Tim Roth is by far the most impressive aspect of Planet Of The Apes.
Blessed already with the best make-up work, he's also the only actor in the
film to properly bring an ape-like quality to his movements and gestures.
Helena Bonham Carter tries very hard, but her character is little more than
a human-rights activist with a monkey's features, uttering "ooh-ooh" and
screeching at intervals. Basically, she always looks like someone
*pretending* to be a monkey. Roth, however, *becomes* his monkey. His
General Thade is an instant movie villain classic.
Mark Wahlberg surprises by being able to hold his own amongst the walking
eye-candy, and brings a gravitas and stability to the film that it needed.
However, we never really get to know anything much about his character,
Captain Leo Davidson. He's a very two-dimensional character, thrown into the
mix as a plot necessity, with some of his decision-making very questionable
and geared towards shifting the movie through its different phases. But
Wahlberg is thankfully never upstaged... it's just a shame his character
wasn't written as strongly at Charlton Heston's original astronaut.
Story-wise, this remake's plot is actually stronger than you're probably
thinking. The build-up to the crash-landing on the simian planet is a big
departure from what you'd expect, and while there are plenty of nods to the
original film (mostly in paraphrased dialogue from the original - "Get your
hands of me, you damned dirty human"), after the first half-hour the story
does try and deviate from the original quite a bit, so it's never a case of
watching a plain remake of the first film with better ape-effects.
And the twist? Well, the original "Apes" gave cinema one of its most
enduring twist endings, decades before the likes of
The Sixth Sense,
dropped its own bombshell. How could they *possibly* top the Statue Of
Liberty beach scene? Well, they can't. But they do give it a brave try. The
twist ending they have here is amusing, fun, and a glorious pulp sci-fi
moment... but it's also totally implausible within the context of the film.
From the twist it looks like they're hoping to kickstart a new *franchise*
of "Apes" movies, and so it's possible a sequel can make sense of the twist
ending we have here... but, as it stands, the final seconds of "Apes"
doesn't make a lot of sense. Whereas the original stunned the audience,
leaving them amazed and enthralled... the 2001 version leaves the audience
perplexed and amused. But at least it's a terrific pub debate! People will be
arguing how the twist is possible for months!
I hope the film does get a sequel - it clearly wants one, and judging from
the box-officer returns, it would make financial sense for the studio. But
maybe the novelty of the makeups is what's drawing people in right now, and
they'd be wise to leave "Apes" alone unless the STORY becomes the true star
of any follow-up. But the film does deserve to be continued. I'd certainly
watch it, if only to see how they explain the twist ending in this movie!
So, despite some lapses in storytelling and some paperthin
characterizations, overall Planet Of The Apes 2001 is most definitely a
success. It's a good, solid, film that never just never reaches the
greatness its progenitor attained. But did you really think it would?? Come
on - if you want to watch a good action adventure film with some terrific
makeups and Ape chopsocky action - go see this movie.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
