Battle for the Planet of the Apes

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Year:	1973
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	J. Lee Thompson
Genre:	Apes dwindle
Starring:	Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres
Rating:	2/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069768/
Tagline:	The final chapter in the incredible Apes saga. The most suspenseful showdown ever filmed as two civilizations battle for the right to inherit what's left of the earth!
Favourite line:	None worth mentioning

It's the last of the original 'Apes' movies, and clearly the worst.

The plot:
Caesar, ostensible leader of the intelligent apes, has a dream. He wishes for the human 'animals' and the apes to live in peace and harmony. Trouble is, not all of his kind agrees with and, sure as chimps throw faeces at unsuspecting members of the public, factions begin to be forged.
One gorilla in particular (whose name escapes me) begins to threaten the stability, and it's not long before Caesar must decide whether to stand and fight or let his dream fall into tatters.

Low budget by this stage, this doesn't really have a whole lot going for it.
Gone are the super-animated facial features of the first couple of movies, the ape costumes, and masks in particular, now redolent of the kind of thing you'd hire from a novelty shop for a Halloween party.
Roddy McDowell, somewhat surprisingly, reprises his role as Caesar (he must have needed the cash) and does his best with some substandard material, but this was a project way beyond redemption.
The only vague positive here is that the script does tenuously hang on to the political allegory, with Caesar in full on Martin Luther King mode, which is fine but, unfortunately, you can't spin gold from navel fluff.
Deeply flawed, primarily by lack of budget, this is something of a damp squib for the series to end on.
Shame.