Premise: An
astronaut lands on a planet where apes have evolved and rule the planet and
humans have become non-verbal and enslaved.
It's impossible to go into Planet of the Apes with
fresh eyes. This was my first time seeing the movie, but it felt like a
rewatch. I know the premise, the big ending, the characters, and the quotes. I
recognized many of the scenes. It's one of those movies that I only made a
point to see so I could check it off the list. If I'm being honest, that's how
a lot of older movies are for me. The Birth of a Nation was a repugnant
waste of time, but I've checked it off the list. The Jazz Singer offers
little more value than historical context. Ben-Hur is overlong, with one
memorable sequence. A significant amount of what I see is so no one can argue
"you haven't even seen it" when I express a movie opinion.
That's what I expected Planet of the Apes
would be. Instead, I ended up really liking it. Of course, I would've liked it
more if there were a few unspoiled surprises in it, but whatever. It's good.
Charlton Heston gets to play this as big as he wants, since he's acting against
costumed apes. I kind of miss the era of SciFi that was just people dressed weird,
sitting in a room, talking about social issues. A softer touch would've made
this movie a lot worse.
An easy way to tell this is a well made movie: Even
though I know every beat of that final scene, when I watched it in the context
of the movie, it still totally worked for me.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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