Friday, November 23, 2018

Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

anymore

Julia Bianco @jewliabianco

Tom Welling has been fairly quiet in Hollywood since appearing as Clark Kent on the CW's Smallville. Although he was the OG superhero on a network that has since become known for its comics-derived shows, Welling has yet to capitalize on the show's success to push into the next stage of his acting career. Rumors of him reprising his role as Superman on the CW's Supergirl this season didn't come to fruition, with Tyler Hoechlin being cast in his place.

Here are the reasons why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore, and what he can do to turn his career around.

Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

He had very limited acting experience before appearing on Smallville

Tom Welling was new to Hollywood when he booked a six-episode arc on the CW's Judging Amy, playing karate teacher Rob Meltzer in a total of six episodes over the course of the six season series. What recurring role could a karate teacher play on a legal drama about a Connecticut judge trying to raise a daughter on her own? As Judge Amy's love interest, of course! That's right: Welling's Rob Meltzer taught karate to Lauren, Amy's daughter, and he and Amy hit it off and begin seeing each other.

Welling scored the role of the hunky karate teacher when he was 24 years old, and the appearances led to his starring role as a high school student on Smallville, also on the CW. Despite his six episodes on Judging Amy, his overall lack of acting experience was still pretty obvious in some of the earlier episodes of Smallville, and it also meant that Clark Kent became Welling's most immediately identifiable role, making it even harder for him to break out into other parts later.The

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He didn't have the time to take on many other roles while filming Smallville

There are many actors who started out with easily identifiable early roles on huge, long-running TV shows, but they were able to still jumpstart their career in other directions by appearing in films while the show was in progress. However, the innovative visual effects that Smallville demanded meant that Welling was on set more than other actors, giving him less time for other projects.

The roles he did appear in include the ill-received horror film The Fog with Maggie Grace and Selma Blair, and, most notably, the role of Charlie Baker in the Cheaper by the Dozen series. Welling wasn't called upon to carry a lot of dramatic weight in any of the roles; coming out of Smallville, the TV series remained the most impressive thing on his résumé.

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After Smallville, he wanted to take some time off

Smallville was so much work for Welling that afterwards, he took a self-imposed six-month hiatus.

"I needed a break," he told BuzzFeed. "I needed to figure out what was going on in my head a little bit. There was some adjusting that I needed to get back into real life and to make up for lost time as well. I was like, 'Guys, I'm out of here.' The two months that you spend at the beach loses some of its intrinsic value when you don't have anything you're running away from or have to go back to. I felt like I was basically retired and it sort of woke me up. But it needed to happen."

When he did decide to get back into acting, he decided he wanted to be more selective about his roles.

"I wanted to play a human and I wanted to be a part of a film whose theme was bigger than whatever character I was playing," he continued. "By being on Smallville for 10 years, I was able to make some really fantastic choices with that character, but now I'm drawn to real people trying to live real lives."

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Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

He has been very picky in the roles he chooses

Welling spent ten years on television, which can be very tiring for an actor, and it makes sense that he'd want to take a break from life in front of the cameras after having to head to the same set year after super-year. It should come as no surprise that, because of that decade-long grind, Welling has been very selective in the roles he's taken since the end of Smallville's run.

In fact, he's only appeared in three films since the show's 2011 finale: the Zac Efron and Billy Bob Thornton-starring mystery drama Parkland, the Ivan Reitman-directed and Kevin Costner-starring sports drama Draft Day, and the Nicholas Sparks romance The Choice. While none of the movies made much of an impact on audiences or critics (more on that in a moment), it is safe to say that Welling had a chance to stretch himself as an actor in all three roles.

In The Choice, Welling played Ryan, a doctor and former flame of the movie's leading lady, Gabby Holland. Meanwhile, in Parkland, Welling took the role of a Secret Service agent working during JFK's assassination. Draft Day offered a third occupation for Welling to try out: that of a washed up quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Clearly Welling was going for range with those roles — no tights, capes, or superhero-themed jackets in any of them.

Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

The roles he's chosen haven't been very well received

It's not always the actor's fault when a film doesn't do well, but it can definitely affect their potential for future success. Welling's pickiness makes it even more important that the films chooses make an impact; unfortunately, none of the films he's appeared in have resonated with critics or audiences.

2013's Parkland earned a 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but even worse was the fact that it only made $1.4 million at the box office against a $10 million budget. 2014's Draft Day did slightly better, earning a 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and bringing in a box office haul of $29.5 million against a budget of $25 million.

2016's The Choice did the worst of all three with critics, earning only a 12 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn't a total box office failure, though, grossing just over $23 million worldwide against an approximately $10 million budget.

None of the three were impressive enough to stand out and prove Welling's star power outside of Smallville, which could make studios nervous to cast him in big-budget films.

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He wants to spend more time behind the scenes

Welling launched Tom Welling Productions towards the end of Smallville's run with the goal of spending more time behind the camera. Welling, who began executive producing during the later episodes of Smallville, served as an executive producer on the CW's cheerleader dramedy Hellcats in 2011, and was attached to serve as an executive producer on a potential TV show project in 2015 (more on that later).

Welling also directed a few episodes of Smallville over the years, and told the L.A. Times after the show ended that directing was a new ambition. It's possible that his acting career lost some momentum because he's focused on pursuing other opportunities behind the camera.

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Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

He decided he didn't want to do television anymore

As we've already mentioned, for Welling, Smallville was more than just a full time job. The actor spent hours on set every day, filming in Vancouver, far away from his New York-based family. This was very difficult for the young star, who felt lonely and isolated at times.

"I spent 10 years where my life was 6AM to 1AM on set," he told BuzzFeed. "From an emotional standpoint, I was basically cut off from everyone… I just put my head in a hole and I basically blocked everybody and everything out."

Because of this, Welling decided that, after Smallville, he didn't want to do another TV show for awhile. Movies, which take less time to film and offer more of a break, were more in the lane of what he was looking for, but it can be very hard for a TV actor to make the jump to film. Welling's aversion to TV may have led to him turning down potentially lucrative and popular roles after Smallville.

Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

Tom Welling may not be appearing on stage or in front of the cameras too much for one simple reason: he just doesn't want to right now. The actor's social media accounts show that he seems to be having a pretty good time out of the spotlight, taking fun vacations (including some with past costars), seeing concerts, going to the beach to soak up some sun, and more.

He's even hit the slopes and encountered fresh powder and a red dinosaur named Ski-asaurus Rex. Weirdly enough, encountering dinosaurs in the modern era might be something of a trend for Welling, judging by his Instagram account. Here's yet another random dino hanging out by a pool in Malibu. Maybe this is Welling's way of hinting that he'd like to be a part of the Jurassic World franchise…

Anyway, Welling could just be having so much fun in his time off that he just isn't in a rush to get back on set. After playing a Superman in training for ten years, would you?

Why Hollywood won't cast Tom Welling anymore

He's back on TV

While his post-Smallville profile might not have been what anyone expected from Welling, sometimes the patient approach can really pay off—as evidenced by his recent small-screen comeback courtesy of Lucifer. Welling joined the cast of the supernatural Fox drama during its third season in 2017, playing a police lieutenant named Marcus Pierce. Positioned as a potential love interest for main character Chloe Decker (Lauren German), Pierce is the polar opposite of the series protagonist—who, as readers of the comics that inspired the show know, is literally the Lord of Hell.

Although Lucifer represents a return to DC-derived fare for Welling, it's obviously a far cry from playing Clark Kent; in fact, as he told reportersafter joining the cast, one of the things that drew him to the role was the opportunity to move in a "very different" direction. Here's hoping this is just the beginning of an exciting second act in his career.

