Planet of the Apes (4½ Stars)

Before "Planet of the Apes" there was... "Planet of the Apes"!

As you can probably tell by the picture above I'm writing about the original version of the film, made in 1968. Sure, it looks dated, but it's a classic, much better than the recent remakes.

Four astronauts are sent on a mission to a far off planet. The journey is scheduled to last 700 years, so they are put in suspended animation. Something goes wrong with the controls and they sleep for 2000 years and don't wake up until their craft returns to Earth. They find that monkeys (in particular gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees) now rule the Earth. Humans have devolved to a primitive level and are no longer able to even speak. The sole survivor of the mission, played by Charlton Heston, is treated by the monkeys as an oddity, since they are not aware that humans ever had advanced intelligence.

This is science fiction at its best. Okay, I'll deduct half a star for the obvious illogicalities, even though I'm sure that they were intentional. The monkeys speak English. They use rifles. They smoke cigars. And there's one more thing that might not be so apparent. Would scientists ever send astronauts on a mission that lasts so long that they would never receive the results? Even if the trip had only lasted 700 years as planned it would have been pointless, from the viewpoint of science. Or even 100 years.

The film is based on a novel with the same name by the French author Pierre Boule. After this film was made there were four sequels in quick succession which included new ideas not found in the book. After the fifth film there was an unsuccessful television series that only ran for 14 episodes. In 2001 the first film was remade by director Tim Burton. And of course, a prequel has just been released, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", which uses the same characters as the fourth original film but tells a different story.