PLANET OF THE APES
March 22nd 2009 21:52
Category: Videos
Based on a novel by: Pierre Boulle
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay by: William Broyles Jnr, Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Producer: Richard D Zanuck
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren & Paul Giamatti
Produced by: Twentieth Century Fox
Released by: Twentieth Century Fox
Running Time: 115 minutes Rating: M 15
Can anyone remember when Mark Wahlberg’s main claim to fame was that he was the lead in a group that went by the moniker of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch? Gee I must be showing my age there with that statement, but Mark has certainly move on career wise staring in various Hollywood blockbusters since then, although I have to confess for me this is the first film I have actually seen him in. Based on a satirical work by the novelist Pierre Boulle ‘Planet of the Apes’ has been something of a fascination for America, the original was made back in 1968 and starred Charlton Heston, he of the Ten Commandments and Ben Hur fame. From there it spawned numerous sequels and eventually ended up becoming a television series starring Roddy McDowell, brother to Malcolm and also known for his role in Fright Night if memory serves my correctly.
So what exactly is Planet of the Apes all about? Well it would seem that Pierre Boulle’s original work upon which this whole thing was based possibly has a bit in common with Animal Farm written by George Orwell, the animal’s revolt and establish themselves as the power in charge. In this case it is the Apes of the movie title, they are the dominant species and humanity exists as savages in the wilderness, a resource to be exploited and made into slaves for the greater benefit of Ape society. Of course one wonders; how did this all happen? What resulted in the Apes becoming dominant within the world and humanity sliding back into the morass of savagery? All is explained in a rather convoluted way – although that is what has occurred on this particular world, things get slightly more bent with the movie ending…
It all begins in deep space strangely enough with the USAF space station Oberon in the year 2029, twenty years from now. Actually writing this I begin to recall a line from the Simpson’s where NASA is trying to improve its ratings and someone says: “Maybe we should tell them all those chimps we sent into space became super intelligent” to which I chimp suddenly replies “No I don’t think we’ll be doing that” in an upper class English accent. Oberon looks like something that could have been spawned by a fusion of Star Trek, 2001 and the Black Hole schools of space vessel design. It is white and pristine, inside and outside, there are no micrometeorites pocking the hull of this baby and you suspect that the entire crew are just as spotless and unmarred as the vessel. It all looks to good to be believed, but this is the launch pad for the events that are to follow.
The Oberon is conducting various missions and observations around the Saturnian system, focusing it seem on some kind of ion storm or other celestial phenomena. It is policy for the Oberon to dispatch a chimpanzee in a capsule to investigate then once its determined that there is no significant risk an actual human is sent forth. Nowadays when they can build a robot to do the job I find it hard to believe that the USAF would bother with a chimpanzee let alone a human at a later stage. Still this is the premise of the plot and thus a chimp, Pericles, is sent forth into the deeps of space to investigate. His pod becomes lost in the vagaries of the phenomena and his trainer and astronaut Captain Leo Davidson decides to embark on an unauthorised rescue attempt to save Pericles. It is at this point that it all goes downhill from there.
Voyaging into the heart of this technicolour light show Leo finds himself crashlanding his pod on a strange and hitherto unknown world with numerous satellites, it is a world that is earth like in its composition but is most assuredly not Earth. It is…cue drum roll please…the Planet of the Apes, a world where the lot of mankind is to slave and toil for the Apes who are the dominant species. And it is here that although Leo’s condition has gone from good to outright bizarre that the same can be said for the storyline. It seems that the production team has taken the whole concept of suspension of disbelief and sailed the USS Nimitz through it along with all the competitors in the 2008 Sydney to Hobart yacht race and a couple of marching bands for good measure. You see it seems that all of the people and apes who are living on this planet are descended from the survivors of the Oberon, yes that’s right the Oberon, the ship that Leo embarked from and which has somehow managed to crash land on the world where he now is years ahead of him.
But wait there’s more…at the closing stages of the film the chimp he set out to rescue, Pericles, shows up and does a perfect four point landing in his pod. So wherefore art thou continuity? How the heck could this all happen, how can you have a series of events suddenly knocked completely out of whack? Somehow I don’t think the production team have a significant grasp of relativity, if you start out on a journey a day before everyone else then you’re not going to arrive after them, so why does Pericles turn up in the dying moments of this film? And how is that the Apes are all walking around talking English, domesticating animals, building societies etc if they come from chimps, gorillas and orangutans that were part of scientific experiments? Have thousands of years passed that has enabled this to occur? Were they given some wonder drug or modification to enable this ascension? The way the story is told it seems as if only a few hundred years have passed. Although there is the idea that apes have always been highly intelligent, they just haven’t revealed it to the humans…
The other thing I have about this flick is if the Apes are capable of creating a meaningful culture and society then why does it ‘ape’ the worst of human society? Why would they go onto repeat the excesses of humanity in forming a new world? Also why would they continue behaving like apes in their mannerisms if they’re meant to have evolved from what they once were? It’s almost like they are simply animals in human clothing and speaking English rather than a species who have bootstrapped themselves upwards. Perhaps the production team are taking a poke at the whole theory of evolution here, a commentary on what some would see as a flawed concept, possibly, although I am more inclined to think that the ramifications of the story have not been well thought out at all. And as for the ending, well what is going on there? It seems as if the makers have been too besotted with a franchise and embarked upon a self indulgent homage. Read a book instead, or go for a walk your time will be better spent.
