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With “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” coming out this August, I thought it would be a good time to explore the series before the prequel comes out. Plus the trailer has made me very interested in the story of the Planet of the Apes series especially since I have never seen any of the films yet. So I present the newest classic section where I will review all 5 films plus the Tim Burton remake. So here it is, get your Halloween ape mask ready because its time for “Review of the Planet of the Apes.”
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Starting off the series is an adaptation staring Charlton Heston, who plays an astronaut who travels at near light speed, which causes them to leap ahead 2006 years into the future while they only age 18 months. His ship crash-lands on an unknown planet. So Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his crew go to find out where they are and try to survive the unknown planet. Eventually they are captured by an ape culture that can talk like humans. In this planet humans cannot talk and are treated like animals, so Taylor must uncover the truth to why Apes are more evolved then man on this planet, unfortunately almost everyone knows the ending by now. The film creates a great world that really makes you believe you are on another planet. The real only complaint is nothing the film did, and that was I watched this film in the wrong decade. Its much like in Empire Strikes Back, and the big reveal happens, everyone now a days knows about it, so it would have been great to see this film when it was originally released. But back to the film, it’s concept and the film really does explore it very well, its not like most films that have a great concept but just tell a regular story with it. This film fully understands its concept and takes advantage of it every step of the way, which really makes the audience feel invested in the characters. The simplicity of the setting is great too; it almost feels more like a mystery then just a normal adventure film. There isn’t a lot of action and whenever there is, its pretty simple but it works so well in this film. On little complaint about this film is the camera would stop on an image to zoom into something particular. It just seemed like a waste of time, and stops the film because you already know what your suppose to be looking at, you don’t need a zoom it tell the audience, “do you get it.” Charlton Heston makes for an interesting character as he represents the cocky attitude that the human race has, however I feel that he over does it in some scenes. But other then that, I really enjoyed this film, and I can easily watch it over and over again. I see why this is a classic sci-fi film, but lets see if its sequels can keep up. Next in the series, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”
Final Rating: 4.5/5
Final Rating: 4.5/5
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
The second film in this franchise takes place immediately after the events of the first film. Taylor (Charlton Heston) and Nova (Linda Harrison) start their journey into the “forbidden zone”, while a rescue space ship from the past takes the same path Taylor took, crash lands on the planet. Only one astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus) survives the crash, and starts to search for Taylor. Back to Taylor and Nova, some mysterious events happen and Taylor disappears leaving Nova behind. She heads back to the ape colony where she meets up with Brent. Back on the ape colony, the military plan an attack on whatever is in the forbidden zone. So Brent and Nova must find Taylor and protect any kind of life that lives in the forbidden zone. The film tries to be more complex then the original but one thing it fails to do is uncover more about how the apes took over the planet from the humans. Also, this film is just sillier then the original, Brent and Nova end up finding a city of humans that have psychic abilities. The film could have made it very interesting on how they got their abilities, but the film just skips over its origins. Also, the way they use their powers just looks silly too. I blame some bad direction in this film. The first film had a connection to Taylor and the two scientist apes that helped him. This one lacked that, as the characters where just going through the emotions. In the first one it was a mystery as you tried to find out where Taylor is, this is just a very lame rescue mission that doesn’t play off of the first one. I did enjoy some elements of the film, I did like the part the gorillas going off the destroy any forms of live in the “forbidden zone,” but with that I felt they could of gone deeper into that story. As well, the whole rescue mission was pretty interesting; the only part for me where the film falls apart is the story with the humans with psychic powers. It just seemed shoe horned in and doesn’t add to the continuity, as well, it just seemed so damn silly. Overall, a good attempt of a sequel, but really needed more focus and more character development.
