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Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good film, really lousy ending.
Review: First the good news: the film is better than the original in many aspects. This time around, the apes rule a planet other than Earth, and there is a certain logic behind their rise up the food chain. The humans are intelligent and can talk --something humans in the original "Planet" could not do--, but in spite of being numerically inferior to men and women, our cousins rule with an iron fist because they are at least as smart as people, but a lot stronger. There is also a logical reason for the apes and the humans use of English to communicate: both species come from a human scientific research space ship. In the ship, the humans rule and the monkeys are just monkeys. Everything changes thanks to a time-space distortion they encounter (I know, very much à la Star Trek, but not that bad for an explanation), and Wahlberg arrives on this strange world thousands of years after his mother ship has changed the order of things. So far, so good. The costumes are great, although the apes seem to favor leather out of all logical proportion to a tropical and/or desert environment such as the one they inhabit. The make-up is excellent, but I could still recognize Bonham-Carter (the compassionate Senator's daughter), Roth (the hate-filled general), and Warner (the Senator) among the crowd of apes. The female eye-candy, a beautiful young woman, does not get a chance to say or do much, which was a pity: the film seemed more interested in a totally impossible and frankly quite repulsive inter-species attraction between Wahlberg and Bonham-Carter. Still, the movie was working for me, in spite of the details (everybody knows how to ride horses; the ape city seems too small to house so many apes and humans; the little chimp shows up at the right time and at the right place; did horses come from the original space ship, as humans and apes did? And the "let's all just get along" section is a bit hard on the suspension of disbelief department).

Now the bad news: the ending does not make any sense at all. This was a different planet on a different timeline, not Earth. But in a clumsy effort to imitate the original film's stunning ending, the new creative crowd throws all logic away and transforms a good sci-fi flick into a ridiculous one. Maybe they are expecting enough business for a second part, hence the stupid final three minutes. Maybe they just wanted to honor that famous shot of the camera moving behind the ruins, and Charlton Heston kneeling on the beach, finally realizing that "we" had caused our own descent to lower species. But they managed to ruin a good movie, no matter what second parts they come up with. I like science fiction, although I'm usually disappointed with what I read and watch. But I had expected a lot from this film, particularly considering the talent in front of the camera, and Tim Burton as director. Unfortunately, all that good work is for nothing at the end. The two stars are for a solid story well-told that should have ended differently.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good
Review: Great re-visioning of Planet of the Apes by Tim Burton, but not perfect. I found this movie to be a little less than a Tim Burton movie, I expected more out of the movie, but I also can't complain too much about the movie. First of all the makeup was amazing same with the settings and gothic feeling which all Tim Burton movies have. The things which I do have a problem with is the camera angles moving around a lot in the fight scenes I found that annoying, also some of the character developments were rather weak and you couldn't really feel sorry for some of the characters. Other than that the movie was good and the acting was good but not great. Also the new ending made you think and the changes done for the new version were for the better.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yet another dissapointing Hollywood flick
Review: I went to see Planet of the Apes with an open mind. I didn't expect to see a masterpiece, but I thought that I could atleast get a good solid movie to entertain myself with. Unforunately, it failed to meet even my very modest expectations. The story, which is based loosely on the original, was incredibly flimsy. Frequently resembling a nervous waiter unsucessfully attmepting to keep a stack of plates balanced, the movie swayed akwardly from being an action film, to a commentary on human cruelty, to a comedy. In this attempt, all three aspects fail miserably. The action is, quite frankly, a lame sight consisting of a couple flashy effects and ridiculous combat focused on hitting things with fists or sticks as hard as possible without displaying an ounce of interesting fight choreography. The social commentary, pasted into the middle of the film along with two or three other pointless attempts at giving the film personality, is weak and comes across as pathetic in its vain grab for drama. Finally, tossed into this already embarassing mess is a pile of jokes, that only a few would be accpetable if they weren't placed as carelessly as they were. All of this is "supported" by a cast of unconvincing actors, many of which are forced to behave foolishly as apes. While their perhaps realistic actions do portray those of apes, these creatures who were intended to be fearsome and threatening look simply ridiculous through most of the film. There are only two redeeming points I could find in the movie. First, the make up and costuming were brilliant. The apes truly looked like advanced primates, and a variety of apes were used as models to give the apes as a whole an interesting mix rather than looking all the same. Also, the music used in the film was fairly satisfying. While that used through the course of the movie was common action fare, some of the pieces, particularly those played during the opening and closing credits were very entertaining and contained an interesting use of percussion. However, these small triumphs are not at all enough to save the movie. The unfortunate part is that many will flock to this movie after all of the hype focused entirely on the look of the apes and the promise of thrilling action, in turn feeding the Hollywood garbage factory. The appeal of over-hyped, big-action, eye-candy films is slowly eating away at our film industry while lesser in fame but greater in substance films die off. I pray that eventually this trend will fade and one will be able to leave the theatre feeling satisfied with the entire movie, but I fear that it will get only worse. I give this review as a warning, and I hope that perhaps it will keep a few from giving their money to those that have lost the art of film-making for the appeal of money-making.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Planet of the Apes 2001
Review: I could not get enough of the original movies and it seems that I'm hooked again with the 2001 "remake". I'll see it once or twice more - I'll own the DVD - and I'll await the sequel with eager anticipation!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very memorable summer blockbuster of 2001
Review: The year is around 2026, a space station Oberon located in Saturn's orbit encountered an electromagnetic cloud, one of the pilot crash landed on a foreign planet after his pod came in contact with the space phenonmenon, a world where the humans are slave with the apes as rulers.

