Planet Of The Apes

Had this supposed franchise-reviving re-make of the 1968 original been pitched at a sub-teen audience and helmed by some unknown director plucked from television land its simplistic, hackneyed nature would probably pass with little more than expressions of wistful disappointment. As it has an M (15+) rating and is directed by Tim Burton one can only wonder at its dire witlessness.

Although the basic plot-line and moral of the original film is intact, the old characters are gone, the setting is now another planet and the humans can speak. Not in themselves bad changes and the cast, which includes Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter, is a potential draw-card but the film shows not a spark of originality or class in its execution and most of the time asks to be mocked for both its crassly commercial conventionality and its unfulfilled pretences to action-adventure movie standards.

The film ends with an obviously tacked-on set-up for a sequel that on the strength of this does not deserve to ever be made.

FYI: That's an un-credited Charlton Heston, who played the lead in the 1968 version, as General Thade's dying father.

 

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