Planet of The Apes

I loved this movie. I thought it was great. I don't really have any quarrels with it. Since I've never seen all the old ones in full, I wasn't comparing it to anything. Which was probably a good thing. The effects were great. The directing was very nice. Typical Tim Burton style. The acting was good all around. All in all it's probably favorite movie of the summer. We'll next to Final Fantasy.

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Ugh. Spoilers below...

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Burton is great when it comes to style, flair, and creating a believable world...but he's gone with a poor script here. The ending is just ridiculous. How did General Thade get back there? Makes no sense. Oh, and I suppose it's perfectly okay that apes happened to create something identical to The Washington Monument as well?

Two endings that would have been better:

1 - He goes back to earth in that future time. No more time warps...he goes back to earth in the year 2400 (or whatever it was), hoping to find a peaceful Earth...he then discovers the memorial...falls to his knees like in the first movie, and screams the classic "damn them all to hell" line. This is good because it pays homage to the original.

2 - He crash lands on earth (once again, in the future...no more going back to 2029), and ends up in a hospital. We see him open his eyes from his point of view. He sees a human there leaning over him in his hospital bed, and breaths a sigh of relief. An ape then comes and pushes the human out of the way, yelling "Move, slave!" or something of the sort. He sits up, and all the doctors are apes, being aided by human slaves.

Both would have been better. The actual ending made no damn sense at all.

Spoilerz





I admit the ending could have been better, but it still wasn't horrible. What is so unplausable about monkey's making a Washington Monument that isn't about them evolving and enslaving human beings? If your going to discount that, you might as well discount the fact that the apes had their own planet to begin with or even that he traveled hudreds of years into the future? I thought it was one of a few things. That it was either a parrallel world, ruled by apes, and Thade was there for whatever reason. Maybe not Thade, but one of Thade's relatives. Or that somehow Thade had enslaved earth. Or maybe it was like on Conan last night, and that it was all just a dream. But seriously, I think it was just a parrallel world, where the colony of apes started on the other planet had taken over earth. Your second suggestion would of made a really good ending I think.

One thing I don't get, is why were there horses on the planet of the apes?? How did they get there?

Spoilers.

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Good question, considering they were only there for, apparently, 4000 years or so. Or did I read that clock thingy wrong?

I can sort of buy the parallel universe thing...but I don't think that was Burton's intention. I'm nearly positive it was just time travel...which makes very little sense, IMO. Tim Roth, the guy who played Thade, said himself (if I remember correctly) that the ending can be interpretened several ways, and that it is very wide open...which is a flaw in and of itself, I think.

Even with a parallel universe involved, it seems odd. If apes really had ruled in place of us, they would surely have some monuments, but they wouldn't be likely to have monuments that look so very like ours. I could buy one that looks like the Lincoln Memorial, because that's a very generic looking monument...but that monument, at one end of a lake, near The Washington Monument? I dunno...doesn't fit.

I think the biggest problem of all, though, was that the first movie wasn't relying on a big finale. People went for the original concept and amazing makeup. Thanks to that flick's big ending, though, everyone is coming into this one LOOKING for a big twist, and I think Burton bent so far backwards to try to fulfill that search that he fell down.

Oh, and you NEED to see the original...although it's probably not going to be very good after seeing Burton's.

I've seen the original, just haven't seen all of the other ones in full.

Thats the problem with movies that are supposed to have such great endings. People go expecting to see something that can't be offered. Which is why I liked the movie so much. I didn't go expecting some killer ending that would of shocked me. I expected a planet filled with apes, and since it was a Tim Burton movie, I was expecting it to simply retain his style of gothicness and mysteriousness. I felt that he accomplished that just fine.

I liked this movie.

Spoilerz:



Did anyone bother to think about the ship? Thade was trapped in there he could of very well done something in there, not real likely, but still an opinion.

I thought it was funny that Duncan's ape charecter considered Wahlberg's charecter a damn dirty human. And of course a cameo by the great Charlton Heston. Some people are saying Sequel! Sequel! Sequel! Is that really the answer? I mean any good movie will leave it open at the end, This movie left it open, but kinda left you puzzled. Which could lead up to a sequel, but if I understood correctly Burton had no intention of remaking all of the Ape movies, a good reason would be because all the others besides the first two were terrible. So if there must be a sequel I ask that they don't get out of hand and make 7 or 8 movies like they did before.

This is a MUST SEE!!!!!!
[Edited by OG- on 07-28-2001]

Sorry spdcr, thought it would be polite to edit that and put the spoilerz thing in there. Didn't give much away, but someone might of gotten anal. Also it gave me an excuse to use my moderator superpowers for the first time.

spoilerz:



I was thinking about him being trapped too, but then I got to wondering how would he have gone into the past too??

And did anyone else notice that when he was traveling back and the year counter was going down it didn't stop at 2029 it stoped some where in the 2100's?

Spoilers.