What the cast of Smallville looks like today

Andrew Handley @somescifiguy

When Smallville ended in 2011, it felt like we were all ready to move on to bigger things. Superman and all his friends had once again become big-screen heroes, and the CW was gearing up for a new age of superhero shows like Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. Even the cast of Smallville seemed poised for bulletproof careers outside the borders of their little town in Kansas. Now that the hit show's been off the air for more than half a decade (can you believe it?), let's take a look at where some of the biggest stars of Smallville are now and what they look like today.

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A Timeline and Exploration of the Original 'Planet of the Apes' Franchise - ComingSoon.net

By Brad Brevet

ON August 2, 2011

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A scene from Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Photo: 20th Century Fox
Planet run by Apes,impossible you say ? "

I revisited the original Planet of the Apes films recently and when I say original I mean I didn’t include Tim Burton’s 2001 remake. I’ve seen that film once in my life and that was enough and it didn’t really suit my intentions. However, the original five films are awfully entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Themes of slavery, power, nuclear war, ignorance, intolerance and so on are peppered throughout all five films, five films that are also incredibly dark in nature.

Now Fox has revived the franchise with Rise of the Planet of the Apesmarking the first film in the franchise to not use men in rubber ape suits, but instead employing the talents of the folks at WETA Digital (Avatar) to use performance capture to create all-digital photo-realistic apes.

Bad film or not, the makeup effects in Burton’s 2001 remake were spectacular, and Tim Roth as Thade was excellent, but the story was a mess, leading to an atrocious conclusion. Rise of the Planet of the Apesproved to be a much different scenario and who knows, maybe in 38 years people will be looking back at this new series the same way I am the original late ’60s and early ’70s predecessors.

Before we get started, if you’re wondering how Rise of the Planet of the Apes may or may not fit in with the original five films, it is something of a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the second best film in the original Apes franchise, which features Roddy McDowell as Caesar, a chimpanzee who leads a revolt against mankind as his brethren are being treated as pets and slaves.

The difference, however, between Conquest and Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the origin of the simian revolution. The original franchise, as a matter of fact, has two origin stories and Rise of the Planet of the Apespresents something of a third with genetic engineering leading to the development of intelligence in apes rather than evolution or time traveling chimps from the future. The new film certainly pays homage to the films of the past and includes several references to events seen in previous films, the characters and the actors. Perhaps you’ll spot a few as I breakdown the story of the past and see what clues it may hold.

What follows is a quick look at the timeline as presented in the five films that make up the original Planet of the Apes franchise: Planet of the Apes(1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). Not all details are covered, but I believe it presents a clear picture of the overall story.

November 3954

A scene from Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

A spaceship that left Earth in 1972 carrying a four-person crew — Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart (Dianne Stanley) — crash lands on Earth in November 3954. Stewart is dead when the ship lands, leaving Taylor, Landon and Dodge to explore what is seen as a barren wasteland until they ultimately stumble across a colony of intelligent apes and a world where humans are hunted and studied just as apes were the year they left Earth.

Dodge is killed, Landon lobotomized and Taylor is injured, put on trial and eventually freed by two chimpanzee scientists, Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (Roddy McDowell), who escape with Taylor and a female companion (Nova played by Linda Harrison) to the Forbidden Zone, an area destroyed by nuclear war.

NOTE: The chronometer reads 11-25-3978 when the ship crashes, but in Beneath the Planet of the Apes we learn the ship’s chronometer was off by 24 years.

January 3955

A scene from Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

After escaping and venturing on his own, leaving Cornelius and Zira behind and departing as equals, Taylor and Nova discover the planet Taylor has been on this entire time is actually Earth, destroyed by nuclear war.

February 3955

A scene from Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

A second spaceship, launched in February 1973, after the first ship dropped out of communication, follows Taylor’s ship’s trajectory in a rescue effort and crash lands on Earth carrying Brent (James Franciscus) and Maddox. Maddox dies shortly after landing.

Brent eventually runs into Nova, but Taylor has gone missing. Nova takes him to Cornelius and Zira. Brent and Nova eventually head into the Forbidden Zone.

