| Planet of the Apes (2001) |
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| 1/2 |
| Rating: Mixed Distributor: 20th Century Fox MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Length: 1 hour, 58 minutes Release Date: July 27th, 2001 (wide) Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action/Adventure Director: Tim Burton Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Micheal Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, Paul Giametti, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and David Warner. |
| picture above from www.planetoftheapes.com |
| Plot: An astronaut, Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), is on a large space craft exploring space with a crew. Their expertise is in training genetically altered, more intelligent chimpanzees. They have the chimpanzees aid them in their space missions. When one chimpanzee is lost on a more difficult probing mission, Davidson decides to follow, ignoring the orders of his superior officer. He crash lands on a mysterious planet. He soon discovers apes rule the planet and humans are used for manual labor. After being captured he is given to a slave trader and sold to a nicer family of apes. The family's father is a senator, and the daughter is a human rights activist. Still, he is treated poorly by visitors, and is being held against his will so he escapes. He escapes with other enslaved humans to beyond the ape city, where he must eventually fight a battle against the apes. |
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| Critique: The new version of Planet of the Apes is less thought provoking, and furfilling than the original. For better or for worse, the 2001 'Apes' contains a lot more high paced action. While the original was not a classic in my opinion, it was still a very well done, excellent film. It was fascinating because it had a lot to say; a lot of it pertained to the Cold War. It was also incredibly well directed by Oscar winner (for Patton) Franklin J. Schaffner. Now, thirty-three years later we still have nuclear weapon threats, but the Cold War is over. Thus, the problems surrounding the original seem less immediate. For this reason the film doesn't have the same objective. Also the film has to differ from the original because it would waste of time to execute the film in the same direction, it's already been done. Yet, without the urgent commentary that the original gave the film is forced to regress to your average sci-fi flick. While the writers attempt to place some messages throughout the film it's all pretty forced and completely ineffective. One poor message was when Wahlberg made a short speach about how the more intelligent populations get the more malevolent they are. History has prooven this wrong, as we've progressed. Of course we're still very flawed, but we're much more understanding and kind as a whole than we were one thousand years ago. Therefore, without messages the film is left to simply entertain us. A lot of the film is entertaining, but not enough. More importantly, any furfilling popcorn entertainment the film tried to deliver was rendered useless by the excessively morbid ending. Besides being a downer, the ending also has nothing to do with the previous material. The writers also were unable to write anything more than painfully thin characters. For instance, the motives of villian Thade (Tim Roth) are not clear, and the relationships of Wahlberg's character with the ape woman (Helena Bonham Carter) and the human woman (Estella Warren) are vague at best. Worse, the protagonist astronaut (Mark Wahlberg) is written poorly, and acted with weird self assured arrogance. It would seem any human who crash lands on a planet where apes rule, and humans are treated like animals would become intensely frighted, vomit, and than become psychotic. Not our Leo Davidson, he's as cool as a cucumber. The film is also filled with big plot holes. I can't explain any of the plot holes without revealing gigantic spoilers, and that don't pertain to the last two major revelations. However, look for plot holes about how the materials the apes have got on the planet, and how certain species of apes got on the planet. The most disappointing thing may be that Tim Burton's stunning ability with art direction really falters in the second half of the film. Certainly, in the beginning, with the ape city it's astounding, but I thought it faded. Also, his constant dark mood was misplaced when you look at the end resolutions, until the final morbid one. In conclusion, the film had its fair share of entertainment, but it was all ruined by an immense number of flaws. I don't recommend the new Planet of the Apes. review by supernothingman |