Casey’s Reviews
Do the Original “Planet of the Apes” Movies Stand the Test of Time?
A look back on the 1968–73 film series that started it all
In anticipation of this month’s debut of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Rhys and I decided to watch the original five Ape films, released between 1968 and 1973. I was forewarned that the movies were “campy, hippy, and downright terrible,” and so went into this experience with suitably low expectations.
However, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the series overall, even as a fan of classic ’60s science fiction like Star Trek: The Original Series and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The latter prepared me for the wonky plastic masks worn by the ape characters, and the former to love astronaut George Taylor, played by Charlton Heston (who reminded me of William Shatner’s Captain Kirk). I assumed Taylor would be the main character across the franchise — but that was one of many assumptions I threw out the window while watching these movies.
(TL;DR with my ratings for all five films at the end.)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
In the first movie, a ship of astronauts gets stranded on a strange planet. The very first thing that happens is that the only woman crewmember, Stewart…