A Timeline and Exploration of the Original 'Planet of the Apes' Franchise - Page 2 of 3 - ComingSoon.net

By Brad Brevet

ON August 2, 2011

0 0

February 3955

A scene from Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

Brent stumbles upon a group of telepathic mutant humans living in what was once New York’s subway system where they are housing a nuclear bomb.

February 3955

A scene from Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

Brent finds Taylor imprisoned by the mutant humans and as they try to escape the apes are attacking the underground compound.

February 3955

A scene from Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

As the battle wages on, Brent and Nova are killed and Taylor is the last to be shot, but before he dies he triggers the nuclear bomb, destroying Earth and all its inhabitants. Boom, done, everyone’s dead.

April 1973

A scene from Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

While battle waged in the underground mutant compound at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in the opening moments of Escape from the Planet of the Apes we learn Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) were able to find Taylor’s original crashed ship, restore it and conduct a test flight. As a result, when Taylor triggered the bomb the three apes were sent back in time to 1973, one year after Taylor’s original mission, creating an alternate timeline.

May 1973

A scene from Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Milo are originally held captive in a zoo on arrival, but after Dr. Milo is killed by a gorilla, Zira reveals she can speak. Cornelius and Zira become a media sensation for a short time until it is learned Zira is pregnant and in a drunken mistake she reveals what the future holds for apes and humans. As a result, in an attempt to preserve the human race, it is declared Zira’s baby must never be born.

Before the baby can be aborted, Cornelius and Zira escape, Zira gives birth to a baby chimp they name Milo and give to Armando (Ricardo Montalban), a traveling circus owner. Shortly thereafter Cornelius and Zira are found and shot along with what is believed to be Zira’s baby.

May 1973

A scene from Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

It is then revealed that the baby Zira was carrying was actually not her child and Milo is still alive with Armando. At the end of Escape from the Planet of the Apes the film fades to black with Milo saying, “Mamma.”

July 1991

A scene from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

In 1983, a parasite brought back from space killed off all dogs and cats. Later that same year apes became the predominant pet for humans.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes begins eight years after that incident and Armando has been raising Milo, whose name has been changed to Caesar (Roddy McDowell), for the last 17 years. He can now speak, but he is the only ape that can although other apes are showing advancements in domestic tasks and serve as pets, but more appropriately slaves and servants for humans.

The rumors of Cornelius and Zira’s baby persists and in the film’s opening moments Caesar speaks while witnessing violence against an ape. Armando takes the blame and ultimately dies attempting to escape police custody while Caesar enters the Ape Integration Training program, all while trying not to let on he can speak.

September 1991

A scene from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

Caesar begins what I have to assume served as a major influence on David Fincher’s Fight Club (after all one of the names The Narrator uses at the Testiculr Cancer Support Group is Cornelius). Caesar forms his own Project Mayhem and begins building an army that will soon lead to revolution.

Caesar leads his simian army in full revolt and gives the menacing speech you can watch above, a moment I would say is right up there with Taylor’s discovery of the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of the Apes as the two greatest moments in the franchise:

Where there is fire, there is smoke. And in that smoke, from this day forward, my people will crouch and conspire and plot and plan for the inevitable day of Man’s downfall–the day when he finally and self-destructively turns his weapons against his own kind. The day of the writing in the sky, when your cities lie buried under radioactive rubble! When the sea is a dead sea, and the land is a wasteland out of which I will lead my people from their captivity! And we will build our own cities in which there will be no place for humans except to serve our ends! And we shall found our own armies, our own religion, our own dynasty! And that day is upon you… NOW!

That speech was presented a little differently upon theatrical release with a softer and more hopeful conclusion. The Blu-ray edition of the film allows you to watch the unrated version of the film, though, without the tacked on soft and cozy ending.

June 2004

A scene from Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

13 years have passed since Caesar’s revolt. The world has been largely destroyed by a global nuclear war waged by mankind in a last ditch effort to survive the apes uprising. It failed. The apes are now starting from scratch in a ravaged land and humans are now serving apes, teaching them to read and write and performing menial tasks.

