An entire generation raised on Star Trek and Star Wars missed the Apes craze, so the time has come for a revival. Watching Apes is like opening a time capsule. The movie monkeys around with touches of Buck Rogers and Tarzan mixed with heavy strokes of bombast about science and the arms race. Even with a script co-written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame, it plays like a B movie today. Astronaut Charlton Heston crash lands in a strange world ruled by simians who treat humans as wild animals for zoos and experimentation.
People are in cages and apes give the orders.
They have an advanced civilization while the humans who live among them can't even talk. As social commentary this is so overcooked that even village atheists will roll their eyes today. As a simple adventure story, this is entertaining, if corny. And the Oscar-winning ape makeup has survived well. It turns out they don't trust them because people are so warlike.