Hello. I can see the original planet of the Apes has much higher rating than its sequels. Does this mean they were considered lower quality movies in their time? Are they regarded as such today? Are they still good movies or mediocre ones? Can they be considered classics or that's reserved for the original?
Thanks in advance.
The original is a classic, not the sequels. While some of the sequels were better than others, not was ever, then or now, considered as good as the original.
shareIf I recall....this movie garnered alot of postive reviews. it played for a long time. God knows, I saw it 5 times in the movies on it's initial release.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
ESCAPE is often critically considered the best of the sequels after the original. As a kid I never thought so, because it simply didn't have enough apes in it. But today I too consider ESCAPE the finest in the series after the original (in a cinematic sense).
I always thought (and still do) Beneath was the best sequel (it had the main characters and even more apes than the original), then Escape.
shareBENEATH was always my personal favorite of the series (even more than the original!) while growing up. I really got off on the whole "mutants/underground" aspect. These days, however, I am more aware of its flaws.
shareI'm kinda "meh" with the mutants - it was the return to the original characters and the awesome world that makes it the best sequel, for me. And of course the gorilla army was cool - from the war training to the desert march, and of course the storming of the underground world. The ruins were great, as was the Taylor/Brent fight, especially how they came out of it and killed the mutant. Seeing Nova die wasn't the best part, but it sets up for Taylor hitting the "button" after that spectacular gun fight.
shareYes, that's all how I feel, too. When I said "mutants" I pretty much meant "the underground world" in general. And I always liked the gorilla army and Ursus especially, with that ultra-cool helmet. The Taylor/Brent fight was always a highlight of the entire series for me. So I supposed BENEATH is still my personal favorite of all the sequels in that way, but I was just looking at it through a more objective and critical eye these days (the repetitious first half, the overall gloom of the proceedings, etc).
shareThe thing about the "repetition" was that it showed us what was going on in Ape City. I suppose they could've done all that anyway, without Brent's involvement, but it was all interesting. Everything Brent observed was great exposition for the audience; the Citizens Council meeting, the conversation between Cornelius, Zira. And Zaius, and the gorillas training for the invasion. And of course the entering into the subway.
shareThe real problem here is you are looking for what appears to be a definite answer on something you can't measure. We have to look at a specific metric.
On IMDB you can measure by scores, but you have to understand the percent of people that actually take the time to vote on IMDB is not going to be close to the whole number of people that watched the movie.
Likewise you could also visit review or critical pieces, but those are only ever written by a certain type of person and read by the same type of person. Which is probably pound for pound in 2015, less than the above the mentioned group.
If neither of these samples are good enough, you can also try to put out a survey where you can control your metric or make it random. Just asking on IMDb for some kind of magic real answer, just isn't possible.
Communities left for being too closeminded: Gamefaqs, Home Theater Forum, Toonzone