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Planet of the Apes (2001)
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, and Michael Clarke Duncan. Cinematography by Philippe Rousselot. Edited by Chris Lebenzon and Joel Negron. Produced by Richard D. Zanuck. Written by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal. Directed by Tim Burton.
This film is not as much of a remake or a sequel of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes, as it is a “re-imagining”. The film, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, hits many of the same major plot points as the original, but overall is a very different story. On a space station in the year 2029, Captain Leo Davidson jumps ship in effort to rescue a marooned monkey. He is sucked into a sort of time portal that eventually ejects him into some new world that is ruled by apes. Humans are used as slave labor and the arrival of a free-thinking human is immediately seen as a threat. Davidson organizes and leads his simple army of unevolved humans into battle with the apes and the evolutionary hierarchy is launched into chaos. While the war rages on, he must also consider how to get off this backwards planet and get home.
In 1968 the original Planet of the Apes was an amazing success. It was so popular, in fact, that it spawned four sequels, a live action television series, and a Saturday morning cartoon, a comic book series, and a line of novels. Sixty companies were licensed to produce over three hundred different Planet of the Apes products including action figures, games, masks, and flatware. As the producers encouraged, the world was “Going Ape”. So the fact that a Planet of the Apes remake was on Fox’s production schedule for so long should come as no surprise. Fellow Gods of Filmmaking Oliver Stone and James Cameron were even attached to the project at one time or another. But it was Tim Burton that picked it up and ran with it.
Considering the folks in front of and behind the camera, this could have been an amazing film. Burton again delivers with amazing visuals. The ApeCity is fantastic and the costumes are flawless. But it stopped there. The story is boring. The plot twists were unrewarding. The ending was pointless. Once again it seems that all of the research and development went into designing the picture, not structuring the screenplay. And the last twenty minutes take such painful steps in effort to leave itself open for a sequel, that it’s ridiculous. When the hype from this film eventually dies down, it will be the 1968 version that people will still want to see. So if you want talking monkeys, watch the original.
Budget: $100,000,000
Total US Gross: $180,011,740
Genre: Science Fiction
Runtime: 119 Minutes
US Release Date: 7/27/01
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: none
Tagline: Rule The Planet.
Quote: “Time to explain evolution to the monkeys.”
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