Guilty Pleasures: Planet of the Apes (2001)
By Felix Quinonez Jr.
December 27, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But even so, we all have our guilty pleasures. I’m talking about that song you stop humming when someone walks into the room. Or maybe it’s that movie you claim your significant other dragged you to. Whatever the case, we all have guilty pleasures and that includes me, of course. With this column, I’m going to try to encourage people to stop being embarrassed for liking things they normally wouldn’t or that aren’t considered cool. I’m going to do this by celebrating movies that are my personal guilty pleasures.
It’s always hard to predict audience reaction. Sometimes even when it seems all of the right pieces are there, the movie doesn’t catch on. But it takes a special kind of movie to inspire the kind of vitriol reserved for the Planet of the Apes remake, directed by Tim Burton. On paper it seemed like a perfect pairing but in this case the parts did not add up to a satisfying whole. Even its 45% rating at Rotten Tomatoes does not adequately portray how much people dislike this movie. Planet of the Apes was so vehemently disliked that to this day it still generates animosity. This movie got such a negative reaction that the fact that it actually made money was not enough to get its intended sequel green lit. Director Tim Burton actually said that he’d rather jump out of a window than make a sequel. So basically, people hated this movie…but not me. I actually always loved this movie and still do. The only thing that gets me mad is that I never got to see the sequel that would have explained that crazy cliffhanger ending…which wasn’t supposed to makes sense! It would have been explained in the sequel.
I should point out that even though most people were excited for Tim Burton’s take on the sci-fi classic - it was a major tentpole that summer - I was probably even more so. Although I had never seen the old TV shows, I grew up watching the old movies. Every New Year’s Day there used to be a marathon on TV and I would always watch it. Because of this, these apes have a special place in my heart and I also happen to be a pretty big Burton fan, so this seemed to be especially made for me. Needless to say, I was ready to embrace this movie and having recently seen it again, I still love it.
The year is 2029 and The United States Air Force is doing space missions. On a space station is Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), who works with the primates used on these missions. Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be much of a movie if something didn’t go wrong, so a mysterious electromagnetic storm begins approaching the station and a small pod containing Leo’s favorite chimp disappears in the storm. Of course, Leo does pretty much what you’d expect a movie character to do: he charges into said storm blindly.
Inside the storm, Leo loses contact with his ship and after coming out the other side, he crash lands on a mysterious planet in the year 5021.Not long after that, Leo discovers that on this planet humanoid apes who speak English are the dominant species and humans are kept as slaves. As we all know, Leo gets taken captive but eventually gets free and sparks a human rebellion. Along the way, he makes a startling discovery about the origin of this strange planet. Burton takes some departures from the original movie - especially with the ending - and how you feel about them will greatly influence your stance on the movie.
I’ll be the first to admit, Planet of the Apes is not a perfect movie but it is pretty damn cool. One of the best things about the movie is how great the apes look. Even the detractors can agree that the makeup and costume designs were great. Of course, with the current CGI and the performance of Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is on a whole new level but even so, the work on Burton’s film holds up fantastically. Even when I was younger I remember wishing they had done a better job with the special effects in the original movies. In Burton’s version, it was the first time I wasn’t distracted by the clumsy ape suits. And aside from the look of the apes, the choreography was great, too. Seeing the apes move in Burton’s version was a pure delight.
Say what you will about Burton, but his movies are very recognizable. His movies have a certain look. And to be honest, that isn’t always a good thing. But Plane of the Apes seems to be tailor made for Burton’s style. His movies seem to inhabit a world that is dark and slightly off kilter, there always seems to be a moody atmosphere and it works perfectly on Planet of the Apes. Even people who don’t enjoy this movie should be able to admit that it LOOKS damn cool.
And aside from looking cool, the movie does have some very solid performances. I’ve never been a huge fan of Wahlberg but I think in the right role he can shine. Unfortunately, this is not of those roles but he still does a serviceable job. However, Tim Roth is genuinely menacing as General Thade. Roth definitely goes all in and is great to watch. And although I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, Paul Giamatti is pretty great too, as Limbo, a comic relief orangutan.
I never understood the point of a remake that sets out to simply recreate the original and I guess Burton felt the same way. His version is definitely his own, while still staying true to the original. There is a great amount of action and suspense and the special effects are top notch. This is a great director cutting loose and the result is an awesome summer movie that undeservedly got a bad rep. If you haven’t done so already, give this movie a second chance. Just remind yourself that the ending was a cliffhanger before watching it and you might be surprised how great this movie is.