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay by: William Broyles Jnr, Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Producer: Richard D Zanuck
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren & Paul Giamatti
Produced by: Twentieth Century Fox
Released by: Twentieth Century Fox
Running Time: 115 minutes Rating: M 15
Can anyone remember when Mark Wahlberg’s main claim to fame was that he was the lead in a group that went by the moniker of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch? Gee I must be showing my age there with that statement, but Mark has certainly move on career wise staring in various Hollywood blockbusters since then, although I have to confess for me this is the first film I have actually seen him in. Based on a satirical work by the novelist Pierre Boulle ‘Planet of the Apes’ has been something of a fascination for America, the original was made back in 1968 and starred Charlton Heston, he of the Ten Commandments and Ben Hur fame. From there it spawned numerous sequels and eventually ended up becoming a television series starring Roddy McDowell, brother to Malcolm and also known for his role in Fright Night if memory serves my correctly.
The Oberon is conducting various missions and observations around the Saturnian system, focusing it seem on some kind of ion storm or other celestial phenomena. It is policy for the Oberon to dispatch a chimpanzee in a capsule to investigate then once its determined that there is no significant risk an actual human is sent forth. Nowadays when they can build a robot to do the job I find it hard to believe that the USAF would bother with a chimpanzee let alone a human at a later stage. Still this is the premise of the plot and thus a chimp, Pericles, is sent forth into the deeps of space to investigate. His pod becomes lost in the vagaries of the phenomena and his trainer and astronaut Captain Leo Davidson decides to embark on an unauthorised rescue attempt to save Pericles. It is at this point that it all goes downhill from there.
Voyaging into the heart of this technicolour light show Leo finds himself crashlanding his pod on a strange and hitherto unknown world with numerous satellites, it is a world that is earth like in its composition but is most assuredly not Earth. It is…cue drum roll please…the Planet of the Apes, a world where the lot of mankind is to slave and toil for the Apes who are the dominant species. And it is here that although Leo’s condition has gone from good to outright bizarre that the same can be said for the storyline. It seems that the production team has taken the whole concept of suspension of disbelief and sailed the USS Nimitz through it along with all the competitors in the 2008 Sydney to Hobart yacht race and a couple of marching bands for good measure. You see it seems that all of the people and apes who are living on this planet are descended from the survivors of the Oberon, yes that’s right the Oberon, the ship that Leo embarked from and which has somehow managed to crash land on the world where he now is years ahead of him.
But wait there’s more…at the closing stages of the film the chimp he set out to rescue, Pericles, shows up and does a perfect four point landing in his pod. So wherefore art thou continuity? How the heck could this all happen, how can you have a series of events suddenly knocked completely out of whack? Somehow I don’t think the production team have a significant grasp of relativity, if you start out on a journey a day before everyone else then you’re not going to arrive after them, so why does Pericles turn up in the dying moments of this film? And how is that the Apes are all walking around talking English, domesticating animals, building societies etc if they come from chimps, gorillas and orangutans that were part of scientific experiments? Have thousands of years passed that has enabled this to occur? Were they given some wonder drug or modification to enable this ascension? The way the story is told it seems as if only a few hundred years have passed. Although there is the idea that apes have always been highly intelligent, they just haven’t revealed it to the humans…
The other thing I have about this flick is if the Apes are capable of creating a meaningful culture and society then why does it ‘ape’ the worst of human society? Why would they go onto repeat the excesses of humanity in forming a new world? Also why would they continue behaving like apes in their mannerisms if they’re meant to have evolved from what they once were? It’s almost like they are simply animals in human clothing and speaking English rather than a species who have bootstrapped themselves upwards. Perhaps the production team are taking a poke at the whole theory of evolution here, a commentary on what some would see as a flawed concept, possibly, although I am more inclined to think that the ramifications of the story have not been well thought out at all. And as for the ending, well what is going on there? It seems as if the makers have been too besotted with a franchise and embarked upon a self indulgent homage. Read a book instead, or go for a walk your time will be better spent.
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