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I was thinking the same thing: how could he go BACK in time? And besides: he'd have to go WAY back in time if he were going to overthrow things enough to have a world like that waiting for Leo. I think throwing Thade's name into the mix at the end was over the top, and really odd.

You forget though...Burton is really odd

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N.B. - POTENTIAL SPOILERS



I liked this movie's action, it's effects, the setting, and particularly the makeup. Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, and especially Helena Bonham Carter give the best performances (ironically) as apes that vary on the spectrum of goodness: Roth = bad, Duncan = bad then good, Carter = the good liberal ape (notice the social satire of Republicanism and militarism in the Gen. Thade character - not a coincidence; Burton's a swift guy).

Wahlberg is solid; though, he doesn't have much complexity to work with. I (like Ebert, if you saw the article too) was particularly distressed that Burton copped out on the interaction of emotions/relationship portion of the movie - Estella Warren for no apparent reason other than lack of male peers falls for Wahlberg, though until the end, he barely looks at her (and then it's only so that her bee-stung lips can meet his) and he doesn't even say goodbye. He does, kinda look like he falls for Carter's ape, but no one explores the possibilites here, and I'm a little ticked at the cop-out. The love triangle angle had potential to be really smart and sassy, but ended up falling like a rock off Mt. Kilimanjaro at the end - Wahlberg just flies back home - or not home.

Exactly, what did happen at the end? Did he actually go back to Earth, or did he end up crash-landing on the wrong planet entirely? Or is Burton saying we're ignorant to assume that humans rule everything? I am not sure about it...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW!

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A Fox Exec has basically stated that the ending has no specific meaning, it's just there to shock you. This is very, very upsetting to me.

A lot of people are claiming (quite stupidly, I might add) that Thade somehow got the ship there working, and went back BEFORE Leo, so as to take over. That's really ridiculous: how could Thade get the ship running? Seeing as how he has grown up in a culture with technology that has not even yielded electricity, how could he pilot the thing back in time?

Not only that, but how could he make his way SO FAR back in time that apes would overthrow the several BILLION humans on the earth, and even evole all that way into intelligent beings that can create monuments and drive police cars? I don't believe in that kind of evolution, but if I did, I imagine it would take a VERY long time for such a transformation to take place. It's a very stupid ending.

Argh, I hate that ending.

Spoliers, or not, yeah their are, but they don't give away much









I agree with ya Chris, the whole ship thing would be impossible from the get-go due to the fact that the fuel was drained. Unless, they happened to still have working pods.

The notion that Apes even Thade traveled back in time so far as to overthrow the entire human civilazation is impossible, down to the last little detail. It's as if I'm watching a bad Back to the Future movie. If you don't let the ending get to you as many people are trying not to, but it's just too frickin hard not to think about that part, this makes for a decent update of a classic.

Here is another thought, which seems a little out there, but remember in the beginning right after they get hit by the power surge, they start to get broadcasts from way back when. Could it be possible that since they had to investigate all storms that they made a recording of that, and Thade took watch at it and ta-dah was able to get a peak at what earth was like what it resembled and what not? Probably a no to that theory, but hey, could be a possibility.

wow..so many spoilers !!

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Spoilers, and a crude sexual reference below:



I liked this movie more than I thought I would. I'll make an early Oscar prediction and say that if this movie doesn't win Best Makeup, then I'll have lost all faith with everything. My world will turn upside down. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. That said, I thought the visuals were terrific, and Burton did his best with the rather boring emotions in his script. The city where the apes were was very cool, and the lighting in some scenes was optically orgasmic . The pictures are pretty in this movie, no doubt about it.

I would have liked to have seen a sex scene between Helena Bonham Carter and Marky Mark, or at least an implied one. Imagine where you could go with that! Now that would have been wonderful. But since I go with what I'm given, I'll say that I thought their acting was good, Carter especially. Lack of sexuality doesn't make it a bad picture, after all. Just a less interesting one, when you've got such potential.

The human love interest was in it because she probably blew the casting director . OK, I'm joking, sorry. She's a pretty girl, but she could have been cut completely and the movie would have been just peachy. I liked Tim Roth very much, because I like him in everything he's in. Most of the characters weren't given much to work with, apart from Ari and Marky. Like that kid, what the hell was his deal? And the girl's father? But being the reasonable human being I consider myself to be, I don't expect such little things like character development to be so prevalent in big summer blockbusters. Even ones by excellent directors.

I did notice the whole political double entendres that were going on, and it was entertaining. There were some hidden political meanings and statements buried in the movie; I sensed them right from the start, and it was fun watching the actors chew it up. Heston was particularly funny with his whole firearms deal-NRA parallel thing. I liked that aspect of the movie, for sure.


