Wide of the MARK (Planet Of The Apes [2001] (DVD))

Member Name: itsonlyme

Product:	Planet Of The Apes [2001] (DVD)
Date:	29/08/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good point....

Disadvantages: Poor film, Awful ending, A big let down

Any film of such title will already be fighting a losing battle, as comparisons with what must now be regarded as a masterpiece are going to be inevitable! However, despite the similarities in the premise of the film, comparisons are unfounded and hardly appropriate, as the films are fundamentally different, not least in the quality of production.

In a remake of the 1968 classic, Mark Wahlberg takes on the role long regarded to be the sole creation of Charlton Heston, an American astronaut who crash lands on a planet where apes are the dominant species and men are treated like primitive beasts. Boulle's creation, Ulysse Merou was given the anglicized name of George Taylor and has now been given the moniker Leo Davidson -- standing as one of the film's many name changes. After a stupid attempt to save his beloved trained monkey, the US air force officer finds himself sent into the future, where he lands on this planet of intelligent and rather belligerant apes. The original film's comparison of an intelligent yet warring human race and an intelligent and peaceful simian race is lost on this film as the apes are just as guilty of mistreatment of armaments as the humans of the past are.

Davidson is thought to be merely another primitive roaming the planet, but upon further examination, a young lady named Ari (Carter) becomes sympathetical of the treatment of humans by her kinsmen. Soon she has even helped Davidson in getting away from the extremely hostile General Thade (Roth), the over-the-top, non-philosophical, and near heathen-like re-envisioning of the original's Dr. Zaius. All he wants to do is somehow escape from this planet, but soon he finds that the humans identify him as being their only hope at salvation from the apes.

Mark Wahlberg has done some really tough work over the last five years to convince people that he is no longer part of the Funky Bunch, but watching him tread on territory that I automatically conne
ct to Charlton Heston can only leave me watching Marky Mark (lol!) on the screen. He lacks the dramatic stylings of everyone's favorite radical actor; instead he is left to make musings about this world he cannot grasp. That?s right, Whalberg is way below par in this one, despite what people try to tell you!

The film's two finest actors, Carter and Roth, get to have some fun in their over-the top monkey suitsbut even this aspect of the film fails to live up to the like roles in the earlier version of the film, again becoming also insignificant when compared.
By the end of the film, it is completely unfathomable what caused the normally tremendous Roth to take a role that is nothing more than him growling and jumping around. Carter, by the end, looks better than her co-star, but still doesn?t excel in a way we might hope

It is easy to criticize Burton's Planet of the Apes by comparing it to the original, but the underlying truth is that it fails regardless of having a fine precursor. He may have given the film a more aggressive feel, reinstated some Boulle touches (including a rework of the novel's poor ending), and livened up the action, but in the end his vision of this novel is nothing more than another mistake in the Planet of the Apes collection. Though not as bad as some of the original's sequels, including Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Burton's film is a poor cousin to those poor moments.

I?ve heard many people rant and rave about this film, and having seen it myself twice now, I just cannot comprehend why! I was left feeling bitterly disappointed and let down. People are always going to compare it to the original film, but this is unjust and the poor film looks even worse when done so.

So for me, it was bordering on an AWFUL 1 star grade, but in the name of kindness, and the fact I?m in quite a good mood while writing t
his, it gets a rather poor 2 stars instead.

Summary: