Revolt of the Empire of the Apes picks up where Empire of the Apes left off. (And a little before.) The apes have taken over Earth and made humans their slaves. The last remaining faction of human freedom fighters gather for one final push to reclaim their planet. Meanwhile, the evil ape emperor tries to reconnect with his half-human, half-ape, green-skinned son.
The effects and make-up are slightly better than what we saw in Empire of the Apes, but that’s about the only improvement. The editing is particularly whiplash-inducing. There’s one scene where the apes are indoors talking to humans who are clearly outdoors, and the editing (unconvincingly) tries to convince us they are all in the same vicinity. Dialogue scenes that should be comprised of simple two-shots of two actors in the same frame are instead assembled by the camera filming close-ups of each actor from an odd angle and then sloppily edited together. This makes me think that none of the actors were ever present in the same place at the same time. I’ve heard of making a movie piecemeal, but this is the pits.
Revolt of the Empire of the Apes is a little over an hour long, but it feels much longer. To make matters worse, the film is heavily made up of recycled footage from the first flick. Also, much of the so-called revolution is just a bunch of scenes of people standing around in the woods and arguing with one another. Meanwhile, the apes hang around their headquarters and bark orders at each other. The subplot with the half-human, half-ape has a really weird payoff too.
Empire of the Apes was cheap, sure. At least it had spirit and offered a modicum of fun. This one is just an incomprehensible bore. To add insult to injury, the great Scream Queen Tina Krause is wasted in a nothing role.
Revolting is right.
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