While this movie lacked the same "coolness factor" of the second ape movie (BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES), it was every bit as good and was a big improvement over the last film (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES).
This was a very strange movie, because while it was the fourth movie in the series, technically speaking #3 and 4 both occurred BEFORE #1 and 2, BUT #1 and 2 needed to occur first sequentially because,...well, never mind,...it's all too confusing to try to explain in only 1000 words! But trust me on this, #4 occurred 2nd---or did movie #5?!? I dunno--it's all a giant time loop thing.
Cornelius and Zira's baby, thought to have been killed in movie #3 was secreted away by the well-meaning Ricardo Montalban and raised to adulthood by the time the movie starts. Since movie #3, a lotta bad stuff has occurred on Earth. Apparently, some people saw a loophole in the 13th Amendment (to those who failed Civics, that's the one that freed the slaves)--the Amendment did not apply to apes!! So now we have chimps, orangutans and gorillas doing slave labor all across the globe. How these three types of apes came to look NOTHING like chimps, orangutans or gorillas, we don't know--maybe there was some sort of cloning or cool potion used to enhance them and make them look like people inside ape suits! Cornelius' nice life in the traveling circus is brought to an end when a zealous dude begins to wonder if MAYBE Cornelius' and Zira's baby had NOT been killed, so he goes on a personal Jihad looking for the baby. When questioned, Montalban chose death over betraying the offspring--thus confirming the baby MUST have survived. But finding him is a problem since by now the now-adult offspring has blended into the mass of slave apes.
This offspring soon is allowed to choose his name from a book. The people who let him do this think that maybe he'll pick a word like "apple" or "the" or maybe even "dookie", but he finds the word "Caesar" and so he is christened with this cool name. Now, at this point, you think someone would have realized that something was amiss--picking a name like this! But, the humans in this film are either totally stupid or bloodthirsty (much like real life, I guess).
Caesar lives up to his name and leads a slave rebellion--after all, he's appalled by the way humans treat these poor animals. And so the movie ends--finishing the series, right?! Well, no. The fifth movie and a spin off TV series were to follow--along with a crappy remake of the original that recently was dumped on the public.
I've got to say that this movie was really good--mostly due to the excellent character played by Roddy McDowell. Yes, we know he had played Cornelius but this time he plays his own son and does an excellent job--combining great humanity with his character. Great stuff.
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