Planet of the Apes | | Cast : | Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter | | Director : | Tim Burton | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | July 27, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | March 05, 2002 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | Entertaining Re-Visit to a Revamped Planet of the Apes | Content
 | Mark Wahlberg is strangely miscast as the human antihero who must try to escape from the Planet of the Apes in this interesting spin on the now iconic Rod Serling story. Roddy McDowell may not be around for this one, but Linda Harrison and Charlton Heston are both cleverly inserted and the real scene stealers are the wonderful simian makeups on the costumed cast members.
Sets, design, music are all wonderful and while die hard, nostalgic fans of the original can find plenty of fault with a new version, lots of credit goes to the creative forces (including the studio) for coming up with 2 hours of diverting sci-fi action and comedy.
Paul Giamatti channels Burt Lahr's Cowardly Lion in his slave-trading orangutan and Oz's still-scary winged monkeys are lovingly memorialized by director Burton (whose stammering commentary track was a disappointment). |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | Both better & worse than what critics claim | Content
| I finally sat down and watched Burton's "Planet of the Apes" for a second time to see if there any details I missed. I happen to like most sci-fi films, even if there are minor errors in logic. As long as the movie is entertaining and the characters are believable. When I saw this movie the first time it fit all this criteria and it was definitely worth watching.
First of all, the central story line, despite what the critics claim, makes sense for the most part. The planet itself is inhabited by the survivors of the large spaceship that crashed. The humans came from the crew, the apes from the animals that were on board. The apes are more powerful because they had hidden their powers and intellect from the humans. Given that it was a desolate planet the humans adapted poorly while the apes flourished. The only possible gap here is that in the beginning we only see chimps. But it's never made clear that only chimps are on board the spacecraft.
That this story line diverts from the original shouldn't mean Burton's vision is wrong. It's his movie and he can recreate the story. However, there are two major gaps in his story.
First of all, Charlton Heston's cameo as an ape who has an ancient gun made by humans doesn't make sense. That specific planet and all its inhabitants derive from the spaceship which had 21st century technology. The gun is from the 20th century. So how did he get it?
The second major flaw, as noted by countless others, is the ending. I listened to Burton's comments in this section of the DVD and he was like a stammering teenager on dope trying to explain why he went with that specific ending. He kept saying over and over that this is where the story was supposed to end. That might be the case, but he didn't leave anything in his story to bring the audience to that result. How did Gen. Thade get to earth and go back in time? Burton doesn't bother to explain in his commentary. His answer is worthless at best. He failed as the director to tell the story. The only way Thade could have gone back in time on earth was if he had a workable spacecraft. And he didn't.
In both cases, Heston's gun and the ending, Burton was just lazy, pure and simple. He wanted to add these neat little things to his movie and he didn't care how much it detracted from the final product.
I happened to like "Planet" more the first time I saw it. But when I saw it a second time, and then heard Burton's comments, the film lost most of its entertainment value. Burton is good at creating new worlds out of whole cloth. And I'll give him this much for "Planet," the characters were more believable than in his earlier films. (Ahem, which isn't saying much.) After hearing his commentary, however, I believe Burton was just blatantly stubborn, arrogant, and dismissive of his audience. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 05, 2005 | | Summary | a lot of fun! | Content
| Don't think too hard about this one. It's entertaining, fun, and funny. It's also quite cheesy in a very enjoyable way. I've been entertained by this movie time and again, but I'm not the type who takes this sort of thing too seriously. I was just looking for fun and this one delivered. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 04, 2005 | | Summary | Disappointing | Content
| When I first heard back in 1991 that a remake of "Planet Of The Apes" was in the works, I was very interested. Over the years, plans came and fell through, different people submitted different scripts, and at the end of the day, this is what was produced.
Another reviewer here called this film "Brainless", and that was pretty much what I was thinking while watching it. There's nothing to this movie -- it's an action piece with zero substance. The makeup is great, and the acting not bad, but the story is lacking.
Not recommended. Tim Burton has done so much better. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 26, 2005 | | Summary | I loved the movie but.... | Content
| I did like the movie. I loved the amazing make-up works on the actors who played the apes. VERY REALISTIC! :) But come on, did they HAVE to do the ape sounds??? I grew up with the original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston and I fell in love with the whole series because it had a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits feel to it. I loved the feeling of being surprised and weirded out at the very end of the first movie of the original movies. Charlton Heston finding out that he was on the planet earth the whole time. FREAKY! :)
But the renewed version and how the actors acted like....well....apes, was a bit much. Another thing, they left a movie with a possible sequel. Something of which Tim Burton rarely does. But at the same time, the movie wouldn't have the right feel to it if someone else directed the movie. Look at the Batman movies. The first two were great, then they went downhill from there. Tim Burton directed them and the second movie, people practically begged him to do it. What I'm trying to say is, you can't direct a blockbuster and expect someone else to pick up the tab. So a sequel to Planet of the Apes is pretty much nil.
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