Planet of the Apes

You should watch all movies!!

Here are some thoughts after dissecting the re-imagining version of Planet of the Apes by Tim Burton:Story. Overall, I think it is an interesting plot, specially the events around "Calima" and the origins of the Ape Culture. The space sequences are also well done. Probably the interest tends to drag down in the middle part of the film where there seems to be too many "action escape scenes". The ending twist should not surprise Planet of the Apes connoisseurs as this is more or less the conclusion in Pierre Boulle's original 1963 novel.Screenplay. A common disease in Science Fiction films are poor screenplays. Planet of the Apes (2001) is no exception. Indeed the exception was the brilliant 1968 one written by those 2 Hollywood legends: Michael Wilson and Rod Serling. The lines and development of the story for the 2001 version do have some nice and witty "references" to the past series but overall lack in character development and intelligent dialogue, which never rises to more than average writing. And finally, yes...that "Aspirin" line is cheap and out of place.Direction. Well, It's Tim Burton and that says a lot. It's original and controversial, probably not as dark as other of Burton's efforts, but still the style is highly discernible in the whole movie. Considering the weakness of the screenplay he was given, Burton relied in a very capable group of actors to bring up a polished execution. He consistently emphasizes violence, but in my opinion always having in mind the idea of making the Apes more credible (Thade's kind of "Matrix" jumps seems too much, but after all he is not a common ape, isn't he?). Also, the visions we are given of the "ape society" are particularly successful, creating a sense of deepness that are well supported by the details given of Ape Mythology.It was also a nice point that Burton tried to build a very personal version but with some identifiable bridge with the past series, thus he writes:"Planet of the Apes is a truly original, a modern-day fairy tale... The most challenging aspect of creating this new film was to be completely respectful of the mythology of the original, while adding new characters and story elements".Editing. I sensed too many rough cuts. How many footage was left out to make the film timely commercial?. This is a recurrent topic, specially in action films (and specifically in Science Fiction ones), so we could expect that there were valuable scenes deleted that would have helped in developing better some characters and their relationships (Leo, Daena, Ari, Karubi, etc.). We hope to have some answers when the DVD version is issued, as they usually include deleted scenes.Actors. Most "Ape" actors did a brilliant job, specially the aggressive chimpanzee Tim Roth (Thade), the loyal gorillas Michael Clarke Duncan (Attar) and Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa (Krull) and, of course the hilarious Orangutan Paul Giamatti (Limbo). Helena Bonham Carter (Ari) is not bad but far from the unforgettable Zira (Kim Hunter who was on the first 3 films of the 60's and 70's series). Mark Wahlberg (Leo) is just the typical American space cowboy, but again, the script doesn't help him much to do something more creative. Question marks for Estella Warren (Daena) and Kris Kristofferson (Karubi) as both seem only to be advertising pieces for the film. By the way, it was nice to watch Charlton Heston (now as an Ape!: Thade's Father) and Linda Harrison (the mute "Nova" in the original first 2 films makes now a small appearance as one of the caged women in the initial hunt...and yes, she is still mute!).Music. Danny Elfman has managed to continue successfully the great tradition of excellent music written for "Planet of the Apes" films. Before him, Jerry Goldsmith, Leonard Rosenman and Tom Scott composed beautiful, strange and original scores. Now, Elfman does nothing less with music that has a highly dramatic content, a very attractive orchestration (paying in some instances a tribute to the original percussive score by Goldsmith!), and even some nice melodic moments. Two Thumbs Up for Mr. Elfman, on my opinion his best work to date.Make-Up. The new Planet of the Apes epic is another triumph for Rick Baker, the man behind many myths (Star Wars, American Werewolf in London, Gorillas in the Mist, Men in Black, and many many etceteras). Each Ape has his own personality beautifully done. His make-up nicely permitted actors to be able to express their emotions. Baker has done a grand tribute to John Chamber's famed make-up for the original series.Costumes / Sets. I think that the film is very successful on both elements. It is impressive the color and variety of costumes which, keeping up with the make-up, are very personal for the different apes. Ape City is beautifully constructed, "Calima" is majestic and mysterious, while the space scenes have a pleasant style.Summary, an impressive visual feast with an interesting story but an unfortunate script.

great movie and service

I am aware that this film received a lot of criticism but I enjoyed the remake myself. Completely unimportant for me to provide my opinions on the acting or plot or to tell a summary of the movie. I only focus my reviews upon the quality of the transfer of the film to Blu Ray. I do have the Standard Def version and watched the new Blu Ray last night but this will not be a side by side comparison.VIDEO... Despite a lower than usual Mbps rate which appeared to average in the upper teens and lower twenties, the video transfer was clean throughout the film. I saw no artifacting in any area of the film and, especially during past paced scenes where stair stepping and aliasing might show up, there was none of that either. Film grain, which I usually notice went unnoticed for the entire film. Even in the darker areas, scenes were unblemished by video noise or grain. Color grading was fairly warm even in the shadow scenes and actually pretty natural.AUDIO... Any film that utilizes a lossless codec will always be superior to one that has a lossy codec. In 'Planet of the Apes' we get a DTS MA HD 5.1 audio which provided a very transparent stage for dialogue. I do watch on a 7.1 audio system that is fairly high end and the surrounds are nicely utilized in an encompassing manner. There is some discreet directionality for the surrounds and plenty for your LFE channel to do. However, the surrounds are used often but not necessarily in a discreet directional manner. For example, the sound of horses might be coming from both the rear channels but it sounded as if the same audio was used for both and not one horse on the right and another coming in on the left.EXTRAs...Other than a commentary, which I did not listen to, there are no extras on the blu ray. I was very disappointed in this. There are, however, several trailers for this and other films which I hate. It forces you to pay for a company's advertising when the disc space could have been used for even less compression of the video transfer.All in all, I am happy with the Blu Ray as the quality is excellent. I do not think that, except for the lossless audio, there was that much of a difference between the video quality of the SD and BR discs. All my reviews focus upon the quality of the BluRay's transfer and I do hope that this review has been of some help to you. If so, maybe my other reviews will also serve you well in deciding upon your purchases.Thanks for reading.

As above

I enjoyed this film as I'm a keen fan of all planet of the Ape Films

Great film good actors there was noting in this film that I didn't like five stars

A good film that re-starts the franchise nicely. There are differences to the original, but those should be expected. A great cast and wonderful directing makes a good movie.I enjoyed it, better at than the original because the makeup works so much better. Well worth checking out.

OK so die-hard fans of POTA won't rate this highly but it's an enjoyable film with lots of action I was entertained from start to finish i can understand the logic behind the ending which was interesting but compared to the rest of the story it doesn't make sense,is a stupid ending and is very confusing but don't let that overshadow the whole film.