Planet OF The Apes (the 2001 version,
directed by Tim Burton) was not as bad as I
thought, having seen the trailer. A future astronaut
(Mark Wahlberg) crash lands on a distant planet.
Luckily he can breathe. Unluckily he finds himself
the property of a comedy orang-utan slave trader.
The slave trader is the least of his troubles,
for he has to face the amusingly seething General
Thade, a mutation between a chimp and Darth
Maul.
This movie doesn't shadow the original, incidentally,
its not a remake as such.
Planet of the Apes opens with references about
as subtle as a shit shoveller to the slave trade.
Thankfully some of the thundering ethical issues
raised gradually become blurred, ambiguous even,
later on, with gentle undercurrents undermining
the ostensible preaching.
There was a nice scene where the astronaut's
gun was destroyed and a good thing too. Guns
are nowhere near as fun as hand-to-hand combat.
The references to religion were a nice bonus.
"God made us in our image," says an
ape piously. Exactly. More on this in the spoilers corner.
Against my expectations, this is quite an entertaining
movie. Tim Burton can't make a *terrible* movie,
even when he sells out.
P.S. I received this joke in the emal: South
African In Space: When Mark Shuttleworth begins
his return from space, we should all dress as
apes. It will only work if the whole planet
does it.
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spoilers corner
Spoilers!!!!
Warning: this box contains a movie post-mortem analysis that freely gives away important plot twists and details. If you have not yet seen this movie and intend seeing it, avoid this spoilers box until afterwards. Bookmark the page, see the movie, see if you agree with my review then write an arsy comment saying I am talking total b*ll*cks :-)
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I liked the idea that a man from space,
a high tech, yet non-supernatural, non-theistic
event, is the sort of event that will
inevitably take on religious significance
over time.
Planet of the Apes' moment of glory
is the second coming of the Messiah -
a chimp! Ingenious!
Mandatory bicker: how the hell did Wahlberg
survive getting beaten up by Thade, a
psychopathic creature ten times his strength,
and a few nasty falls thrown in for good
measure, virtually unscathed?
The twist ending was actually not as inconsistent
with the internal logic of the story as
it first looked. Maybe Thade learned to
fly the ship and went back in time through
and invaded the earth. Its silly, but
after all you don't go to see a film called
"Planet of the Apes"
for down-to-earth plotting.
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There are no more spoilers below this
point, except maybe in any user talkback
comments.
End of spoilers corner
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The alien apes make some decent summer blockbusters,
unlike those evolutionary-backwards corporate
monkeys in Hollywood.
Add your comment to this page
 | | | | | | From: |
General Whitey | Subject: | 2001-08-28 05:16:54 |
| | | | | | From: |
General Whitey | Subject: | 2001-08-28 05:17:58 |
| | | | | | From: |
Alvaro | Subject: | 2002-07-23 12:24:03 |
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