Rating: 
Summary: Monkey Shines
Review: Tim Burton's version of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes which features a reluctant hero (Mark Wahlberg), a "swinging" psjcho-chimp (brilliantly portrayed by
Tim Roth), an interspecies love triangle, and the domination of apes over an enslaved human population on an alien planet was basically an entertaining sci-fi
flick. But it lost some of its momentum when the great battle scene of the apes about to slaughter the humans was interrupted by an all but forgotten character
from the film's beginning (or past) who just happens to ":drop in" causing a lot of head scratching (both on and off the screen) and "ape" soul searching..
The twisted ending (which had been predicted) was an ending no human especially Mark Wahlberg's character wanted to see. Good sci-fi films are few and far between. Even with its flaws this was one of the better ones.
Rating: 
Summary: Only fails the original by a notch!
Review: Terrifying and terrific facelift is given to Franklin J. Schaffner's brilliant 1968 original starring Charlton Heston (who has a great cameo in this one). Mark Wahlberg is the reluctant astronaut who crash lands on a mysterious alien planet that turns out to be ruled by genetically advanced apes who talk, reason and viciously rule the humans around them. Helena Bonham Carter is brilliant as the aristocratic ape who feels the humans deserve equal rights, and Tim Roth couldn't be more effective as the power hungry general who fascisticly rules Ape City with an iron fist, determined to keep humans under his control forever. Wahlberg, however, changes all that, boiling the film down to a fantastic battle climax and a shock ending that while shamelessly leaving miles of room for a sequel is spine-tingling all the same. Perhaps not as politically poignant as the original version, this one still cannot be accused of dumbing down the story in any way; rather, it does a very good job of addressing different issues (zeal for power) than the ones that were controversial subjects upon its original's release (civil rights, not that those aren't important anymore, just not as contestable). Tim Burton does for this story what he so beautifully did for both the first two Batman movies and Sleepy Hollow.
Rating: 
Summary: The last few minutes SPOILED this movie for me.
Review: I was going to see this movie eagerly and liked the movie itself throughout but was so disppointed with the last few minutes that totally destroyed the whole plot. The story goes in the future and looks at Apes that have taken over a planet. We are lead to believe that the apes are descendants from apes that were on a space station lead by human that crashed into the planet. The apes are primitive at this point and at war with humans which they take as slaves. The disappointment came when our hero that crashed into the planet and had the whole adventure gets to leave this planet and go back to the past after his adventure and land on earth just to find that the apes have taken over the past as well. It was a total disappointment to me to see that the creator of the movie thought it would be nice to have these same primates in a distant past able to drive cars, build statues, bear guns, etc when their descendants have no such capacities at all. The logic fails me!
Rating:
Summary: Tim Burton is a genius!!
Review: Although I recognise that there are some holes in the plot (especially the ending of the movie), Tim Burton once again proves that he is an exceptional storyteller with an imagination that has no rivals. Coupled with the ominous soundtrack (by Danny Elfman- also an unrivalled genius), this movie will leave any viewer thinking about it for weeks afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly disappointing
Review: This remake of a classic was slightly disappointing. They had a real chance to update the "scene" as it was intended in the novel but they went for the cheaper sets. The ending was weird and I hope it is explained on the DVD directors commentary. While certainly not a dud it certainly could have been better.
Rating:
Summary: Half of the Original Epic
Review: This movie was pretty fun to watch, but I was dissapointed. The movie was rushed on most of Mark's scenes (perhaps to add to suspense, i don't know). I feel that if they slowed it down in the sense that in the story a day passes and Mark is checking out his surroundings and plotting to get out or survive would have been good, perhaps much better in sucking the audience into the film (like the original). I just didn't like the pacing, too fast and random. The characters that got time to reveal their characteristics were Thade and a bit of Helena's character. The end sequence was another weird thing. I can't tell about it because that may spoil the movie (if it has not been spoiled already).The sets were cool and the Ape outfits and masks were pretty sweet. I liked the digital work on the mouths when they roared, looked good. This movie also did a different thing than from the origianl. The original was that the main character got sucked into the future of planet Earth. In this one, the main character was sucked into a different world. All and all it was ok, worth a watch, but you have to be really "into it" or a Tim Burton fan to get it. I am hopeing the DVD features will be cool for me, might make me like it or appreciate it more (perhaps some deleated footage to slow the pace down). I personally enjoy the movie but do not love it. Hopefully the new Lord Of The Rings with make up for my dissapointment.
Rating:
Summary: Can we spell E N T E R T A I N M E N T ?
Review: c'mon folks! I've seen all kinds of reviews here, yeas and nays and a heck of allot of philosophizing about the meaning of it all. This flick is pure entertainment! So was the original as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't so concerned about possible plot holes or science fact, I wanted to see a fun movie and Planet delivered. If I want serious sci-fi I'll rerun my copy of 2001. And when my kids saw the trailers on TV they all were jumping to see it. Great, a movie I can take them to and not worry! I know I'll get a laugh out of it, maybe a snicker or two, but that's part of the package, I want to see a little camp, some sneaky references to the original, Charlton Heston as an ape on his death bed. I'll even get the DVD when it comes out, its promising a *lot* of extras. Bottom line, we saw it, the kids enjoyed it and a good time was had by all. That's what its all about, yes?
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible!
Review: Everything, I mean EVERYTHING about this movie is horrible! It isn't inspired in any way. No attempt at a plot or character development. The production design is utterly not good. The sets include a jungle, a space ship, a camp of apes that live in red tents and a crashed space ship. None of them are even slightly interesting. Just a terrible, terrible movie.
Rating:
Summary: TIM BURTON SOLD OUT !!!!
Review: This is the only possible explanation for him directing this lame movie, one tha does not a little bit of a tribute to the original movie. Walhberg surprised me with his most uninspired performance till date (his character doesn not seem to be scared for haven fallen in a srtange planet where apes can talk. He just see it, than say kind of: "well, let me get out here, since there's nothing bettter for me to do around here..." A joke, a complete joke. BUrton even had to use the "comical relief" character (in the form of the slave merchant), to put some fun into a totally funnyless picture, with weak action, weak characters and weak performances. A typical Hollywood popcorn movie that went wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: stunning re-adaptation of a classic sci-fi movie
Review: I cannot wait to see this on DVD. Tim Burton did such a fantastic job with this movie. It was beautiful to watch, and I am so sorry there won't be a sequel (at least that's what I've read). This is definitely going to be a classic at the same scale of the original, if not more. Everything from the makeup to the characters to the ape movements, and even the script itself are wonderful examples of the sci-fi genre. The special effects in the movie are just amazing. I watched a couple behind-the-scenes documentaries before I saw this in the theater, and now I'm looking forward to all the studio extras, especially deleted scenes and Burton commentary.
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