Customer Reviews

Planet of the Apes (Two-Disc Special Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I can't leave feedback if my order has not been shipped yet !!!!!! I imagine when I get it I will be pleased, but it has not even been shipped yet.

Having previously seen all 5 of the original Planet Of The Apes (4 B-movies), and also the television series dvd, I approached this latest 2001 Tim Burton version with an open-mind.
Having just rewatched this new version, my mind has again closed - on this film. If there is one impression I am left with following viewing this film, - it is the lack of space, and skylight, seen in the film. It all appears very dark and claustrophobic, and we never get to see enough expansive scenery - which one would expect when dealing with the Animal Kingdom (literally speaking!).
The story simply lacks the drama of the original 1967 Charlton Heston version. The only positive thing to say about this 2-dvd version, is the extra disc. It is simply loaded with hours of extra behind-the-scenes clips. One can truly appreciate the effort Tim Burton undertook to re-create this film. The film didn't fail from lack of effort, it failed from lack of vision. A better, more inventive screenplay, would have certainly helped. The Orangatang is the best character in this film. Everyone else is average - except the real chimp. Now this (real) animal should have been considered for best actor in this film. Two Stars**

this is tim burtons adaption of the original movie from 68.the story strays way off course from the original but is way funnier.marky mark stars in it.oh yeah!now will take it seriously.as if it wasnt bad enough we were watching a bad remake of an old classic,now it stars one of the worst bands in histories brothers.bbbboooooooooooooo!the kids will like it.tim burton directed it.besides the lack of keeping with the original and bad casting,this movie is good.it is a disapointment from a lot of his far better movies though.there are a lot of racial undertones in it.they are done in a funny way.is this even possible?its kind of a down but still manages a 3 star rating due to tim burtons masterful save.

I'm an "Apes" kid who grew up on Planet Of The Apes, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, Return To The Planet Of the Apes animated series, The Planet Of The Apes comic book series, The Planet Of The Apes TV series, The Planet Of The Apes novel...I loved all of this Apes stuff. Why? Because it was FUN. Sadly it seems those days are gone for good and their ain't too many folks left who get the fun of these sort of things. It's clear that Tim Burton still gets it. He obviously loves the Apes movies and he grew up with all of those same movies and fun Ape toys that I did. His version is a loving tribute to that period of time in his childhood when the whole world seemed to have gone ape. He's even thrown in an ending that's not unlike the ending of the original novel. That novel inspired the movies, but none of them tried to stay true to that idea until Burton's version. Burton is obviously a fan of the Apes craze that made many a youngster want to battle talking apes or be talking apes. He captures that sense of wonder that many of us experienced in our Ape invaded youth, but he also doesn't take the whole thing too damn seriously. There are plenty of laughs here too. It's a big fun talking Apes movie that's just as much FUN as the ones that so many of us loved in the old days. I wondered, laughed, marveled, and had a great time being a kid again. I couldn't have asked for anything more. If Burton hadn't directed this thing I'm sure I would have got a hell of a lot less. Burton "gets" FUN.

am a big Tim Burton fan, I've practically seen
all his movies: "Batman" , "Sleepy Hollow", "Edward Scissorhands", "The Nightmare before Christmas" are the Directors best works to name a few.

But when I first heard, that Director Tim Burton
was going to make a remake of the original classic sci fi movie "Planet Of The Apes" with Charlton Heston, I was skeptical. Everyone knows that remakes of classic movies 90% of the time, plain suck. The movie remake of "Psycho" is a good example. I was further skeptical that Tim Burton's remake would equal the success of the original because all the ideas thought possible were used for the "Planet Of The Apes" series and movies.

Apes going into space, an Ape's son taking over the world, and even mutant beings are just a couple of the ideas that were used for the four sequels and 2 television series that wanted to profit of the 1968 film. Now after watching the film , my gut instinct told me I was right. The New version of Planet of The Apes is highlly predictable, copying a large bulk of material from the original, with brief differences.

Probably the biggest problem is that this movie itself has is the lame, and dumbest ending I've seen. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. It makes me laugh more because this was a Tim Burton film. In fact, the ending looks like it was written by a 13 yr old, who has too many cheap sci fi films with bad endings. The end of the film, lets you down with an incredibly stupid ending that makes you feel like you wasted time watching it.

Even Tim Burton commented after the film, that he would not make another sequel. Apparently, even he knew that his movie failed. Now my review of the film:
Planet of The Apes starts with great visual effects,
as we learn that an Air Force Space Station has occupied the universe. Mark Walhberg plays Captain Leo Davidson,
who is teaching scientific chimps how to pilot space vessels for research. Basically, the chimps are sent as probes , if you will, to uncharted planets. However, something goes wrong, and the head chimp, gets lost on a voyage to a planet. Davidson, caring for the chimp, disobeys orders and goes after him.
Now then comes the copying of the original film into the remake,but Burton tries his best or worst to not make it look like a copycat film.

