to reckon with the darker parts of Caesar after all this time, instead of forcing a grand-scale spectacle purely off of audience expectation rather than organic storytelling, is a bold choice that reminds the viewer why Matt Reeves was chosen to conclude this story, Caesar’s story. Between Reeves’ direction and Serkis’ understanding of these characters, the filmmaking and narrative storytelling has never been better for this franchise. This is Andy Serkis’ best performance as Caesar bar none (maybe Serkis’ best performance ever), especially in how it’s juxtaposed against Woody Harrelson’s menacing Colonel character, and every expression on his face, be it the best visual effects the franchise has ever had or the performance in itself, is full of unprecedented depth. In fact, so powerful is the sheer level of detail in this film’s visual effects, it’s still a bit baffling that this franchise has never won an Oscar for them (which this one lost to Blade Runner 2049 in an entirely understandable but unfortunate blow for this movie). Steve Zahn’s “Bad Ape” provides some really great comic relief while also still being somewhat of a tragic character himself, and of course, I have to shout out the underrated MVP of this trilogy in Karin Konoval as Maurice. The cinematography and compositing in this one is note-perfect, the pacing moves exactly as fast as it needs to and slows down when appropriate, the film contains some of the trilogy’s most quietly sweet and tragic moments, and this is easily Michael Giacchino’s best score in a live-action film prior to The Batman. Without a doubt in my mind, this is the best film in the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy and the best Planet of the Apes movie ever made. What a conclusion. And that’s my ranking of the entire Planet of the Apes franchise! How would you rank these films? Any you think are more underrated than others? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
- The Friendly Film Fan
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by Jacob Thomas Jones Greeting, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! 2023 sure was a great year for movies, and 2024 looks to be another banger of a cinematic calendar. One of the lead stories of 2023 was the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, which led studios to push certain films into 2024 in order for actors and writers to continue and begin promotional work on both small and larger-profile projects. These projects ranged from the highly-anticipated Dune: Part Two to Luca Guadagnino’s tennis film Challengers, the latter of which was one of the first major moves off of the 2023 slate. However, as a result of those moves, we may be getting more quality cinema in 2024 than even we’re expecting. A few notes on the list order before we begin: given some of those films’ larger prominence and imminent release dates, they may appear lower on this list than you might expect. The fact is, there are others with more mystery surrounding them that adds a layer of excitement some of the lower-numbered entrants don’t necessarily lack, but no longer possess in quite the same way. As well, while some of the films higher on the list have less information available or a lack of current footage, the information that is available is elevates them above other, more obvious candidates. There are also any number of films due to release this year that simply don’t have enough information available yet to be included on this list, and some that may be expected to release this year could get pushed into 2025, so while it’s possible some of these end up on the Top 10 Best Movies of 2024 list, one can’t bank on that. As with the Top 10 Best Movies of 2023 list, there are a few films in the Honorable Mentions section that are listed in numerical order of anticipation due to how much we’re looking forward to them over the other, non-numbered alphabetical entries, but all the films on this list carry some level of excitement for us, so let’s get started. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024! 10. Horizon: An American Saga Kevin Costner is back in the director’s chair with an epic western event that not only has a theatrical release but already has an announcement trailer from Warner Bros. Given that its multi-part stories have not yet separated themselves in either footage or plot details, I’m just including them both as just one big entry here. With Chapter 1 dropping in June and Chapter 2 finishing the job in August, there’s a lot to look forward to, especially as Costner has invested a lot of his own money into developing the project after having left the series Yellowstone in order to make it happen. We haven’t gotten a proper Western genre epic in a long time, and to see Costner back in the director’s chair on a Western project so long after Dances with Wolves is cause for excitement. Hopefully this will be one of the moviegoing events of the summer (provided its quality is as high as it can go). 9. The Bikeriders The first film on this list to fall victim to the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023, Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders will be the first feature film the director has released in 8 years, following the severely underrated Loving in 2016. The film – which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2023 and was slated to release that December – was dropped by Disney following the strikes in what seemed like a revenge move against SAG-AFTRA, later being picked up by Focus Features for a June 2024 release. Inspired by the 1967 photo-book of the same name, the fictional story tracks a biker gang from the streets of Chicago all across America’s Midwest, and stars the likes of Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, and Mike Faist. Nichols is one of our greatest yet most under-sung filmmakers and this looks to be yet another film of his that utilizes a brilliant ensemble cast and likely excellent script to their fullest effect. 8. Dune: Part Two It may seem odd for Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited follow-up to Dune to be this low on the list, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not still hotly anticipating its arrival. The first film in this two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic novel was a remarkably well-crafted production of sci-fi glory that wasn’t afraid to take its time establishing everything we would need to know in order to understand this world, and every element from the cinematography to the score to the sound design heralded the arrival of a new genre classic. Part Two promises to add everything the first film missed – or at least, sort of missed – with a greater emphasis on action, a more thorough understanding of Zendaya’s character Chani and the Fremen people with which she is embedded, and the added cast powers of Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and Christopher Walken. If these trailers have shown us anything, it’s that Villeneuve was exactly the right person to helm these adaptations, and if he’s snubbed for Best Director a second time, the Academy and I will have words. 