YMMV / Beneath the Planet of the Apes

• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The film had a Troubled Production which produced multiple scripted endings which some people feel would have been better than the filmed version, if only because of how they're all less dark than the nihilistically hollow filmed ending.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The next time there was a crystal control panel on-screen, another planet blew up!
• Poor Man's Substitute: James Franciscus was cast specifically because he looked like Charlton Heston (who is also in the movie, but for much less time).
• Sequelitis:
  • This movie remains one of the least popular of the Apes movies due to its cheap production, overly bleak and nihilistic feel, clunky political commentary, and the mutants feeling far too bizarre and off-the-wall even for this series. It doesn't help that it directly follows the original.
  • Interestingly, even the film's director, Ted Post, basically agreed with this assessment, accepting the job but complaining to the producers that the script was "not making a point at all".
• Sophomore Slump: Both the first film and Escape from the Planet of the Apes are universally regarded as better films than this, and even Conquest of the Planet of the Apes has gradually come to be seen as a better sequel due to its better production and more insightful political commentary.
• Strawman Has a Point: Dr. Zaius's anti-scientific, technophobic and anti-human worldview doesn't seem so crazy when Taylor uses a human-built bomb to blow up the entire planet at the end. However, it's possible that Taylor blew up the entire planet because of Zaius' hypocritical viewpoint that humans are violent... just as an army of apes shoot Brent.
• Special Effect Failure: All the budget for ape prosthetics clearly went into the full-body suits for Zaius and Ursus, along with Cornelius and Zira. As a result, the remaining prosthetics range from mediocre to downright awful, especially in the scenes showing large crowds of apes. Some of the unmasked mutants in the church scene also look pretty bad.
• Values Dissonance: When Brent and Nova drop in on Zira and Cornelius, only to subsequently have to hide when Dr Zaius comes by, Zira has to pretend the rag is bloody (she was using it to treat the wound on Brent's arm) because Cornelius hit her because she misbehaved. What would seem like a ghastly bit of spousal abuse to human viewers is barely remarked upon in the scene. No one seems to consider it unusual behaviour, especially Zaius who came to scold Zira and even then he refrains from telling Cornelius to avoid hitting her again.

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