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Great 'Apes'
[Photo: 20th Century Fox]
In Planet of the Apes, Mark Wahlberg, center, as Capt. Leo Davidson, undertakes a quest to find a missing chimp and in the process unearths another kind of adventure — as leader of a group rebelling against tyrannical apes. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 26, 2001
That cool breeze reviving frazzled summer moviegoers comes courtesy of a planet's worth of apes swinging by. This film is engaging, entertaining and, above all, refreshing.
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Quit worrying about what Tim Burton might do to "re-invent" the 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. We've heard the buzz about late re-shoots and screenplay tweaks, and the print at Tuesday's screening was practically wet from a processing lab.
The movie's finished, and it's as reverent to the source, while being its own creature, as any of Burton's previous films based on comic books and horror conventions. Not exactly a remake, but certainly not a trampling of cherished memories of Charlton Heston, dirty ape paws and the Statue of Liberty. Burton's wise not to mimic and too reflexively creative not to meddle.
Everything is different except the primal appeal of author Pierre Boulle's literary conceit that apes could somehow evolve beyond humans. Losing our top rung on the species ladder always seemed more insidious, more unstoppable, than the nuclear threats of 1950s science fiction. The same tension runs through Burton's film, with a prologue adding another facet to the humans vs. apes theme.
The first film began in the middle of a NASA mission, but this one starts on a space station where Capt. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) trains chimpanzees for space flights. The appearance of an electromagnetic force field leads to the loss of Leo's favorite chimp, Pericles, so he hijacks a spaceship and attempts a rescue. We know what Leo's heading for, so his bond with Pericles adds a dimension missing from the original film.
Leo crashes on a planet in the midst of a human roundup by armored, leaping apes. The most dastardly is General Thade (Tim Roth, one of several unrecognizable actors under Rick Baker's superb makeup effects). Thade hates humans, and that emotion is the core of simian thought here, rather than the academics of the first movie. There's no kindly Dr. Zaius, only a slave-trading orangutan (Paul Giamatti) and assorted brutes like the gorilla Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan).
The lone voice of tolerance belongs to Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), a bleeding-heart liberal of the era. She seems to have a thing for Leo but, aside from a chaste kiss, no interspecies shenanigans occur. The 1968 version took time to contemplate mankind's own savagery in the name of progress. Burton is more concerned with the brutality these apes can inflict, plus rousing revenge in the best Braveheart/Gladiator tradition.
The screenplay by William Broyles, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal makes several clever call-backs to the original film. Heston's memorable line about damned, dirty apes is transferred to another character for a good laugh. Ari is written as an ersatz descendant of Kim Hunter's Zira. There's no Statue of Liberty finale, but with a single crane shot Burton evokes the famous image. The comparable kicker devised by the writers will be hotly debated by sci-fi fans on Internet bulletin boards for weeks to come.
Best of all, Heston shows up briefly as Thade's dying father, and it's cool to see "Taylor" playing for the other side. The scene concludes with a touch that must be Burton's subversive streak emerging while he has the National Rifle Association mouthpiece on the set.
The performances are slightly hampered by either softness of spirit (Wahlberg, Estella Warren) or the sibilant sound of speaking through bulky false teeth (anyone in ape costume). The facial expressions allowed by Baker's elaborate prosthetics are remarkable, especially Giamatti's mugging comic relief. Nothing hides Roth's hamminess. Carter is the only actor who works a variety of ape mannerisms into her role.
Even those quibbles can't prevent Planet of the Apes from being exactly what this mediocre summer movie season needs. Something fresher than dinosaurs and edgier than talking pets and cartoons. Something familiar enough to make us buy tickets, yet original enough to feel the money was well-spent. Burton's movie was running behind schedule, but it's here right on time.
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MOVIE REVIEW
Planet of the Apes
- Grade: B+
- Director: Tim Burton
- Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, Paul Giamatti
- Screenplay: William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
- Rating: PG-13; violence, mild profanity
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