Davidson is eventually captured by the Apes of the Planet. Just like the original film, the Apes personality traits are split by class. The warriors are made mostly of Apes and Gorillas. The lying and cunniving politicians are made up of Urangantans. While the more sympathetic apes relate more to the chimp class.

In the original fim, Charlton Heston has the famous line that all fans know when he is captured by the Apes:
"Let go of me you damn dirty ape".

However, Burton changes the script to not copy the original. In the remake, it is the ape who use a line similiar to this:

"Let go of me you damn dirty human"

Lol. I laughed for a while when I saw this.
It's just a very dumb scene. Because even Burton changed the lines, it's still trying to copy that classic scene from the original. Anyways Davidson is captured and eventually meets the head Ape of the planet. Davidson is eventually put into the lines of human slaves that the apes have. Here also Burton tries to add differences between this film and the original. If you recall in the original, Charlton Heston was the only human who could think and talk, while all the over humans either had labotomies or had their throats cut out.

This made Heston's character, Taylor, much more unique and dangerous to the apes. In the remake though, Burton makes it so all humans can talk. This made Walhberg's character not as unique and dangerous, as the original Heston characterm, hell it made him average, not standing out from the crowd.

Tim Roth, plays the evil General Thade who is the military dictator in control of the planet. For the most part, Roth's part is admirable, he does display that aura of intimidation and fear, that all villians in the movie have, but all of this is ripped to shreds by the horrible ending of the film.
Eventually Davidson and the rest of his human and ape friends stage a revolt against General Thade to see who will rule the planet.

This is actually one of the few good points of the film,Burton gives you the hope that things will turn out the best in the end, but not necessarily... Without giving away the ending of the film, all I can say is that it is one of the cheesiest, dumbest endings I've seen!!! In fact, my first reaction to the ending was disbelief, followed by sheer laughter. I couldn't believe that Burton had done that type of ending. The ending reminds me of those low budget, cheap sci fi endings from the 1950's and 60's. If I wanted to see sci fi movies with a cheap , laughable, ending I would watched the reruns of "Mystery Science Theater 3000"!!.

What upsets me about the ending, is that before the ending, we are lead to believe that the movie is going to end one way. In fact, if the movie ended up the way I thought it was going to end, I would have given it a perfect 10!!! But Burton (I don't know what he was thinking)sabotages, the good film with a cheap ending, that leaves you feeling rip-offed. He is not the only guy to do this, the legendary Roman Polanski likewise had the dumbest ending of his career in the movie "Femme Fatale" with Antonio Banderas.

Several weeks after the movie was released, Burton said he would not do a sequel to "Planet Of The Apes". It seems that Burton himself, knew that he messed up a perfectly good film and , proved that remakes of classic films should be left alone. I am big Tim Burton fan, but the remake of "Planet Of The Apes" is probably the worst film that he has done.

Burton's Apes movie isn't on par with the original, but it captures the fun of the Apes sequels, comics, and the TV show. It's also a lot more fun than it would have been if Burton hadn't directed it.
I don't agree with the notion that it has no modern social commentary. Look at NRA president Heston's bit. Look at it from a race relations perspective. Look at the animal rights angle. It's all in there.
Burton's Apes may not be as startling as the original, but it does perfectly capture the magic of the Apes phenom of the late 60's and early 70's. It's a fun adventure for the kid in all of us. Thanks Tim!

.... or 'somewhere out there' ...... RATHER AN EXCELLENT version of the APE tale - with Mark Wahlberg as the crashlanded human, and an excellent Helena Bonham-Carter as his simian benefactor.

SUPERB Set and Costume Design with perfect Ape Make-up - the best seen so far! There are the good guys vs the bad and the overzealous [Tim Roth] military Ape - as we traverse this lush and very detailed landscape towards the inevitable conclusion [one of two ...]

All in alll a Great Ride and this DVD has everything [including THX] that one could wish for!

Kind of an open conclusion ...... room for Part 2?

Planet of the Apes is the remake of the 1968 blockbuster and sci-fi classic. I read all the criticisms that this movie absorbed prior to seeing it, so I was pre-warned you could say. But I like Burton, I think he's put together some original and well thought out films. However, the critics were right this time: this film sucks. As much as I compliment the exteriors of this film (costuming, Special effects, and visual pleasures) it's one hollow movie that lacks character development and interest.

