In
1968, Planet of the Apes emerged as one of the
most profound films of all times, raising issues about racial
discrimination and nuclear war. Now a retake (not a remake)
with a roughly similar plot and a unique surprise ending,
is again based on the novel La Planète des singes
by Pierre Boulle. Directed by Tim Burton, the new Planet of
the Apes starts in 2029. Leo Davidson (played by Mark Wahlberg)
is on a space station along with several caged apes; one chimpanzee
has been trained to fly a Delta Pod, a small space vehicle.
An electromagnet storm develops near the space station, so
the ape is sent to get readings, but his ship disappears.
Unauthorized, Davidson then tries to rescue the chimp and
obtain information about the storm, but he also gets sucked
into a vortex and soon his Delta Pod crashes in a rainforest
on a planet sometime in the future. Soon, humans are running
past him, so he joins, only to discover that apes are pursuing
runaway humans, and soon he is among those captured. While
most apes tolerate humans only for the subordinate roles that
they perform, Ari (played by Helena Bonham Carter) believes
that apes and humans can live as equals, but General Thade
(played by Tim Roth) wants to exterminate humans. As filmviewers
will expect, Davidson tries to lead humans out of captivity
with the help of Ari, and a showdown between a few humans
and a large army of ferocious apes occurs. Davidson discovers
that the space station crashed on the planet before he did,
so the apes on board evolved from the moment of impact, and
the humans on the planet are descendants of those who once
manned the space station. Before we see the outcome of the
battle between apes and humans, however, the chimp who started
the unusual pursuit unexpectedly makes a soft landing on the
planet but dies soon after arriving. Davidson then gets into
the undamaged spacecraft to fly back to earth, presumably
to get help for the humans. When he lands, however, the surprise
ending is that apes have taken over the planet (presumably,
earth), a statue of Thade has replaced Lincoln at what is
now the Thade Memorial, Davidson is captured, and we await
the sequel to find out what will happen next. A few lines
throughout are intended to titillate politically aware filmviewers,
but those who bother to react will doubtless guffaw on hearing
lines about the dangers of technological advances, the virtue
of "extremism in the defense of apes," a Rodney
King quote, and how specieism (cruel treatment of one species
by another) demeans the dominant specie. In contrast with
the sage political messages of the earlier film, the year
2001 version of Planet of the Apes is thus devoid
of an original insight or a profound message.
MH
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