This fifth installment in the Apes series arrives just five of so years after the original. In this scenario set in 2670, we continue from the fourth of the series where Caesar had led an ape revolution against the humans. Now he is the supreme leader of a new community that is trying to right the wrongs of the past (or is it future) and integrates Apes and humans as close to equal as possible.

There is trouble brewing within his own community though as the Gorilla's are beginning to feel alienated and downtrodden and feel that they should be in control of their own destiny. Nearby there is a community of mutated humans living underground where they have somehow miraculously managed to survive the radiation from what must have been World War 4. The mutated humans are led by a vengeful leader who waits for the day that he may get his own back on the Apes and teach them once again that they are answerable to their masters; man. A war breaks out between the humans and the Ape's to seize control of their destinies and "change" the future. It's all a flashback though, told from the point of view of a sage ape who is reminding his subjects that the ongoing struggle to find a community of mutual respect between ape and human is still a dream of the future.

The film is totally bereft of any new ideas and is also without direction. Yet it's trying to be so profound with its profound moralistic message……a message that has been drummed into audiences for three sequels already. The production values have been visibly shorn and the film appears like a standard 70's made for TV feature with acting and background music to match. The director tries to alleviate the tedium with woeful attempts at "spectacular" war footage of man fighting ape in a long drawn out climax, but its all extremely dull and about as exciting as watching an egg boil.

The acting also jars, with the sagely Orangutan being particularly irritating with General Odo, the evil gorilla not far behind. The acting with the exception of Roddy McDowall is noticeable for it's irritating over eagerness. The whole product smacks of tremendous staleness and lack of inspiration - just as well it was the last of the series as surely there was already nowhere to take the story before they started on this particular segment.

Fatigued, stale and totally anemic, this film is mundane, trite and so banal. It attempts to disguise itself as a message movie for an intolerant, regressive world, yet comes across as a particularly inept lesson in pseudo flower power. The film doesn't succeed at any level, not as a gripping action movie, certainly not as a thriller of any sort and least of all as a film with a potent moral message to deliver. It's all a horrible muddle, a bit of this and a bit of that and it fails by a mile to add up to anything of any relevance. Uninteresting and directed with remarkable ineptitude by J. Lee Thompson, this is a sorry end to what began with an excellent start. The TV series that followed was certainly no worse than this sorry feature length episode from the Apes saga.