I have always been a huge fan of Matt Reeves’s Planet of the Apes films, so over Thanksgiving break I finally sat down with the original. I expected something slower and older, but the world pulled me in almost immediately. The makeup and the physicality of the ape characters create a full society that feels lived in. I found myself paying more attention to how their faces moved than the plot in the first few scenes because the design gives them so much presence.
What surprised me most is how the makeup does more than provide surface realism. It shapes the entire meaning of the film. The ape hierarchy becomes believable because the design signals power and status before the characters even speak. The world works because it looks consistent. The costumes, the sets, and the prosthetics link together and guide the viewer to read this world as a mirror of our own.
The makeup also affects how the story hits at the end. When the film reveals what happened to Earth, the ape world suddenly feels like a warning. I already believed in it because of the design, so the twist lands with more weight. It turns the apes into a reflection of human failures, not a random sci-fi civilization. Watching it now, after growing up with the new trilogy, made me appreciate how much world-building shapes the message rather than just the visuals.
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