June 2004

A scene from Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

During an expedition to the ruins of New York City, the apes come across a group of mutant humans as well as finds a record of Caesar’s parents’ story of the future and the destruction that lead to their time-traveling flight. The question the audience now raises is whether that future is truly in the offing or if the future has now been permanently altered after Cornelius and Zira traveled back in time.

In Escape from the Planet of the Apes Cornelius quotes the Sacred Scrolls, telling of the first ape that dared defied humans, saying:

“On an historic day, which is commemorated by my species and fully documented in the Sacred Scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word which had been spoken to him time without number by humans. He said, ‘No’.”

Aldo is revealed in Battle for the Planet of the Apes to be a gorilla general in Caesar’s army played by Claude Akins.

June 2004

A scene from Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment

Learning of the apes whereabouts, the mutant army goes on the attack, scared the apes will capture them and also make reference to a nuclear bomb they are holding and expect to launch should they be defeated.

The mutants are defeated, but the surviving mutants choose not to launch the bomb, but instead revere and respect it, just as the telepathic mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes did. Is it a sign history will repeat itself? It seems so.

As for the original timeline, before Cornelius and Zira upset it by traveling back in time, it too is different than the one that will be presented in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

The original story tells of apes naturally evolving in the year 2050, 450 years after a similar parasite killed dogs and cats and saw man taking on apes as pets. 50 years later, Aldo leads the Ape Revolution, being the first ape to say “no” to his master as referenced in the quote from Cornelius above.

Caesar (Andy Serkis) and James Franco in Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Photo: 20th Century Fox

This is where questions begin to arise when looking at Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In the one trailer I saw the apes did not speak, will we hear them speak in this film? My guess is we will in the final moments, which will leave us with more story to be told in eventual sequels.

I also wonder if this film will merely through nods for those looking to the original franchise or if it will be looked at as a complete reboot of the franchise. Considering it is set in present-day San Francisco, reboot is the only way I can look at it. The press notes don’t even mention Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, though senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri does call it an “origin story” saying, “Planet of the Apes is such a classic and beloved film that the idea of working on an origin story – the story about how it all came to be – was interesting, especially being able to focus on the point of view of Caesar as our main character.”

The official synopsis also calls it an origin story in the truest sense of the term, which is a bit confusing if you look at either the original or alternate timelines I mentioned above. Based on those, in 2011 the world was either dominated by apes or the idea of an Ape Revolution was over 500 years away.

My assumption is that the only way to look at it is to say it’s the origin of a brand new story that simply holds a common bond to the original franchise and the characters created by Pierre Boulle in his 1963 novel “La Planete des singes” (Monkey Planet). Either way, I hope it satisfies.

Now, I leave you with a special treat I found while putting this article together, the entirety of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes presented by YouTube. If you haven’t seen it and enjoy a bit of campy science fiction meets science fact have a look below. Personally, the build to the finale is excellent if you ask me.

As for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it hits theaters this Friday, August 5. For more on the film including pictures, trailers and more click here.

“The Only Good Human Is a Dead Human”: Looking Back at BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

BY MATT GOLDBERG JULY 4, 2014

[With Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opening on Friday, July 11th, I’m taking a look back at the Planet of the Apes movie franchise. These reviews contain spoilers.]

When your movie ends with one of the most dramatic and shocking conclusions in cinematic history, where do you go from there? Revelations can lead to reconciliations, but Beneath the Planet of the Apes couldn’t even reconcile its two plotlines. Where Planet of the Apes was able to tie the tensions of the 1960s to a greater look at the human condition, Beneath suffers from schizophrenia where it wants to say something, but lacks the cleverness, timing, and consistency to do so. The film is still filled with interesting ideas and settings, but in its haste to make a grand, vague statement, Beneath forgets its greatest asset: apes.

[Side note: Unlike my X-Men retrospective, this is my first time viewing some of the films in the franchise. I’ve never seen any of the Apes sequels until now.]

