Continuing my attempt to watch all the films I’ve somehow never seen even though everyone else has, last night I finally watched Planet of the Apes. And I thought it was pretty interesting, and holding up fairly well. It suffered somewhat from having been parodied endlessly (though much less so than The Shining), but having seen Spaceballs, the fundamental plot twist was already apparent. I shall try to avoid ranting about the gaping holes in the science, because in spite of all the above, the underlying premise remains pretty good, I think. Also, learning where the ‘hiding in a museum exhibit of cavemen’ scene originates from made me laugh.
The critique of the violence and capacity for self-destruction inherent in (most of?) humanity seems somehow more incongruous when it’s Charlton ‘From my cold dead hands’ Heston as the subject. I can’t leave it without one science rant – who designs a spaceship capable of supporting crew for extended duration flight in a sleep state, but which can neither auto-land tolerably, or wake up the crew prior to descent?
