They were only a slight improvement, IMHO, over the original Kim Hunter/Roddy MacDowell versions. Nowhere near what I expected from today’s special effects. “2001” had better ape-men.
The worst of the movie for me, after I realized the director had no commitment to logic (not even sci-fi logic), was the little ape-like behaviors they threw in every so often. It was like the actors would be doing a scene and somebody off-camera would hold up a sign – “REMEMBER YOU ARE MONKEYS!” and then they’d shriek or sniff somebody or something. Christopher Lambert did a much better job (without a prosthetic snout) in “Greystoke”. I’m not so sure that nameless idiot who played Tarzan in the Bo Derek version didn’t do it better.
And the flying was nice. I didn’t know apes could fly. Should this be re-released as “Crouching Chimp, Hidden Human”?
Why didn’t the humans talk at first? We learn later that all the humans can talk, not just Charlton Heston. What was that all about?
Was there some subtle racism in the ape species? As near as I could tell all the gorillas African-American (so to speak) and the chimps were mostly white folks. (I know the allegedly sexy senator’s wife was an exception. And that one of the apes (I never figured out which) was Japanese.)
The only thing that was more logical in this version was the existence of multiple species of intelligent apes. Assuming the Oberon carried different sorts of apes, genetic engineering could do the trick. Evolution could not. That English would remain unchanged, or even intelligible, after “thousands of years” is, of course, not tenable.
Oh, and I assumed the ending was just thrown in for shock value. It didn’t occur to me it was a setup for a sequel. Please, please, please, please, please don’t let there be sequel!
I liked the ending. It was in keeping with the novel. In the novel, the astronaut returns to earth to find the apes flying aircraft, etc and decides to high-tail it off planet.
I thought the ape-city was pretty cool, with the barber shop, the old chimp with the wig and dentures, the gang of teen-agers in leather jackets. I really liked Heston’s character saying “Damn them all to hell”.
Overall, I ws disappointed with the film. Like all Burton films, it was visually beautiful. I found the plot too much ‘summer action blockbuster’ for my tastes. The species-specific job specialization didn’t strike me as racist either. In fact, I thought this version didn’t address racism nearly as much as the 1968 version.
Let me guess: It’s been a while since you’ve read the novel.
The way it actually ends is like this:
SPOILER SPACE FOR ANYBODY PLANNING TO READ THE BOOK
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SPOILERS:[sub]
The novel begins with two spacefarers finding a message in a bottle. This message is from the guy who was stranded on Apeworld; the body of the book is his first-person story. Finally, at the end of his story, it describes him landing on Earth. A truck pulls up to him. The last sentence: “The driver is a gorilla.” (This may vary depending on translation; the original is in French.) End of his story, period, that’s all. Nothing about aircraft, nothing about leaving the planet. But then, after that, there’s an epilogue where we return to the original two spacefarers who found the message. They dismiss it as implausible fantasy, because, as it turns out, they’re chimps themselves, and they don’t believe a mindless, dirty human could have had such an adventure, let alone write it down.
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END SPOILER SPACE.
Call it a nitpick if you want, but since I actually took the time to slog through the book (I didn’t think it was very good), I figure the reward for my effort is being able to bring my knowledge to bear in some way.
It is established that the apes on the Oberon were genetically “enhanced” so to increase their intelligence.
The most obvious way that this would be approached would be to create a human/simian hybrid.
The lady vet was asked by MM “When are you going to get a boyfriend?” To which she replied “And be miserable for the rest of my life? I prefer my monkeys.”
The vet then, was clearly engaging in bestiality. An unforseen side-effect of the genetic tinkering was an inter-special compatability. The first fruit of this pairing was obviously Semus, who, being a “mule” would naturally be much more human-- capable of speech, and having a man-like stature.
As far as the horses go… they apes obviously got them from the same place that the fine people of Naboo got them in The Phantom Menace. Yes, that’s correct, that was a statue of horses seen over the final Naboo parade.
They’re magic horses - pop up when the movie needs 'em, and they disappear into the ether when everyone’s had their fun. Just like in “The Thirteenth Warrior.”
OK, as part of the home theater crowd that never goes to a movie while it is still playing in theaters and prefers to see it in the comfort of her own home I just had to bump this thread. POTA was released on DVD today and I liked it. To answer Jeannie’s question, horses can swim just fine, and they are capable of swimming with a damn dirty human on their backs. I thought the movie was good entertainment, like any sci-fi movie, a lot of it doesn’t make perfect sense. But it was cool, and I didn’t get bored ten minutes in like I did with the total dud Tomb Raider. I give Planet of the Apes 8 of 10 stars.
It was the actor who played Pig-Vomit in the Howard Stern movie and Martin Lawrences partner in Big Moma’s House.
Some questions I had:
-If the apes killed all or even most of the humans from the ship, who populated the planet with humans?
-Why could a freakin monkey land those pods but Marky Mark crashes 2x?
-Why would an ape civilization evolve EXACTLY like ours, right down to the national monuments, police cars, and surplus Starship Trooper helmets the ApeWashington DC ape-cops were wearing?
-Was the planet supposed to be Earth? Because how could it be Earth if Marky Marks ship was from Earth and this planet was not where the ship was from?
-Horses?
-Were the apes supposed to be bigger than normal apes and we are supposed to suspend our disbelief because of the limits of technology, or were they really super-apes?
-Why are alternate-Earths never recognizable from space as Earth? Any even that could change the land mass structure that much would render the Earth uninhabitable by apes, humans or bacteria.
-English? English from 500 years ago sounds very diferent from modern English…let alone from thousands of years, spoken by simians.
-Was Marky Marks ship orbiting Saturn? For some reason I had the impression they weren’t in the solar system (every ring planet isnt Saturn.
-Do monkeys really hate water or was that just a convenient plot device?
and finally:
-Is it better to better to be silent like Nova and have people (and apes) think you a fool, or to speak like Estelle Warren and remove all doubt?
ok, maybe I missed someone talking about this, but as a left field comment. So MM is on ape world, and humans are slaves. And then in the end we see MM on alternate earth with the statue of thade. Did anyone think that the reference of thade having the likeness of Abe (who with his big speech, set the slaves free.) Maybe he took all the credit for humans and apes living together? We never had the chance to find out anything other than he was surronded by apes but that doesn’t mean humans aren’t around. I just thought of that little side bar, using more of the likeness to the real person.
I could be all wrong, I remember soemthing written above the statue not sure what it said though. If someone can help me on that, we can all shoot holes in my theory together
