Appropriately yet ironically titled, "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" marks a steep drop-off from the indisputable sci-fi classic "Planet Of The Apes." When the original proved to be a major hit, striking a chord in the imaginations of audiences everywhere, a sequel was rushed into production. With half the budget and half the talent (a reluctant Charlton Heston agreed to appear only in cameo form and with the caveat that his character takes action to ensure there are no more sequels -- ha!), "Beneath" apes its predecessor in more ways than one. Not only does new leading man James Franciscus look and act a lot like Heston (so much so that even sympathetic ape lady Zira confuses the two characters) but the plot has a distinct whiff of been there, done that. Well, until that zany last act, anyway.It would be all to easy to dump on the film for all of its shortcomings. "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" at least gets a few elements right. The attempt to push the narrative forward and pick up at the point where the original left off is a good start. Not too far into the film, Taylor (Heston) and Nova (the striking Linda Harrison) are separated, leaving room for newly landed astronaut Brent (Franciscus) to accompany her. As tensions among apes builds - - some of the film's most memorable images are that of a peaceful ape protest that is broken up with brute force -- the twosome are forced underground, where they discover the remains of their lost civilization. And mutants. Telepathetic mutants at that, hellbent on destruction and worshipping the atomic bomb. Yeah, that's right. This movie goes there.By far the most bizarre and inconsistent film in the franchise without Tim Burton's name attached to it, "Beneath" at least gets by on its bizarre digressions and admittedly chilling visions of a decimated New York City (condemned to the underground, "Futurama" style). If nothing else, it's never dull. Thankfully, the series would make a much needed course correction with the melodramatic but much improved "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes" and its even more politically-minded "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes." But in the context of the original five "Apes" films, this one feels perhaps the most extraneous. Lots of good ideas lost in muddled execution. It's also -- for lack of a better term -- completely and utterly bananas.

Movie that continues at the exact spot the original left off. At the and of The Planet of the Apes more than anything I wanted to see more. And when that more came, after promising start, it suddenly turned to lousy movie with crappy ending. I can't recall last time I was this much disappointed. Really sad.6/10

Outstanding sequel to Planet Of The Apes, in this film another human crash lands his ship on the apes world.Chuck Heston gets too little screen time, but everything else about this movie is outstanding.One of the mutants down below is played by Paul Richards who did wonderful work on TV's The Fugitive and I Spy.Leonard Rosenman had done the score to Fox's Fantastic Voyage (1966) and I think the studio was attempting to get the Fantastic Voyage- feeling going again. His score here is perfectly matched to the film.Apes is a Fox production as were the Irwin Allen sci-fi TV shows of this period. In the early part of the film, where you see the crashed wreck of the spaceship, look hard and you can see the landing legs of spaceship Jupiter 2 (from Lost In Space) in the wreckage of the ship.Later in the film, part of the underground city is in fact "The Secret City Of Limbo" seen in Land Of The Giants.Beneath The Planet Of The Apes is great film with enough retro sci- fi connections to make it super-fun as well

Right away, I knew this was not going to be as good as the original, (which is mostly because I love the original so much). That being said, I was curious on how they'd follow up. All I can say is, w.t.f! Every moment of plot progression from the other ship to the underground telepathic community with the nuclear bomb straight up knocked me off my ass. Some stuff was interesting, others were kind of stupid.After realizing the extinction of man, Taylor, (Charlton Heston) disappears, and his mute love interest, Nova, finds another survivor of a rescue expedition who has also landed on the planet, determined with the help of Nova to find Taylor.I gotta give this movie credit...it kept my interest. Regardless of how goofy it got at times, it made me want to figure out what was going on the whole time. It felt way more intense with the war between apes and man. It actually felt more brutal and intense than the original, though that wasn't the original's intention understandably. A few things in the writing make it sound like it was written by a hippie, talking A LOT about peace and love. I think they might have hammered in the "nuclear warfare is evil, we're all going to blow ourselves up" talk that was popular around the early 70's.The film doesn't get necessarily boring, but it takes a few too many risks, some work, some don't. Overall, it wasn't that bad. I felt genuinely worried about the main character's and their mission and all the conflicts going on. It does kind of dismiss the goings on in Ape City a little abruptly, but that's what more sequels are for I guess. Recommended if you watched and enjoyed the original.