Now about that ending:
You all are looking for logic in a movie that is completely devoid of it from the start. For Chrissakes, it turns the tables on evolution. Not that that could never happen, but I don't see it coming anytime soon . No one goes to see a movie about a planet of apes (even if it is Earth) and wants to see LOGIC. I thought the ending was wonderful, because it came out of nowhere. No one said to me "look out for a sick ending!", so I was somewhat surprised. Asking how the apes came back in time or whatever is akin to asking how characters can outrun huge fireballs in movies like Hollow Man. You're not supposed to ask, I don't think. It's really just meant to have the audience say "what?" I saw it as a whole parallel universe thing, that was very cool .

All in all, I think the movie wussed out. It was content to be an action flick, with buried messages, as opposed to outright statements about human-ape sex (for example). But regardless, I liked this movie, and enjoyed it for the action piece that it was. If the ending wasn't there, I'm sure I would have liked it much less, that's for damn sure. The movie played it safe, but it was enjoyable. I'm not ashamed to say that I paid to see it.

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Damn...I had really expected more out of you. It was not cool. It was pitiful.

Logic? No, not logic...but it has to make some freakin' sense. The thought that apes can evolve is reasonably realistic. But the ending...

SPOILERS BELOW...

...asks you to believe that you don't need fuel to pilot a spaceship, or that you don't need to know how to pilot a spaceship to pilot a spaceship, or that one ape can overthrow billions of people, or that evolution can be accelerated for no particular reason. Sorry, but the "don't look for logic" argument doesn't float.

Ending came out of nowhere? Dude, you must have been hiding under a rock. My dad and I both called it, and my 10 year old sister (TEN YEARS OLD!) called a few of the plot twists before they happened. Anyone even remotely following the development of the movie knew there was going to be a plot twist.

The movie could have kept on being fun and visually stunning, but no...it had to hit you with an ending that has shock value only. It is not a clever ending...it is not a witty ending. It is not thought provoking, nor does it make any sense. My dad and I came up with a better ending right away, and we're not screenwriters. It's pitiful...I hate that ending with all my being. It is such a ridiculous cop-out. It has no meaning, and makes no sense. ARGH.

Oh, and I think it'd be rather dumb to have an ape-on-human sex scene. I mean, give me a break here. I wouldn't believe for a second that a few days on that planet would have him getting it on with another species.

Well, think about it...he'd been in space for two years...how long can you go without sex??? Or maybe he pulled a George Costanza(Seinfeld) and not having sex made him smarter. Who knows, but this was an ok movie. As far as Summer movies go it was the best action movie.

I think its more like they just needed a character that horny 13 year old guys could go see and dream about. Not sure how many of them would of dremt about Carter's character. Except you. You ape fetish man! Kidding.

I do agree though. The movie needed more sex. That ape kiss and the Estella Warren kiss weren't enough sexual tension. I did read in a British DVD magazine that the DVD would have an extended man-ape scene of some sort. But sorry Steve, I doubt will be hardcore enough for your fetish!

Some-what of a spoiler...doesn't give anything away really:













No one doing it Ape-style!?

Steve, did you forget about the two apes doing the little mating ritual or whatever. Remember, when Marky came running through there and they jumped up to the light fixture? They were doing something i guess considered kinky to them.

There's your sex scene!! Cut it, print it, slap it in a box and market that bad boy. That's your ape porn you wanted so much...

Hummmm, if that was ape sex on the lite fixture I guess that is why apes dont have many babies. and I didnt understand the ending either. Burton probly thought it would shock people but i just dint understand it.

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Spoilerz:


I love sci-fi science.
1) Okay, here's what happened at the end.
The monkey, the little guy in the space suit, lands and Marky takes his ship and fly's away, but where has the monkey been all this time? Prolly just flying around through that time warp cloud thing. So after Marky leaves, the monkey lands on the planet again, now there are two monkeys. One that saved Marky and a new one from another time. They exist at the same time like McFly did in Back to the Future. So the new monkey finds Thade locked in that room and let's him out. The new monkey hasn't been smashed against the wall. So Thade takes the little spaceship and goes after Marky, but ends up on Earth in a near future. On Earth the space apes have evolved and are in cages and being treated like the humans were on POTA. Thade does everything Marky did and frees his ape people. They love him and make him a hero, replacing his head on the Lincoln Memorial and overthrowing Earth. Marky, lands on Earth in the far future to find Thade is a hero.

That's how it happened. Remember the ships log said the apes were smarter and stronger than they thought. If the apes on the ship were, so were the ones back home at Nasa. The apes on the ship evolved to overthrow the spacemen at the same time apes at Nasa evolved to try to overthrow Earth. But they couldn't because it was a whole Planet of the Humans against them, that is until Thade landed and led them out of enslavement to victory. Just like Marky was doing on Planet of the Apes.

2) There is still a ship at the bottom of the lake. Thade escapes the room, regains control, dredges up the second ship and follows Marky. Lands on Planet of the Humans frees his people etc..

Remember when Thade killed those other apes when they told him about the ship in the lake. So he knew it was there. It prolly has auto pilot and if a monkey can do it why can't Thade?

Man do I wish there was a Sweet Monkey Love song.
[Edited by OG- on 08-03-2001]