Mark Wahlberg did a great job as the reluctant hero Leo Davidson, while Tim Roth gave a convincing portrayal the ruthless general Thade. Surprisingly, some of the most human traits were brought out by Helena Bonham Carter's ape character Ari, with Michael Clarke Duncan as the fearsome warrior Attar. With the film's main focus on the visuals and action, the character development seemed somewhat lacking and hollow at times.

Unfortunately the story is flawed, with many questions unexplained, and many interesting angles unexplored. But overall under the imaginative direction of Tim Burton, Planet of the Apes is a visual effect treat that no one should miss. Packed with non-stop action, there is not a dull moment in this movie. From the futuristic space station to the savage land where the apes ruled, each set is beautifully and wondefully shot, with a great soundtrack to make the experience even better. There is a twilight zone-esque feeling from start to finish, leaving just enough room at the end for a possible sequel. Bottom line, a decent movie that needed to be watched on a big screen, but go to the matinee, you'll be glad the few dollars you saved.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ending invalidated the movie
Review: I won't spoil anything here but I must make a point. This movie spends way too much time drawing parallels to current social and philosophical issues. The original, which I love, did this to a small extent but didn't dwell on them. Now, after spending so much time and dialog drawing parallels the writer and/or director felt it absolutely necessary to try and destroy an American icon in the process. There is an obvious reference to an American leader and, by drawing a parallel between him and this movie's major antagonist you are left with the impression that this American was as bad as the antagonist and we've all fallen for the "history revisionism." You'll know it when you see it. Because of these not-so-subtle attempts by Hollywood to preach to us and tear down our institutions I cannot look at this movie with anything but scorn. On a positive note, the effects and makeup were first rate and the acting was mostly excellent.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Apes on steroids
Review: Ok, maybe I'm being a bit hard on the movie... but watching the apes fly across the screen was a bit too much for me. For some reason the first part of the movie, after our 'hero' crashes on the ape planet seems a bit crowded. Everything is too close to everything else, the ape city felt like one big crowded apartment building. When the 'hero' and his new friends try to escape they have to run across every other ape's bedroom... wasn't there any better and less noticeable way of escaping?

Perhaps I was expecting a remake of the original movie with much better FX. For the record I watched the film with my wife and 4 year old kid, the results are: Wife rates movie 3 stars, 4 year old gives it a 5 star rating and I have to agree with the wife.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What Were They Thinking?
Review: Where to begin? We all know this movie is not based on, nor is it suppose to be anything like the original, which is fine. However, that does not stop this movie from being the worst I have seen in quite some time, as it turned out to give me more laughs than I thought an action of this nature ever could.

What was Tim Burton smoking when he agreed to this script? Put aside the great sets and costumes/makeups and what you have are a bunch of not-so-great actors, undevolped characters, HUGE PLOT HOLES and a very scanty plot to begin with in the first place. I could easily predict how 99% percent of the movie was going to turn out, the other 1% is what really ruined it though. Other than the ending, the movie was fairly "average", with decent action, but really no drama or any side-plots. The end of the movie was HORRIBLE. It would have been better if the entire planet they were on exploded instead of what actually happened. Not on did the ending make no sense, it was just STUPID. Everyone in the theater laughed outloud, among other times. DO NOT GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE! If you do though, put it out of your head as soon as it's over, that is, unless you want to spend a few hours laughing at how stupid it is.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sequel Please
Review: I'd have to say that Planet of the Apes was good up until the end. While the whole movie is intense with a lot of action and thrills the ending is a bit confusing and a let down. Luckily I found out that they will be doing a sequal. Hopefully it lets us know what exactly is going on (You'll know what I mean if you see this movie).

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Why?
Review: This is not a good movie! I was keen to see it because I thought Tim Burton did such a good job with 'Sleepy Hollow' and I loved the original 'Planet of the Apes' but I ended up just waiting for the movie to end. Some of the make-up looked great and there were some neat special effects but the story was so poor. Helena Bonham Carter's make-up just looked stupid and Marky Mark is not a good actor. The ending of the original was great, it left me thinking when I first saw it but this movie just left me thinking 'So?'It just seems that the more money spent on a movie nowadays the less they bother with a decent story.


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