Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes is a remake that encompasses much of the two original movies made in the late 60’s. Although apart from the name and the basic premise of Humans v Talking Apes, Tim Burton has attempted to make this a new take on an old idea rather than just a rehashing of the original script.

The story begins in 2029 with American astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Whalberg) trying to teach chimpanzee’s to fly aboard a research vessel (Animal experimentation is here to stay it seems). When the ship encounters a strange, seemingly uninhabited world, the decision is made to send in one of the chimp pilots to investigate, rather than risk one of the crew. But of course the pod and its simian pilot ‘Darwin’ run into one of those strange, time bending wormholes that seem to litter space like potholes. When all contact is lost with the pod, the mission commander puts it down to the inexperience of the new ape pilots and considers it too risky to attempt a rescue. But Leo, who is sure his furry friend is still alive, steals a pod and follows him into the wormhole.

During the flight the pod is damaged and Leo is forced to crash land on the planets surface, only to find out that the planet is not so uninhabited after all. After encountering a tribe of fleeing humans he is captured by the advancing ape army of General Thade (Tim Roth, taking a break from robbing coffee shops.), all powerful ruler of an authoritarian state in which apes rule over their human slaves. However the humans are helped to escape by a female chimp called Ari (Helena Bonham Carter, taking a break from period drama.) who is a ‘Human Rights’ activist and sympathetic to their plight. In order to unravel the mysterious origins of this strange world Leo and his band of apes and humans must travel to the place known to the apes only as ‘The Forbidden Zone’. On the way Leo grows closer to Ari and to the nomadic, ‘Land that Time Forgot’ style beauty, Deana (Estella Warren, who he later completely fails to spend the rest of his days with as effective ruler of the planet). There’s no time for fun and games though as Thade and his trusted general Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan) are hot on their tail, intent on burying the secret that would bring down all that their power is based on. Will ape and man be able to live together in peace and harmony or will the only solution be to nuke the entire planet, like in the original movies?

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