Outer Space on Film Blogathon – Planet of the Apes (2001)

This is my first of three reviews for the ‘Outer Space on Film’ Blogathon being run by Debra over at Moon in Gemini.

Tnx for letting me take part!

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“The young ones make great pets. Just make sure you get rid of them before they mature. Believe me, the last thing you want is a human teenager running around your house.” – Limbo

Number of Times Seen – Twice (11 Aug 2001 and 8 Apr 2018)

Brief Synopsis – An astronaut on a deep space mission crash lands on a planet where the apes are the dominant species and the humans are their slaves.

My Take on it – This is a film that probably should never have been made.

Back in the early part of the Century, Tim Burton was still on the top of his game and the idea that he could re-imagine such a classic film series was a great idea.

Unfortunately, the execution of this reboot just doesn’t work at all and comes across as being too campy instead of a poignant look at society.

This film is really terrible!

Very little of it makes sense and none of the actors (and there are some great ones here) manage to do anything substantial with what they are given.

The makeup used here is better than the original franchise, but now that we have seen what could be done using CGI, this looks also prehistoric and archaic.

Burton claims that the studio mucked around too much with his ideas and that’s why the film is an enigma, but who knows the real reason.

The main point tho is that this is a film that can easily be skipped over.

Bottom Line – Terrible re-imagination of the series. The plot feels quiet silly and the acting isn’t anything to really rave about. The fact that the creatures are all created using makeup makes it seem more realistic than the original film, yet still no where near as good as the CGI effects on the recent additions to this franchise.  Would have expected more from someone like Burton, but he has claimed that the studio never let him make what he really wanted to create and that’s why this film is so bad.  Skip it!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – One of the things Rick Baker enjoyed doing, was making himself up as an ape, and scaring people at a drive-in theater showing the original Planet of the Apes (1968). (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)

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