Planet of the Apes
Year: 2001
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tim Roth & Mark Wahlberg
Runtime: 120 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 01/03/24
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tim Roth & Mark Wahlberg
Runtime: 120 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 01/03/24
Following the declining interest in the series during the 1970’s, the Planet of the Apes franchise went dark following 1973’s Battle for the Planet of the Apes. It was a property that Fox would return to semi-frequently with ideas to resurrect the franchise, but following the overwhelmingly negative reception to a lot of the sequel films it seemed like too big of a gamble.
That was until Tim Burton became attached to the project in the mid 90’s, and with his mass popularity and striking artistic vision for all of his films, Fox were convinced enough to strike up a deal for three new Planet of the Apes films, starting with a remake of the 1968 original. Releasing shortly after the turn of the millennium, 2001’s Planet of the Apes would prove to be a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. So how does it stack up against the original?
In the year 2029, astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) trains monkeys for space missions aboard the space station Oberon. When Davidson follows one of his chimps into a man electromagnetic storm, his capsule is propelled hundreds of years into the future as he crash lands on an alien planet.
Davidson soon discovers that apes are the dominant species on this planet, hunting, killing, and experimenting on humans is their way of life. But when Davidson befriends Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), an animal rights activist, she agrees to help him and a handful of human slaves escape in the hope that Davidson might be able to get his spacecraft up and running again to escape this strange world.
Meanwhile the vicious General Thade (Tim Roth) will stop at nothing to impose martial law, giving him the ability to indiscriminately kill all humans, with his sights set on Davidson to be his trophy kill.
That was until Tim Burton became attached to the project in the mid 90’s, and with his mass popularity and striking artistic vision for all of his films, Fox were convinced enough to strike up a deal for three new Planet of the Apes films, starting with a remake of the 1968 original. Releasing shortly after the turn of the millennium, 2001’s Planet of the Apes would prove to be a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. So how does it stack up against the original?
In the year 2029, astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) trains monkeys for space missions aboard the space station Oberon. When Davidson follows one of his chimps into a man electromagnetic storm, his capsule is propelled hundreds of years into the future as he crash lands on an alien planet.
Davidson soon discovers that apes are the dominant species on this planet, hunting, killing, and experimenting on humans is their way of life. But when Davidson befriends Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), an animal rights activist, she agrees to help him and a handful of human slaves escape in the hope that Davidson might be able to get his spacecraft up and running again to escape this strange world.
Meanwhile the vicious General Thade (Tim Roth) will stop at nothing to impose martial law, giving him the ability to indiscriminately kill all humans, with his sights set on Davidson to be his trophy kill.
I think the term remake is a little loose for Burton’s Planet of the Apes. Whilst it follows the same basic story as the 1968 original, there’s more than enough new material here to constitute this being able to be considered its own entity.
Davidson is a completely different kind of character to Taylor, as well as his reason for being in this situation being entirely different. The original film was more concerned with probing ethical issues, whereas this version is geared more towards action.
So which one’s better? Honestly, I think it’s just down to personal preference. But they are different enough that it won’t feel like you’re watching the same film twice if you did decide to watch them both.
Prior to watching it for the purposes of this review, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes was the only film in the franchise I hadn’t seen. The original 1968 film I’ve watched four or five times as my dad owned it on VHS, and the rest of them I’ve seen once around a decade ago (aside from War which released in 2017). But despite owning a franchise boxset ok blu-ray, I skipped the 2001 film in favour of going straight to the newer reboot series. Why? I think from the stills and clips I’ve seen over the years the film never appealed to me, and I couldn’t see it living up to the original film. Whilst I do think it falls short, I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
I get off on the wrong foot with it because I don’t really like Mark Wahlberg. Everything over ever seen him in he’s pretty awful, and here he’s no different. Every scene is either over or under-acted to such wild degrees that you can never quite tell whether he’s just not sure what he’s supposed to be doing, or whether this is all just part of a process for him.
But Wahlberg isn’t alone with his weird performance here as the majority of the cast are outright strange. Roth spends the entire film growling and scowling as his fellow cast members. Bonham-Carter is constantly squealing and jumping away from things; and just what is Paul Giamatti doing with his voice?
Davidson is a completely different kind of character to Taylor, as well as his reason for being in this situation being entirely different. The original film was more concerned with probing ethical issues, whereas this version is geared more towards action.
So which one’s better? Honestly, I think it’s just down to personal preference. But they are different enough that it won’t feel like you’re watching the same film twice if you did decide to watch them both.
