Planet of the Apes (2001)

~ philthebearblog

It is 2029 and onboard Space Station Oberon pilot Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) has been training apes to fly research space probes. As an electromagnetic storm approaches the station his favourite chimpanzee Pericles is sent into the maelstrom to gather data and disappears from all communications. Leo immediately jumps into another pod following Pericles and after entering the storm crash lands on a planet in the year 5021.

As Leo is getting his bearings he finds him and a number of other humans in his vicinity are being hunted by a group of apes on horseback. Captured in nets he finds himself being sold into slavery to an Orangutan named Limbo (Paul Giamatti). Later the daughter of a senator named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) will buy him as she hates the mistreatment humans receive in the hands of apes.

Leo will eventually escape and attempt to inspire a revolution against the evil General Thade (Tim Roth) and his right hand ape Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan).

Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes “reimagining” is a much derided film that failed to garner any sequels. Personally I had never returned to it since its cinema release but thanks to my marathon Apes rewatch this year in preparation for the tenth Apes film I approached it again with a little trepidation. Surprisingly it was not as poor as I remember. It has two particularly egregious issues. Firstly, the ending is a travesty. A convoluted unexplained twist that was clearly designed for sequels to navigate. But as previously explained these never came so you will be left to your own imaginings or fan theories online. Secondly, Mark Wahlberg in what is probably the first blockbuster film where he was the sole lead has very little presence or charisma as the protagonist. There are some features of merit though.

The overall plot that explains how the apes came to be the masters of this planet is fairly intriguing. It takes some time to unfold and requires a few leaps of imagination, but anyone familiar with the original series of films will have no issues with these as they are not as wild.

Speaking of those familiar with the original films, any fans will have plenty of homages to pay attention to. The famous “take your stinking hands off me” line is reversed and directed towards Wahlberg’s character, the Forbidden Zone holds the secrets to where apes came from and features the scarecrows from the original film. And there are cameos for both Linda Harrison and Charlton Heston. Heston, playing Thade’s father who is named Zaius even gets to utter a new version of his “damn them all to hell” line. It is a veritable smorgasbord of nudge nudge, wink wink.

Rick Baker’s modern iteration on the ape make up is superb and I suspect was as startling then as the 1968 make up and costumes were on release. And the wire work and stunts that feature the apes jumping around is fairly spectacular if slightly peculiar after the more recent films natural movement.

As weak as Wahlberg is, just wait till you hear his attempt at an inspiring speech in the final third of the movie, there are strong performances from Roth and Giamatti. Roth is the most worthy of discussion with his snarling, fearsome leader constantly scheming to climb his way to ultimate power.

Every time the film threatens to get too interesting it reverts back to generic blockbuster type though. Limbo’s links to slavery, Ari’s idea that all animals are equal or the subtle romantic frisson between Leo and Ari are all counter balanced by Leo’s supposed love for Pericles whom he references as a monkey, Leo’s detachment from everyone else, the other humans featured having no agency or story arcs whatsoever and a giant fight sequence which makes little sense. Particularly Leo’s awful battle strategy.

It is a film that has moments of intrigue where you think this could genuinely be great and moments of mundanity where you just wonder how it all went so wrong. It feels like Tim Burton was held on a leash and the end result does not live up to quality the make up and costumes bestow on the apes.

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