Do you LOVE this series as much as I do? I've seen every single movie and even some episodes of the live-action 1970's TV series. I think my favorites are the 1968 original and "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes". Even though it was essentially actors in ape suits, they lent so much heart and complexity to their portrayals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvR2mCx-Jnc

I read that there is going to be a prequel called "Ceasar: Rise of the Apes".

i really like the original movies, i didn't care for the remake.

I really liked the original movie. I didn't care for...any of the rest of it.

The original was truly the best, and in my opinion, "Conquest" was the second best. I thought "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" was pretty entertaining but verging on cheesy, due to those wacked-out radioactive costumes and Chuck Heston-lookalike James Franciscus.
The rest ranged from good to "meh". "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" was probably the worst, but still had its good points. My favorite scene was when Ceasar ventured to the remnants of a radioactive city where the mutants lived, to see a film clip of his parents Zira and Cornelius.

Anyone remember the 70s animated series? It had perhaps the scariest animated intro ever made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKCdrcEhTJA

That is a very cool intro. If I'm not mistaken, the original concept of the ape society being "high-tech" that was in the Pierre Boulle novel, was kept in the animated series unlike the live-action show and movies. The makers of the 1968 film, ultimately came to the conclusion that it was going to be way too expensive to depict this type of society, as written in Boulle's novel, so the idea was to make the society primitive, in order to save costs. You all should check out this really cool 1998 making-of documentary called Behind the Planet of the Apes.


http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=behind+the+planet+of+the+apes&aq=f

My favorites in descending order:
Coonquest of the Planet of the Apes
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes
Beneathe the Planet of the Apes
The Tim Burton film was just an abomination. What a waste of money and great ape make up on such a pointless waste of trash. So many satarical things could have been done with the story. It's only good points were Paul Giamatti and Helena Bonham Carter. That's it.

Why I never became a fan of the "Planet of the Apes" franchise still eludes me. For some reason I've never been interested in "primate entertainment" to the same degree as most folks are.

What saves the original 1968 Planet of the Apes Movie for me are Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter. Their on-screen performances are excellent, especially considering the limiting nature of the makeup masks. The triumph of fine acting!