Let's see, what should I rip first? Let's begin with Wahlburg, a poor excuse of an actor. He has no personality, none. No emotion, no believability, no interesting monologues, nothing. He's just there and we're forced to follow him. Heston's character Taylor is the ultimate model of character development. Here was a man who wanted to journey through space because he believed there was something out there better than man. By the end of the movie, he shows some human pride. Nothing like this is attempted through Wahlburg, other than some anti-zoo message.

How about the other characters? Tim Roth is fine as an evil general Thade who hates man, but no true explanation is given as to why. Unlike Dr. Zaius in the first one, who had plenty of reasons why he hated man, Thade just hates just to hate. Thade is also a bit over the top with his hatred, making him a mad ape irrational half the time.
Estella who? Talk about a pointless character. She served no purpose, talked like a typical Californian beach babe with air between the ears, and was primarily used to show skin and rub Wahlburg's shoulders. Nova, in the original, served as Heston's talk outlet, even though she never said a word back; sort of like a living "Wilson" in "Cast Away." Warren wasn't even this, just eye candy.

Let's talk about the sequences of the film. Like in the original, the main character is captured. He is made a slave in Ape society. But while he's a slave we learn very little of Ape society, unlike the original, which did a masterful job portraying this "upside down" society from every corner. In this version, it doesn't take the time, we get the feeling that the society is just ran by military powers such as Thade and that's all there is to it.

In the first one humans were dominated by apes because humans couldn't speak and they lacked intelligence. In this one the humans are quite intelligent, so why are they so inferior to Apes? Why are the humans so far behind if they have verbal communications and tend to display plenty of intelligence? No explanation is given in the film. Again, Burton did not take the time to explain this world and its society which leaves holes unfilled and thereby creates dis-satisfaction.

Also unlike the original, where Heston attempted to survive by being confined within ape society, Wahlburg's character is trying to survive by running from ape society. So we don't learn first hand about this society, we can't grow with the character because through most of the film he's running away from Attar and Thade. This is a disaster of a film.
And then, the worst, is the ending. It makes no sense by the way, no explanation, just ends abruptly with no irony.

What made Planet of the Apes, the original, so successful was not its make-up or costuming or what have you. What made it successful was its storyline and ironic sequences that made us sympathize with the main character and learn of an entirely different, yet not so different society. This film did not of that. It was an average sci-fi film that lacks an original story, original characters, development of plot and characters, and memorable events within the movie. Tim Burton failed at all these points. This film is a shambles and those of you who think this film is something grand, haven't got a clue what hard work combined with good story telling is until you've appreciated the effort and pay off of the original.

The original "Planet of the Apes" was a brilliant, thought-provoking sci-fi classic, and no remake could ever hope to beset it. Instead, Tim Burton has given us a fresh, entirely new interpertation of the Apes saga, and I for one think it really works very well for its pumped up discussion of the slavery and polotical issues, and it certianly was entertaining enough. While it was never going to be anything to rival the 1968 Apes, and wisely didn't try to be, the hotly debated, misguided ending (which I will not reveal here) went and brought the entire movie down a couple notches. Had the last 5 minutes or so been cut, this all would have been a very nice "reimagining," and it does have its good points, but it's clear that the director and his editor didn't know when to finish it. Shame.

That said, the question in your mind is probably, "Is it still worth seeing?" and the answer to that is a rousing Yes! I'm in the minority, but I think there's a whole lot to like here, even though the ending is lacking. It's worth a rental at the very least.

No matter what pre-cautionary steps a director takes remaking or
"re-imagining" a revered classic film such as Planet of the Apes
(1968), everyone is going to compare the original to "the new
improved" version. You must also take into account the times, and social issues that gaps the original and the remake. Planet
of the Apes (2001) seems to be making a anti-gun political statement. Whereas Planet of the Apes (1968) dealt with racial
issues among numerous others. Since the new Planet of the Apes
was produced pre-911, there was'nt that much happening enough
to make much of a story about. Heck, this new Planet of the Apes
could have had a anti-smoking message instead. All the classic
Apes films storylines were then, current events derivative. So,
for me Planet of the Apes (2001) did'nt have a whole lot to say.
Mark Wahlberg was badly miscast. Then again I can't think of
any current actors today that could match up to Heston's stature
as a spokesman for mankind.
Planet of the Apes (2001) was beautifully photographed, the
special effects were dazzling, and of course Rick Baker's
Apes makeup was terrific. All eye candy with little else going
for it.
No matter what "innovations" or "re-imagining" new Hollywood
comes up with on the "new and improved" Planet of the Apes series, I'll remain a loyal admirerer of the originals.
Who knows, maybe the next installment of the Apes series may
have a anti-obesity message centering on the Orangutans as the
lead Apes characters.