Final Rating: 2.5/5
Final Rating: 2.5/5
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
I will admit, after some thinking I realized that I reviewed the previous film “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” a little too high, so it’s now changed to 2.5/5 because this film is MUCH better then “Beneath.” This film follows the events from the previous film as Cornelius and Zira (the two ape doctor’s that helped Taylor and Brent in the previous two films) fix up Taylor’s crashed spaceship and fly it to earths past, 2 years after Taylor left earth. Zira and Cornelius become instant celebrites because they are the only animals that can talk, however Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden) feels that the two apes are a threat to the human race and lobbies to have them executed. Much like how Dr. Zaius, from the first two films, felt that the human’s were a threat to the ape race. Again, this film is far better then “Beneath”, because it gets rid of all the silly aspects and just stuck to a more simple film that is more of a look at how society treats animals, instead of unexplained sillyness. However, the film does stop still in the middle, as Zira and Cornelius became celebrities and get a life of luxury. However the film picks back up quickly as Dr. Otto Hasslein finds out more about the future. The film explains more on how the apes started their revolution while still leaving some mystery. The film looks into how humans mistreat animals by running science experiments and looks at human’s hostility, which will eventually become the reason for our demise. It looks at these two themes while never hitting you over the head with it. It was very minimal, as the film focused on Zira and Cornelius’s story. My only complaint about the film is that it would have been nice to see how the apes seems to be a threat to the humans. It is explained but its very weak and just seems like misunderstanding. Also, there really isn’t much of a character arc in this one compared to the first. Zira and Cornelius are helped by two human scientist and both were very willing to help, the first film had speculation, this didn’t. Overall, this film is pretty good, not as great as the first but much better then the second film.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
Final Rating: 3.5/5
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
The saga continues with a follow up to the previous film “Escape from the Planet of the Apes” that focus more on Doctor Zira and Cornelius’s child, Caesar many years after the events of “Escape.” In this film, the humans have forced apes to become slaves in order to prevent them from taking over earth in the future as warned by Zira and Cornelius. Caesar under the care of a circus owner, Armando (Ricardo Montalban) that helped Zira and Cornelius in the previous film has protected Caesar from being killed by the humans as they know there is a English speaking ape that is alive and can possible become the leader of the apes and take over the planet. With Armando in police custody, Caesar becomes aware of the brutal act against the apes and tries to revolt against the humans.
The film has a good foundation of a story that feels like a prequel but a different universe prequel because Caesar is born because of Zira and Cornelius coming back from the future. It’s an interesting idea with having the apes revolt instead of how it was originally implied of how the apes took over. In the first, it’s implied that because of human’s obsession with war that we would eventually kill the human race and leave it so that apes can evolve from us and take over the planet, but here it shows the apes creating a revolution in order to punish humans for their behavior. However, there were many parts of this film that seemed silly and a bit of a cop out. First, is its explained that all the cat’s and dog’s in the world have been killed due to a disease. This kinda seems a little too much like a coincidence and just seems down right silly. Why do all the dogs and cat’s have to be killed in this film in order to have apes as slaves? Also the ending leaves you scratching your head, however it does lead to a sequel instead of having a good finish to the series. Another thing that bugged me was a shoehorned in love story with Caesar that doesn’t have any purpose. The film just generally suffers from lack of direction, the actors are terrible, and the film is all over the map. The film wants to focus on being about a revolution but it could have been done so much better if only there was a clearer direction with it, and might of helped if the director and writer had researched revolutions to help the direction of the film better. The acting isn’t good as the main villain is very weak; also the film has some terrible voice dubbing that takes away from the realism that the previous films had and the production value in this film is much less then the previous as the film feels cheaper.
Overall, this film is a good idea that really could have been done so much better. I like the idea and the way they took the series with this film but it just missed on so many levels.