7. Mufasa: The Lion King If you weren’t aware, director Barry Jenkins – the man behind Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and the Prime Video limited series The Underground Railroad – was tapped some time ago by Disney to direct a live-action Lion King prequel film centered around the character of Mufasa. The latter part of that description leaves a lot to be desired in terms of voter confidence, no doubt about it. However, while live-action Disney projects as of late have ranged from poor to not-as-poor in quality, Barry Jenkins is one of the highest-quality filmmakers we have, and unless a Dial of Destiny-level misfire occurs, this is likely to be yet another incredibly poetic, beautiful, and miraculous notch in the Barry Jenkins quality belt. If anything, it will be something to remember. 6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga It’s been nine years since we last had a Mad Max adventure on the silver screen, and if its first trailer is any indication, the theatrical space has sorely missed George Miller’s fast and furious apocalypse franchise. As a prequel to one of the most badass Best Picture nominees ever in Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa tracks the titular Imperator’s journey from her beginnings to her eventual rise within the ranks of Immortan Joe’s inner circle. Sure, some of the CGI in the trailer looks a bit wonky, but this thing comes out in May, so there’s plenty of time for improvements, and with superstar Anya Taylor-Joy stepping into Furiosa’s desert boots – tagging in Chris Hemsworth as the new Max – I have very little doubt that this Mad Max Saga won’t at least mostly satisfy. 5. Blitz You’d be forgiven for not even knowing what this was, since there’s very little publicly available information and absolutely zero footage yet, but what ultimately matters is that Steve McQueen, the man behind 12 Years a Slave, Widows, and the Prime Video short film series Small Axe, is directing a movie about the blitz of London during WWII, and has tagged in Saoirse Ronan and Harris Dickinson to play his two leads. McQueen is one of the most singularly talented and visionary filmmakers working today, and with leads like that – plus a likely Christmastime release date – this thing seems like a major awards player already. We’ll just have to wait and see how much of a player it is. 4. Civil War While Alex Garland’s Men was an unusual but nonetheless interesting miss for the director compared to his previous two works, his remains one of the most consistently quality careers in entertainment, both as a writer and in the head chair. And with A24 expanding their typically indie portfolio to larger-budget projects such as action films and IP-based adaptations, they couldn’t have chosen a better or more innovative filmmaker to launch with. Civil War looks intense, terrifying, and insanely well-put together, its first trailer jolting one into fight or flight almost as easily as its characters (Jesse Plemons might be too good at this job), and with secret weapon Stephen McKinley Henderson on the call sheet, there’s little doubt that this will be one of the most talked-about and impressive movies of the year. 3. Mickey 17 Recently delayed “indefinitely” by Warner Bros. Discovery in order to move up Godzilla x Kong’s nationwide release, Mickey 17 is all but certain to debut in late 2024 as a major awards season player, thanks to the likes of Academy Award Winner Bong Joon Ho – who made a little movie called Parasite (the first non-English language movie to ever win Best Picture) – and superstar Robert Pattinson teaming up for a sci-fi movie that already has an announcement trailer available to watch. Plot details have been kept pretty close to the chest, but I’m hoping more is revealed soon, and I hope what is revealed is as weird and eclectic as the rest of Bong Joon Ho’s filmography. This will be the director’s first fully English-language film, and simply based on him and Pattinson alone, I’m more than confident in its overall quality being high, hence its placement this far up the list. 2. Nosferatu Nosferatu is one of the most iconic films ever made, the first to popularize the titular vampire as a horror icon, and still one of the best vampire films available even though it came out in 1922. There have been other film adaptations of the character before – most notably Werner Herzog’s 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre – but nothing quite like what visionary director Robert Eggers is sure to be cooking up. Bill Skarsgård stars as the character, with the additional cast of Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and Willem Dafoe. Dafoe in particular has had some extremely praiseworthy words for Eggers’ directing, and with a Christmas Day release date, Focus Features seems extremely confident in their product. Robert Eggers films are some of the best around, always extremely well-crafted and brimming with commitment to whatever story is being told; this is a perfect fit for him, and I cannot wait to see how he envisions this world and this iconic character. 1. Megalopolis For the better part of two decades, Francis Ford Coppola has been building up his revenues with his and his daughter’s other companies – including a quite popular winery – to self-finance this passion project about an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following an unprecedented disaster. There simply is no other spot on this list more befitting for the man behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, especially not when he’s working with Adam Driver – whose words of praise for his director should not go unnoted – as his leading man. With all of that information, plus the title itself being a play on Metropolis (another iconic film ripe for re-interpretation), my confidence is quite high. Any movie can suck, including those by some of the greatest filmmakers to ever be in the business; in fact, a few of Francis Ford Coppola’s more recent films have been rather poor. But my instincts on this one, and the knowledge that Coppola’s less quality films were made largely after he ran out of money to make movies on his own, tell me that we’re about to receive a film from Coppola the likes of which we haven’t seen before in the best possible way. And those are our picks for the Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024! What movies are you looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
11. Challengers 12. Hit Man 13. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 14. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim 15. Deadpool 3 16. Twisters 17. The Wolf Man 18. Joker: Folie à Deux 19. Wicked: Part One 20. Gladiator II
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AuthorFilm critic in my free time. Film enthusiast in my down time. Categories
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