After we hear some narration of the Sacred Scrolls, Beneath the Planet of the Apesuses the conclusion of the first film as a prologue, which hints at the sequel’s hesitation to find its own identity. Anyone who saw the first film would never forget its conclusion, and so what’s meant as a transition ends up feeling like a crutch since we then go to another crashed spaceship, which is where the story really begins.

The spaceship has followed Taylor’s trajectory, and was intended as a rescue mission, but Brent (James Franciscus) is the lone survivor of the crash. He quickly meets Nova (Linda Harrison), who is wearing Taylor’s dog-tags, but still lacks the ability to speak. We then receive scattered flashbacks revealing that Taylor mysterious disappeared. Since Brent is unaware of this development, he decides to ride along with Nova, but their journey leads them back to the ape village.

This is where the film starts to get interesting as we’re introduced to General Ursus (James Gregory), a gorilla who is preaching rhetoric very similar to the military during the Vietnam War. “The only good human is a dead human,” he cries to a gathering of apes. Among the crowd is Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), and Cornelius (David Watson), and all of them look less-than-pleased with Ursus’ cries for war. “Invade! Invade! Invade!” he shouts in his attempt to rally the apes to invade the Forbidden Zone. Ursus believes there are more humans hiding out in the zone, and they need to be snuffed out to make more room for the apes.

Brent, like Taylor, is shocked by talking apes, but the movie hints that he’s also shocked by their brutality, which is a surprise when you consider the brutality of the 20th century. It’s a rare moment where Brent is interesting since we’re unsure if he shares Taylor’s cynicism about the past, but Brent’s personality quickly fades once he’s on the run. Taylor may have been a dick, but Charlton Heston had charisma to spare, and his righteous fury permeates the original. Brent is a nice guy, but it looks like the reason he was hired was because he looked good with his shirt off. It’s not a bad performance, but there’s nothing distinct about it, especially since it’s bounced between two societies with little insight into either.

The movie then runs a condensed repeat of what happened to Taylor in the first movie: Brent and Nova are helped by Zira and Cornelius, run away, are recaptured, and escape with the help of Zira. It’s not until halfway through the picture that Brent and Nova go “beneath” and discover New York City’s subway tunnels. It’s also where Brent realizes he’s on Earth, which reminded me that the character didn’t know where he was. The revelation doesn’t have much of an impact, and while Franciscus plays the shock well, the dramatic impact for the audience has worn off. It’s time to explore, and while the movie takes us someplace new, it no longer jibes with the world we saw before.

The apes fall far into the background as Brent discovers a new society of humans living underground, and it turns out they’re even crueler than the apes. They use their telepathic powers to not only cause illusions, but mental anguish to the point where they can force their victims to kill others. “We don’t kill our enemies,” Brent is told by his captors. “We get our enemies to kill each other.” If that weren’t enough, the underground society worships a doomsday device and wear masks that hide hideous faces (and another excellent makeup job by John Chambers).

This is where the symbolism goes all wonky, and I was writing down everything I could think of in my notes in order to decipher what the film was going for. It made me respect both the directness and subtlety of Planet of the Apes, and while I enjoy wrestling with complicated ideas, Beneath the Planet of the Apes appears to be working at cross-purposes, and the symbolism is so broad that it seems like it’s trying to fill in multiple interpretations, but none of them click together particularly well.

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From the ape side, the Vietnam parable is unmistakable. In addition to Ursus’ rhetoric, we see Cornelius and Zira arguing over how to express their dissent, and even Dr. Zaius seems ambivalent about the plan to invade the Forbidden Zone, although he commits to the war effort because he wants to keep the populace ignorant in order to prevent public outcry (a prescient commentary considering the release of the Pentagon Papers the following year). But the film makes absolutely no attempt to be subtle when the younger apes make a public protest by carrying signs that read “Wage Peace Not War”. Those apes are then arrested and their signs are trampled.

But when the apes march out, they almost leave the story entirely. The plot moves to the underground humans, and while director Ted Post does a terrific job of making the new setting creepy and atmospheric, we’re still stuck with bland Brent, an underdeveloped Nova (once again, Hamilton’s entire job is to look pretty and confused), and a mess of weird characters who are a bundle of mixed metaphors.