Prior to watching it for the purposes of this review, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes was the only film in the franchise I hadn’t seen. The original 1968 film I’ve watched four or five times as my dad owned it on VHS, and the rest of them I’ve seen once around a decade ago (aside from War which released in 2017). But despite owning a franchise boxset ok blu-ray, I skipped the 2001 film in favour of going straight to the newer reboot series. Why? I think from the stills and clips I’ve seen over the years the film never appealed to me, and I couldn’t see it living up to the original film. Whilst I do think it falls short, I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
I get off on the wrong foot with it because I don’t really like Mark Wahlberg. Everything over ever seen him in he’s pretty awful, and here he’s no different. Every scene is either over or under-acted to such wild degrees that you can never quite tell whether he’s just not sure what he’s supposed to be doing, or whether this is all just part of a process for him.
But Wahlberg isn’t alone with his weird performance here as the majority of the cast are outright strange. Roth spends the entire film growling and scowling as his fellow cast members. Bonham-Carter is constantly squealing and jumping away from things; and just what is Paul Giamatti doing with his voice?
The story changes are just weird too. Davidson trains monkeys to perform missions in space, whilst already aboard a fully manned space station? Ari likes humans because she had them as pets growing up, but Cornelius & Zera from the original film were animal behavioural scientists so their interest in Taylor made more sense.
Plus then there’s the ending, which I mean how to you mess up one of the most iconic endings in cinematic history? I’m sure Burton just wanted to make his own mark on it and give audiences something different from what they expected, but it just makes no sense whatsoever.
All of this being said, there are good things about Burton’s Planet of the Apes.
I think the best thing about the entire film is the costume and set design. The original film was highly praised for its inventive costume design for the actors playing the apes, and Burton thankfully opted to put a large focus on that element of the production for his film. The costumes are really incredible to look at, making the original films costumes look primitive in comparison. They allow the actors to move fluidly and express themselves fully, but the way they’re designed you’d never know that it was Bonham-Carter beneath all that fur and prosthetics.
The set is also more varied than that of the original film. Ape City is designed around trees rather than rocks, and the surrounding areas are more akin to a jungle than a wasteland. It gives the whole film a much higher quality feel visually, and I think had this kind of money been given to the original film, and had some of the technology employed existed back then, I think this is what it could have looked like.
I think this version of the film will also appeal to people who think the original is too slow or doesn’t have enough action. This does come at the expense of some of the more philosophical elements of the story, but the main meat of that stuff is still present whilst delivering a better paced film with more impressive action. Different strokes for different folks and whilst I do prefer the original overall, I can see the appeal behind having a brisker pace and more action.
Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes is not a great remake, but I do think that audiences at the time were overly harsh towards the film. The performances are lacklustre, and the story alterations often create more problems than they solve. But the production design is extremely impressive, and the more frequent and engaging action sequences may benefit audiences who struggle with the comparatively quaint original film.
Whilst the original Planet of the Apes is unquestionably my favourite of the two, I think there’s was some genius behind Burton’s ideas even if most of them hurt the film overall.
Plus then there’s the ending, which I mean how to you mess up one of the most iconic endings in cinematic history? I’m sure Burton just wanted to make his own mark on it and give audiences something different from what they expected, but it just makes no sense whatsoever.
All of this being said, there are good things about Burton’s Planet of the Apes.
I think the best thing about the entire film is the costume and set design. The original film was highly praised for its inventive costume design for the actors playing the apes, and Burton thankfully opted to put a large focus on that element of the production for his film. The costumes are really incredible to look at, making the original films costumes look primitive in comparison. They allow the actors to move fluidly and express themselves fully, but the way they’re designed you’d never know that it was Bonham-Carter beneath all that fur and prosthetics.
The set is also more varied than that of the original film. Ape City is designed around trees rather than rocks, and the surrounding areas are more akin to a jungle than a wasteland. It gives the whole film a much higher quality feel visually, and I think had this kind of money been given to the original film, and had some of the technology employed existed back then, I think this is what it could have looked like.
I think this version of the film will also appeal to people who think the original is too slow or doesn’t have enough action. This does come at the expense of some of the more philosophical elements of the story, but the main meat of that stuff is still present whilst delivering a better paced film with more impressive action. Different strokes for different folks and whilst I do prefer the original overall, I can see the appeal behind having a brisker pace and more action.
Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes is not a great remake, but I do think that audiences at the time were overly harsh towards the film. The performances are lacklustre, and the story alterations often create more problems than they solve. But the production design is extremely impressive, and the more frequent and engaging action sequences may benefit audiences who struggle with the comparatively quaint original film.
Whilst the original Planet of the Apes is unquestionably my favourite of the two, I think there’s was some genius behind Burton’s ideas even if most of them hurt the film overall.