Search - Planet of the Apes on DVD

Going Ape Over a Remake

Sky | New York | 05/14/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I guess that you'd have to be skeptical of movie that has as many 1 and 2 star reviews as it does 4 and 5 star reviews. But in my opinion, Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the classic 1968 version of Planet of the Apes was a victim of a lot of unjust criticism.

Most of the criticism is from preservationists that just don't like their classics tampered with. To them I say fair enough, but I'm also here to say that as much as I loved the original movie that spawned 4 sequels, a television series and an animated TV series, I liked Tim Burton's version the best. Burton's film explained how it could all be possible better than the original while at the same time adhered to the spirit of Pierre Boulle's original novel. Sure Burton took some liberties of his own too, but he also paid honorable tribute to the '68 sci-fi classic in several scenes.

I think that a lot of criticism was also created by the whole time warp thing too. Jumping back and forth in time can be a difficult thing to pull off; it can be very confusing. And it is indeed confusing in Burton's remake. But ultimately it all adds up and is very cool when you finally "get it".

Marky Mark Wahlberg also received some pans for his performance, but I thought he was great. And the apes, most notably Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan & Paul Giamatti, all looked great; they were scary, amusing and the acting was excellent. The movie is action packed and thoroughly entertaining through and through. Like I said earlier, I was certainly a fan of the original, but Burton's movie to me was less of a remake of the 1968 film and more of a better adaptation of Boulle's 1963 novel.

I bought this movie once on DVD already all the way back in 2001; but I wouldn't hesitate to give this a try on Blu Ray and I recommend that you do too...especially if you've never seen the movie.




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