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Here’s what we learn about the underground humans: They have the power of telepathy, they’re cruel, they create illusions as a form of defense, even their faces are false, the masks hide grotesque visages, and the people worship a doomsday device bearing the symbols for alpha and omega on one of the fins. They’re a fascinating creation, but they take us away from the apes, and we feel like we’ve found our way into an entirely different movie, so we’re caught trying to bridge a thematic gap.

Do the subterranean humans stand in for American politicians? They take comfort in atomic weapons. They’re deceivers who use illusions (i.e. propaganda) to bend others to their will, and use Asian countries as pawns (“We get our enemies to kill each other”) to play out the Cold War with the “Divine Bomb” as the ultimate insurance in maintaining the status quo. In place of the apes’ physical might, the underground humans have the power the mind.

Or do the mutant telepaths represent communism? They’re an insidious underground force, and they might look like us, but they’re actually hideous monsters, and they will drop the bomb the first chance they get. Any American who is “controlled” by communism will turn against his brethren.

Then you factor in the bellicose gorillas who clearly represent the U.S. military, and you have this stew of half-formed nihilism where humanity is doomed, but not in the introspective, subversive way presented in Planet of the Apes. Instead, it works like a sloppy editorial where the writer is throwing out various accusations, but lacks a central thesis.

How the film came to be a scramble of moderately interesting ideas becomes clear when you learn that so many of the players were invited back, but most were prevented from doing so due to prior obligations. Director Franklin J. Schaffnerwas busy with Patton and screenwriter Michael Wilson was working on other projects. Even Roddy McDowall, who played Cornelius in the first movie, couldn’t return because he was in Scotland directing Tam Lin.

This led to Paul Dehn stepping in as the screenwriter. As explained in the Blu-ray featurette, Dehn was traumatized by the 1945 atomic bombings, and whether you see the underground humans as politicians or communists, the fear of the bomb is palatable. But it doesn’t fit with what the apes are up to, and it doesn’t seem like Dehn was too interested in those characters. If the second half of Beneath the Planet of the Apes was a separate film devoid of apes, it could stand as its own picture along the lines of The Omega Man. Instead, Beneath the Planet of the Apes has to carry the expectations created by the groundbreaking original.

That burden carries over to Beneath‘s controversial ending. Like the rest of the movie, the ending came out of a hodgepodge of ideas. Heston didn’t want to return for a sequel, but did so as a favor to studio head Richard Zanuck on the condition that Taylor would be killed off. The actor originally wanted Taylor to die at the beginning, but the story had the character bookend the narrative. When Zanuck was fired in the middle of production, he tried to end the franchise in spectacular fashion by using Heston’s suggestion that Taylor die by setting off the doomsday device. In addition to being a resounding “Fuck You” to the studio (Richard Zanuck suffered the indignity of being fired by his father, Darryl Zanuck), the story’s conclusion also attempted to rival the ending of the first movie.

Granted, the ending is shocking. As the apes mow down the humans, including Brent by shooting him in the head, Taylor is fatally wounded and with his dying breaths he is able to detonate the doomsday device. The screen goes white, and we’re treated to the following narration: “In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead.” Fade to black, movie over, thanks for coming out to the moving pictures, folks.

The ending of Planet of the Apes is surprising, but it’s also electrifying. It gets people talking because not only is it a twist, it’s a twist that’s thematically relevant. The ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes has shock value, but it’s hollow. Although fear of the atomic bomb permeates the second half of the movie, it has nothing to do with the first half beyond “War Is Bad”, a sentiment about as deep as the signs carried by the film’s protestors. Even Post was unhappy with the ending. “The loss of a planet,” says Post in the Blu-ray featurette, “is the loss of all hope.” The series crossed the line from cynicism to a hollow, angry gesture.

Hope no longer lay in the future. It would have to come from the past.

Rating: C-

[Tomorrow: Escape from the Planet of the Apes]

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