Ranking the Planet of the Apes films

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1) Planet of the Apes 68
2) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3) Escape from the Planet of the Apes
4) Conquest for the Planet of the Apes
5) Rise of the Planet of the Apes
6) War for Planet of the Apes
7) Beneath the Planet of the Apes
9) Planet of the Apes 01
10) Battle for the Planet of the Apes

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This is not bad.

I would move Dawn to below Conquest. The Escape/Conquest duo is an amazing take on the original novel.

And if you haven't read the Planet of the Apes: Visionaries graphic novel, get it. Dana Gould adapted Serlings original unused screenplay into a graphic novel. Extremely cool to see Serling's take in visual form.

Dawn is the best film in the series.

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Why would you ever root for apes over humanity, it's not natural.

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Boulle was probably pretty down on humanity after his stint in a labor camp in Indochina during WWII. Bridge Over the River Kwai shows humanity at it's worst.

The plot of his Planet of the Apes was pretty prescient. Humans become so self-involved and lazy that the apes jump over them in the evolutionary chain. It isn't a virus that gives the apes an advantage. It's mankind forgetting to give a shite.

But I don't think that many of the films are pure "root for the apes" movies. There's usually an ape faction and a human or humans that you're pulling for.

Conquest always cracked me up. Hmmm.... a family of talking apes comes from the future and says men are animals ruled by apes, who by the way, are trying to exterminate them. So what do we do? Let's enslave apes and teach them how to handle tools and other instruments. Yeah, expose them to civilization as much as possible, but don't worry, they won't over throw us, never mind some came from the future and said they would.

Then the battles. Humans have tanks, APC's, helicopters, gunships, grenades, gas, etc. So lets just send all of our men to fight them one by one with only rifles and 38 revolvers. Yeah. That would happen.

It is like comparing the first Halloween to the other 14.

The 68 version, technical advances since then etc, is still the only "film" of the series that matters. There is no rule against doing such a list, as you have. But it's a futile attempt and other than this specific thought it's unworthy of discussion.

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But I don't think that many of the films are pure "root for the apes" movies.

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according to the director, black audiences cheered when the apes took over in Conquest

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indeed he did

Audiences may have cheered for the Apes, but Armando and MacDonald were also heroic characters. There are always good human characters in the Ape films.