Final Rating: 2/5
The film has a good foundation of a story that feels like a prequel but a different universe prequel because Caesar is born because of Zira and Cornelius coming back from the future. It’s an interesting idea with having the apes revolt instead of how it was originally implied of how the apes took over. In the first, it’s implied that because of human’s obsession with war that we would eventually kill the human race and leave it so that apes can evolve from us and take over the planet, but here it shows the apes creating a revolution in order to punish humans for their behavior. However, there were many parts of this film that seemed silly and a bit of a cop out. First, is its explained that all the cat’s and dog’s in the world have been killed due to a disease. This kinda seems a little too much like a coincidence and just seems down right silly. Why do all the dogs and cat’s have to be killed in this film in order to have apes as slaves? Also the ending leaves you scratching your head, however it does lead to a sequel instead of having a good finish to the series. Another thing that bugged me was a shoehorned in love story with Caesar that doesn’t have any purpose. The film just generally suffers from lack of direction, the actors are terrible, and the film is all over the map. The film wants to focus on being about a revolution but it could have been done so much better if only there was a clearer direction with it, and might of helped if the director and writer had researched revolutions to help the direction of the film better. The acting isn’t good as the main villain is very weak; also the film has some terrible voice dubbing that takes away from the realism that the previous films had and the production value in this film is much less then the previous as the film feels cheaper.
Overall, this film is a good idea that really could have been done so much better. I like the idea and the way they took the series with this film but it just missed on so many levels.
Final Rating: 2/5
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
The final film in the original franchise is actually quite a let down and there is one big clue to the reason for this lack-luster final film, Money. A trend in this series is that every film has a smaller budget then the previous film, and by the time the fifth movie came around, there was barely and money to make the final conclusion worth while. The whole film just seems cheap, and you can even tell that the producers had a hand in the script to say, “Take out this set piece because that will cost to much.” When the film starts, you feel like you skipped like 30 minutes because the film takes place 10 years from the evens of the fourth film. Also, this film could have been much more epic, but it felt the need to tie in so much from the previous films when it didn’t need to with the alternate universe (much like the most recent Star Trek film).
Like I said, the film takes place 10 years after the events of the fourth film, but that story is told in a big flashback from 600 years in the future, where a ape teacher is telling a history class the story of Caesar (the main ape in the fourth film). In the flashback it shows Caesar, now the leader of the last colony of humans and apes, as Caesar tries to bring peace between the human race and the ape race. However, a small ape revolt is starting within the apes that don’t want to share a colony and be equal to humans. Caesar now must keep the peace as well as find out more about what the future has in store from his parents past.
Again, the main problem with this film is that it was suppose to be a big epic final conclusion that answered the question, who will win, humans or apes, but due to greedy executives that wanted to make the film for cheap to maximize profits, ended up making this film feel like a waste of time. The film also just feels lazy too, as there is no explaining of how they became the last colony and also a lazy conflict. Caesar is suppose to be the leader of a revolution, but comes off not really knowing what he wants and when he does know that he wants to live in peace with humans, he doesn’t really try hard enough to make peace, he lets a leader of a revolution push him around. Also, this film brings back the mutant humans from the second film just to have it tie in with the series. I feel like this film is suppose to be an alternate universe because Caesar wasn’t there in the normal timeline, so the writers could of really made something good and unique, but instead made the film quick and cheap. I know, it sounds like this film really pissed me off, and it kind of did, but its not a terrible film, I just feel like there is so much wasted potential. I didn’t hate it, but I just don’t find it that good. Overall, it’s a very lack-luster film.
Final Rating: 1.5/5
Like I said, the film takes place 10 years after the events of the fourth film, but that story is told in a big flashback from 600 years in the future, where a ape teacher is telling a history class the story of Caesar (the main ape in the fourth film). In the flashback it shows Caesar, now the leader of the last colony of humans and apes, as Caesar tries to bring peace between the human race and the ape race. However, a small ape revolt is starting within the apes that don’t want to share a colony and be equal to humans. Caesar now must keep the peace as well as find out more about what the future has in store from his parents past.
