Those damn, dirty apes are back in Tim Burton's "reimagining" of Planet Of The Apes. The time is 2029. Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is stationed aboard the research space station Oberon where he works closely with the lab's chimps. When one of them is shot out in a pod to investigate a space storm and vanishes, Davidson becomes somewhat upset. Against his superior officers orders, he heads out to find his simian friend.

Faster than you can say, "Hail to the Chimp!" Leo's ship is whisked into the storm and winds up crash-landing on a planet run by; you got it, taking simians. They care very little for the human race, which are either used as slaves or treated as outcasts. Davidson is captured and put into slavery, but soon escapes. With the help of an ape "human activist" named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), Davidson and a few other humans he was imprisoned with manage to escape Ape City and head out to the desert, where Davidson hopes to rendezvous with a rescue ship from the Oberon. Giving chase to the group is Thade (Tim Roth), a savage chimp who leads the ape armies and believes that the only good human is a dead one.

The screenplay by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal has just enough in it to stretch out to two hours. The human characters are one-dimensional and rather flat while, not surprisingly, the simian folk have been far better developed. As with the 1968 original, there are statements to be made about race relations here and there, but what was inventive 33 years ago now seems to be nothing more than a public service announcement meant to fill up space between set pieces. That space and time could have better served the film by explaining fleshing out the humans, ironing out the plot holes or setting up a more coherent conclusion to the movie.

Thankfully, Tim Burton has had experience in making decent films hindered with lacking screenplays. His directing here may not be up to the level of the greatness of his films Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands or Batman Returns, but he does manage to evoke a nostalgic feeling in the viewer that they are watching one of those Grade-B science fiction films from the 1960s and 70s that were filled with cheesy dialogue, paper-thin stories and Hollywood's beautiful people running around very obvious soundstages, chased by thespians overacting in costumes. All of that is delivered here with a nice degree of competency from Burton, but if 20th Century Fox had the balls to allow him free creative reign (and a production schedule longer than eight months), I believe that this would have been an Apes to remember.

Mark Wahlberg tries hard to make a convincing hero, but he is given nothing to work with here. Estella Warren, as his supposed love interest, sure does look great in that loincloth but I'm still not sure if she can act. Helena Bonham Carter, however, turns in a solid performance as Ari, an ape with a conscience and a heart. Roth's turn as Thade is strictly one-note (psychotic), but that one note is all that is needed to succeed here. Paul Giamatti, as an orangutan slave dealer who winds up helping the heroes, delivers his comic relief perfectly, while Michael Clarke Duncan and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa are also quite good as ape generals new and old, respectively. Perhaps being under Rick Baker's magnificent makeup brings out the best in the cast or perhaps they just had more to work with character wise (which might explain why it isn't called Planet Of The Humans), but these five actors really rise to the occasion. Also, keep an eye out for Charlton Heston in a very funny cameo.

Foremost amongst the technical brilliance is the makeup by Baker. I hate using the term genius, but in his area of expertise, the term is rightly earned. His work is so convincing that after about five minutes I began to forget what the actors looked like underneath. Philippe Rousselot's cinematography is beautiful, as is the costume work of Colleen Atwood and Rick Heinrichs' production design. Danny Elfman, delivers a solid orchestra score to back the action.

Despite a rather lacking screenplay chock full of plot holes and one-dimensional humans, Burton and company manage to deliver an entertaining two hours reminiscent of those campy sci-fi flicks we used to watch on television when we were kids.

Taken on its own terms, this new version of Planet Of The Apes does succeed in entertaining the viewer despite its messy narrative structure. It may not be in the same ballpark as the 1968 original, but it is a thousand times better than the four putrid sequels and two television shows that that film spawned.

share:  Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more

from the archive Star Trek Meryl Streep INTERVIEW Slumdog Millionaire