Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes (2001) Part 13

Estella Warren as the pointless eye-candy

Michael Clarke Duncan as Attar

Charlton Heston as Zaius

Lisa Marie as Nova

From the "Tim Burton Collective" website:

In 2001, Tim Burton followed up his re-imagining of one classic story (Sleepy Hollow), with another re-imagining, this time of the sci-fi cinematic landmark, Planet of the Apes. Burton's film took the premise of the 1968 original film and novel by Bridge on the River Kwai author Pierre Boulle, and ran with it. With the film, Burton wanted to take a new look at old material; the results, however, were generally not perceived to be up to par with Burton's previous work, despite the inclusion of some thrilling action sequences and one hell of a surprise twist ending.

Burton's film included various nods and homage to the original film, but told a very different story. Gone are the themes and undertones present in the original film in favour of a more straightforward action-adventure flick of the highest and slickest Hollywood calibre.

The original film's intriguing premise of having human actors portray apes was one-upped in Burton's film with the aid of some of the most incredible make-up effects in motion picture history. Crafted by make-up legend Rick Baker, the anthropomorphic ape effects were nothing short of stunning, entailing a detail and fluidity in the facial contortions of the actors behind the make-up, such as Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter, that lent to the overall believability and creepiness of the effects. Besides just the make-up work, the actors genuinely seemed to get into their roles and this palpable effort is one of the film's more entertaining aspects.

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes is above all else a slick work of pop-corn filmmaking that would make the likes of Steven Spielberg or James Cameron proud, and the film does bring up many subjects of alienation, and equality (among others); however, it is also a polarizing work by a true creative force in a town known more for squelching a creative vision than nurturing it, especially  at the level Burton has been working at for so many years.

Joe Cortez 2004

(Spelling mistakes corrected by Archives Of The Apes)