Again, the main problem with this film is that it was suppose to be a big epic final conclusion that answered the question, who will win, humans or apes, but due to greedy executives that wanted to make the film for cheap to maximize profits, ended up making this film feel like a waste of time. The film also just feels lazy too, as there is no explaining of how they became the last colony and also a lazy conflict. Caesar is suppose to be the leader of a revolution, but comes off not really knowing what he wants and when he does know that he wants to live in peace with humans, he doesn’t really try hard enough to make peace, he lets a leader of a revolution push him around. Also, this film brings back the mutant humans from the second film just to have it tie in with the series. I feel like this film is suppose to be an alternate universe because Caesar wasn’t there in the normal timeline, so the writers could of really made something good and unique, but instead made the film quick and cheap. I know, it sounds like this film really pissed me off, and it kind of did, but its not a terrible film, I just feel like there is so much wasted potential. I didn’t hate it, but I just don’t find it that good. Overall, it’s a very lack-luster film.
Final Rating: 1.5/5
Planet of the Apes (2001)
This film, I was most interested in watching because I’ve heard it’s very different from the original and kinda weird. I will admit right off the bat, I hate this film and it left me angry that it ruined a classic that is the original. Right from the beginning this film is terrible and Tim Burton takes what’s so good about the original and takes a big shit on it. I mean right from the beginning, even the classic line “take your stinkin paws of me you damn dirty ape” is ruined. Just every aspect of this film was just so bad in comparison to the original that I’m surprised, because it can’t be that hard to f**k up. This film just feels like scenes that Tim Burton wanted, but the overall story was nonexistent, and the ending is the biggest WTF moment I have ever scene because its so out of left field and your wondering, “how does that work?”
The film is about Leo Davidson (Marky-Mark Wahlberg) who trains monkeys to complete missions in space. On one mission his favorite monkey (Pericles) becomes lost in a storm, so Leo chases the monkey into the storm where he ends up crash landing on a unknown planet that is run by monkeys as humans are used as slaves. Leo befriends Ari (Helena Bonham Carter, also this films version of Dr. Zira) who doesn’t approve of the way humans are treated. Leo must break free and create a rebellion with humans against the apes and General Thade (Tim Roth) to free the humans from slavery.
The whole plot of this film is a big mess and is totally different from the original. The first big change is that all humans can still talk. That was such a big plot point in the original as that made the protagonist stand out from the other humans. The acting is over the top and bad, with all the apes still acting like apes instead of like humans. In the original the apes seemed like humans just the only difference was there fur, in this film, every ape growls, climbs and jumps really far which makes their performance so over the top. The film literally took everything that was great about the story of the original and tried way to hard to make it something that it shouldn’t be. You can tell Tim Burton really didn’t know what he was doing with this film, as it’s just a complete mess with way too many themes going on. The ending, dear god, is just plain stupid and doesn’t work or make any god damn sense. I really hated this film as it did nothing in keeping the essence of the original and just totally fails at trying to do something different or original that makes sense.
Final Rating: 1/5
The film is about Leo Davidson (Marky-Mark Wahlberg) who trains monkeys to complete missions in space. On one mission his favorite monkey (Pericles) becomes lost in a storm, so Leo chases the monkey into the storm where he ends up crash landing on a unknown planet that is run by monkeys as humans are used as slaves. Leo befriends Ari (Helena Bonham Carter, also this films version of Dr. Zira) who doesn’t approve of the way humans are treated. Leo must break free and create a rebellion with humans against the apes and General Thade (Tim Roth) to free the humans from slavery.
The whole plot of this film is a big mess and is totally different from the original. The first big change is that all humans can still talk. That was such a big plot point in the original as that made the protagonist stand out from the other humans. The acting is over the top and bad, with all the apes still acting like apes instead of like humans. In the original the apes seemed like humans just the only difference was there fur, in this film, every ape growls, climbs and jumps really far which makes their performance so over the top. The film literally took everything that was great about the story of the original and tried way to hard to make it something that it shouldn’t be. You can tell Tim Burton really didn’t know what he was doing with this film, as it’s just a complete mess with way too many themes going on. The ending, dear god, is just plain stupid and doesn’t work or make any god damn sense. I really hated this film as it did nothing in keeping the essence of the original and just totally fails at trying to do something different or original that makes sense.
