Ape shall not kill ape. But it’s okay for a chimp go get on a horse and gun down a human. In fact, that sort of thing is encouraged.
Although it is by no means the worst film to come from the long-running Planet of the Apes film series (soon to be an eight-film affair that certainly has its share of lows), Tim Burton’s remake is often hailed as such. When it was first released in July of 2001, reviews were a bit mixed (it holds a surprisingly high 45% on Rotten Tomatoes), but since then, the general cultural consensus seem to have tilted toward infamy. Many people instantly jump to Tim Burton’s film as the sure nadir of the famously campy franchise, holding it up as how not to remake a movie. And this was long before remakes and adaptations became the majority of Hollywood product.
What’s more, people started citing Planet of the Apes as a turning point in Burton’s career, indicating that it was here that he fell off the wagon and started making bad movies. Never mind that his next film was the very good Big Fish, and he would also go on to make Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Frankenweenie, and the underrated Dark Shadows. No. None of that matters. Planet of the Apes sucks in the mind of the public, and that’s that.
Here at Trolling, however, we reach deep into those hate wells, pull out the darkest and the stickiest, and we polish off the vitriol. And, as such, we have exhumed Planet of the Apes from those fathomless hate reservoirs, re-watched it, and discovered something amazing: Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes RULES! It’s a wonderful, wonderful film. Let’s delve in and discover.
The film is oddly paced, and I can’t speak to some of the acting (Estella Warren is certainly not at her best here), but it’s most certainly not the pile of garbage that it gets credit for being. Indeed, this is a pretty darn good, weird-looking, fun-to-watch sci-fi nugget of craziness. It deserves your eye. Watch it again, and I assure you’ll love it.
Until next week, let the hate mail flow.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling here on Crave, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes RULES!
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It Looks Great
Even if Tim Burton makes a bad film, you can be sure that he's going to put an endless amount of creative visual energy into it. As such, each one of his films is awesome to behold, and Planet of the Apes is no exception. The ape makeup, using the best in new makeup technology, is amazing. The elaborate ape costumes are unique and striking. The ape villages look like something apes would have built. Not a frame passes that doesn't dazzle.
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The Ape Acting is Great
The actors who play the apes went through extensive movement and dance training to achieve just the right loping animal gait of chimpanzees. What the actors do is nothing short of amazing. They do exactly what Andy Serkis did, but wearing hefty makeup and costumes. The knuckle-down gorilla run is awesome, and the tilting chimp walk is perfect. The apes strike the perfect balance between intelligent human-like beings and snorting violent animals.
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It's Campy Fun
Planet of the Apes, as a series, has always had an element of camp, and it's easy to see why: The series is about talking apes. There's just something fundamentally silly about Planet of the Apes that cannot be denied, no matter how straight you try to play the material (nice try, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes). Tim Burton played up the clunky, fun, cheesy aspects of the sci-fi, adding cute jokes here and there. The character of Limbo is hilarious, and there are hints of bestiality throughout, thanks to the come-hither ape eyes of Helena Bonham Carter. It's okay to giggle at the film, friends. Tim Burton definitely wanted this to be pretty funny.
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It's About Something
Although the film climaxes with a battle between “good” apes and “bad” apes, this is clearly a film about slavery. Humans are treated like slaves in this world, living in the woods, and kidnapped in droves to be sold off to wealthy ape families. This is nightmarish, of course, but also salient. The humans, although clearly intelligent, are treated badly because, well, they're a lesser species with no soul. In a way, Planet of the Apes is about the Civil War, and how crazy abolitionists and anti-abolitionists probably felt at the time. This is further evidenced by the Abe Lincoln imagery used later in the film. Or maybe it's just about servitude in general and the evils therein. Either way, there's some meat in here.
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It's a Great Homage
Not too many people picked up on this, but Planet of the Apes is not so much an homage to the 1968 original as it is a tribute to the clunky, low-budget sci-fi films of the 1950s. Tim Burton grew up on such movies, and it shows. The hero is a none-too-bright-but-plenty-handsome hero (Mark Wahlberg was perhaps miscast) who wears white and flies into space to rescue his pet chimp. A lot of the campier aspects come from the fact that this film is supposed to feel kind of cheesy. Burton adds his trademark comic/dark edge, but the overriding tone is one of bold, deliberately clunky artificiality. And that's a hard thing to pull off. If you like old sci-fi movies, you'll probably see it.
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About that “Twist”
Indeed, the much hated twist ending starts to make sense when viewed at in the light of the sci-fi homage. It's clear the filmmakers wanted to add an ending that was to rival the ending of the original, so they repurposed a famous American landmark. Does it make sense? Only kind of. Maybe. But given the outrageous weirdness of a planet of talking apes, how much sense can we expect? The shocking image is fun, silly, and plays into the themes of slavery mentioned above. It's not a bad twist ending guys. It's a fun one.
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Ape Helena Bonham Carter is Hot
Helena Bonham Carter is a pretty lady. As an ape, though... something about her...
