Where should I start? The hype for this movie came out months before its release and generated a lot of interest, including mine. Mind you I've never really seen the original movie, at least not all of it. But from the promos and interviews, this was Tim Burton's version of the movie, which was basically a bit more up-to-date, realistic, and cutting edge. But I couldn't help but wonder what or who would allow the ending they chose to be shown. Let me warn you that there may be spoilers in this review.
The basic premise to this movie revolves around a scientist (Mark Wahlberg) getting stranded on a planet years into the future. The situation arises because of a strange anomaly they encounter in space and at the time, humans were using chimps as test pilots to send into unknown or high-risk situations. Their test pilot was sent in to examine the anomaly (which was to do nothing more than to do a fly-by) and suddenly vanished. Wahlberg's character, being the softhearted scientist, against wishes flew in to rescue the test pilot and himself disappears only to reappear hundreds of years into the future to crash land on a strange planet. He discovers very quickly that humans are not the dominant species on this planet but apes are and he is quickly rounded up to be a slave. His only driving goal from that moment on is to escape and somehow get back to his crewmates.
To be honest, the storyline isn't very strong, nor is it overly intelligent. The audience is given a very basic premise and is told to go along with it. However, if it weren't for the ending, I think a lot of people wouldn't have minded. There are little things throughout the movie that make you wonder how it's possible that something could happen. One of the major ones is that in the future on this strange planet, apes have evolved into intelligent speech cable creatures. But they allegedly came from the science station that Wahlberg's character came from as a result of them coming to search for him and crash landing on this planet. However, the science station was using chimps as their test pilots so where did all these apes come from?? As well, there are humans on this planet, which the movie at one point indicates that the entire crew of the science station was killed by the chimps when they turned on them. Where did all these humans come from and the horses?? Yes there are horses! It seems for the sake of making this movie they made a lot of assumptions and conveniences but the audience is not that dumb. They will pick it out and they will remember when the sequel comes out. There's no doubt about the sequel. The ending was left in such a way that a sequel would be created.
Was there anything I liked about this movie? Well they did remain accurate on ape movements and that element created a sense of fear and menace that the apes in the original movie didn't quite have. The make-up and special effects were pretty good but then Tim Burton has always been good at those areas.
Overall I wasn't overly impressed. The movie was acceptable up until the ending and after what I saw for an ending, it kind of ruined everything prior to that. It sounds like I'm being harsh but if you don't believe me, go ahead and see this movie. Just don't write back to me complaining about it because I warned you. On a scale of 1 10, I give it a 5. I thought it could have been much better. Not enough time spent on developing a reasonable and logical plot line.
The basic premise to this movie revolves around a scientist (Mark Wahlberg) getting stranded on a planet years into the future. The situation arises because of a strange anomaly they encounter in space and at the time, humans were using chimps as test pilots to send into unknown or high-risk situations. Their test pilot was sent in to examine the anomaly (which was to do nothing more than to do a fly-by) and suddenly vanished. Wahlberg's character, being the softhearted scientist, against wishes flew in to rescue the test pilot and himself disappears only to reappear hundreds of years into the future to crash land on a strange planet. He discovers very quickly that humans are not the dominant species on this planet but apes are and he is quickly rounded up to be a slave. His only driving goal from that moment on is to escape and somehow get back to his crewmates.
To be honest, the storyline isn't very strong, nor is it overly intelligent. The audience is given a very basic premise and is told to go along with it. However, if it weren't for the ending, I think a lot of people wouldn't have minded. There are little things throughout the movie that make you wonder how it's possible that something could happen. One of the major ones is that in the future on this strange planet, apes have evolved into intelligent speech cable creatures. But they allegedly came from the science station that Wahlberg's character came from as a result of them coming to search for him and crash landing on this planet. However, the science station was using chimps as their test pilots so where did all these apes come from?? As well, there are humans on this planet, which the movie at one point indicates that the entire crew of the science station was killed by the chimps when they turned on them. Where did all these humans come from and the horses?? Yes there are horses! It seems for the sake of making this movie they made a lot of assumptions and conveniences but the audience is not that dumb. They will pick it out and they will remember when the sequel comes out. There's no doubt about the sequel. The ending was left in such a way that a sequel would be created.
Was there anything I liked about this movie? Well they did remain accurate on ape movements and that element created a sense of fear and menace that the apes in the original movie didn't quite have. The make-up and special effects were pretty good but then Tim Burton has always been good at those areas.
Overall I wasn't overly impressed. The movie was acceptable up until the ending and after what I saw for an ending, it kind of ruined everything prior to that. It sounds like I'm being harsh but if you don't believe me, go ahead and see this movie. Just don't write back to me complaining about it because I warned you. On a scale of 1 10, I give it a 5. I thought it could have been much better. Not enough time spent on developing a reasonable and logical plot line.