Final Rating: 1/5
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Before I start this review, lets all pretend that the Tim Burton remake never happened. Well thankfully this remake/prequel/reboot never touches or references that film but instead focuses on the original series instead. The film is about Will Rodman (James Franco) who is a scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, as he is driven to find a cure for his father (John Lithgow). He test the cure on an ape, Bright Eyes who goes crazy one day and is put down. James Franco doubting his work finds out that the reason Bright Eyes went crazy was to protect her newborn baby, Caesar (Andy Serkis). Will takes Caesar home and raises it with him and his father. Will finds out that Caesar has the cure in him because it was passed down from his mother, which allows Caesar to become smarter then normal apes, as Will tries to prefect his cure, Caesar must learn about what the real world is like for his ape kind.
The one bad thing about prequels is that we already know what’s going to happen in a sense, hell its even in the title, but this film manages to keep you guessing and surprises you throughout the entire film. Also one thing that I love about this film is that its about Caesar and not about humans, there is human sub-plots and connections but its not the driving force of the film, it centers around Caesar who has a big arc in his character based on his surroundings and observation. The CGI apes looks amazing and the facial expressions seem real and genuine which really makes for some heart breaking scenes. Andy Serkis who is best known for his role as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings franchise and plays King Kong in Peter Jackson’s remake and he really does an amazing job playing Caesar. The people from Weta Digital, who did the Lord of the Rings and Avatar and many more effects driven film, should also get a lot of credit because the make the effects about getting emotion and being true to a character instead of just make pretty pictures. Also, the humans do a good job in having a good subplot that ties into the story of the apes taking over, it just seemed like everything works together to make one solid film. I was expecting this to not be a good film as I was a little scared they might pull a Tim Burton and go off in left field but this really does a good job of telling its own story while staying true to the original series. If I had to make a complaint it was that I felt that John Lithgow did really portray a old man with Alzheimer’s that well and his acting didn’t seem genuine, but it’s a small complaint and its not even the main story so its forgettable.
Overall, it’s a great film that is very surprising and emotional, as well as keeps true to the original series while being able to do its own thing and make its own movie. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I cant wait for a sequel to this film. Some people say this is kind of a remake of the 4th film in the original series, “Conquest” which leaves a sequel to be much like “Battle” which I felt was a very cheap and weak film, so I really cant wait for them to remake that film as they did an amazing job with this film.
Final Rating: 5/5
The one bad thing about prequels is that we already know what’s going to happen in a sense, hell its even in the title, but this film manages to keep you guessing and surprises you throughout the entire film. Also one thing that I love about this film is that its about Caesar and not about humans, there is human sub-plots and connections but its not the driving force of the film, it centers around Caesar who has a big arc in his character based on his surroundings and observation. The CGI apes looks amazing and the facial expressions seem real and genuine which really makes for some heart breaking scenes. Andy Serkis who is best known for his role as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings franchise and plays King Kong in Peter Jackson’s remake and he really does an amazing job playing Caesar. The people from Weta Digital, who did the Lord of the Rings and Avatar and many more effects driven film, should also get a lot of credit because the make the effects about getting emotion and being true to a character instead of just make pretty pictures. Also, the humans do a good job in having a good subplot that ties into the story of the apes taking over, it just seemed like everything works together to make one solid film. I was expecting this to not be a good film as I was a little scared they might pull a Tim Burton and go off in left field but this really does a good job of telling its own story while staying true to the original series. If I had to make a complaint it was that I felt that John Lithgow did really portray a old man with Alzheimer’s that well and his acting didn’t seem genuine, but it’s a small complaint and its not even the main story so its forgettable.
Overall, it’s a great film that is very surprising and emotional, as well as keeps true to the original series while being able to do its own thing and make its own movie. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I cant wait for a sequel to this film. Some people say this is kind of a remake of the 4th film in the original series, “Conquest” which leaves a sequel to be much like “Battle” which I felt was a very cheap and weak film, so I really cant wait for them to remake that film as they did an amazing job with this film.
Final Rating: 5/5
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