Director Tim Burton remade the science fiction classic but came up short on quality and story. Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) works with chimpanzees teaching them space flight aboard a space station. When they come close to a space storm, they send out the chimp Pericles but he flies off course. Davidson flies out after it, disobeying orders, and is warped further out in space and time. He crash lands in a swamp and abandons his ship as it sinks beneath the water. He quickly encounters other humans who are fleeing an attack by apes. The humanoid chimps and gorillas have amazing jumping abilities and easily catch the humans, throwing them in carts. Leo is shocked to find out that the apes can speak. Using humans as cattle, Leo and the other captives a brought back into the ape city, full of all sorts of astonishing sights. The apes do not treat the humans with respect though Ari (Helen Bonham Carter) scolds the child apes that throw stones at them. The trader orangutan Limbo (Paul Giamatti) purchases the humans and stores them in prisons. The leader Thade (Tim Roth) inspects them with his right-hand man Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), looking to purchase one for his daughter. As Limbo brands the humans like Daena (Estella Warren), Ari interferes on their behalf and purchase Leo, bringing him home. The apes debate possessing humans at dinner and Thade visits Ari after professing his love, though she spurns him. Leo escapes with Daena who makes him help her father Karubi (Kris Kristofferson) and family. The humans can all talk and Leo organizes an escape with them and Ari, though Karubi sacrifices himself.Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

I'm going to catch some heat for this, but I've found Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes to be a far better film than any of the three recent versions. I can't explain it, but there's something so otherworldly and exotic about the production design, makeup and effects, a true storyteller's touch used, resulting in a piece with elements of fantasy and world building brought lushly to the forefront, whereas the newer films just felt somewhat clinical and sterile, going through minimalist motions without any real sense of wonder applied. Oh and another thing: real, tactile makeup on actual human actors, which will win against motion capture/cgi any day. There's also an old world, medieval feel to this planet, as the 'humans being subservient to apes' dynamic has already been in full swing for generations, as opposed to a lengthy origin story that takes up most of the newer trilogy. No build up here, just Marky Mark getting marooned on a distant world dominated by simians, fighting his way through their ranks, sort of falling in love with one (Helena Bonham Carter as a monkey=kinky) and attempting to find a way back to earth. There's various apes of all shapes and sizes at war, the most memorable of which is a sleek, snarling Tim Roth as Thade, a volatile warlord who despises humans. Michael Clarke Duncan towers over everyone as Attar, his cohort and fellow soldier, and seeing already be-jowelled Paul Giamatti as a cumbersome orangutan is priceless. The human faction is led by weathered Kris Kristofferson and his daughter (Estella Warren, quite possibly the most beautiful girl on the planet), leading the dregs of humanity as they exist in hiding and fight for their lives. No expense was spared in filling every frame of this planet with lived-in splendour and atmospheric decoration, from suits of armour and architecture to the overgrown thickets of mountainous vegetation that grow on this world. As for the apes themselves, it's terrific how real they feel. It's the same thing that happened with Lord Of The Rings vs. The Hobbit, and the switch from practical Orc effects to the overblown cgi madness of the goblins in the later films. The human eye is inherently adept at deciphering what is real and what is not, and the effects of the later Ape films with Andy Serkis just felt lifeless and orchestrated, whereas here the makeup prosthetics are organic, authentic and wonderful to look at. Don't even get me started on the ending either, it's completely brilliant and will leaving you in cold isolation as the credits roll, a perfect gut punch to a film that could have easily turned sappy in the eleventh hour. So that's my two cents. Bring on the backlash.

I sat to watch this movie full of prejudice based on bad reviews, and in the beginning I was thinking to give up on it. But, I saw it through and my opinion is completely changed. This is very good movie. Almost all arguments against this movie are based on premise that it is remake of cult classic from 1968. If that was the case, compared to original this movie sucks. But it is very wrong angle and it is understandable that conclusions based on wrong premise, filled with emotion and prejudice, will be wrong conclusions.Just try to watch this movie from point of view of someone who did not see original franchise and have no idea what is it all about, and you'll enjoy great movie. Because this is not really remake. The only thing they share is basic idea that in distant future apes will rule the Earth. Other than that those are two completely different movies. Characters are new and different, story begins slightly similar, but develops and ends completely different. This is typical Tim Burton's dark fairy-tale, original in every way, except for stealing basic idea from cult classic. Story is interesting and brings completely new ideas that make it essentially different from 1968. movie. The way apes rise to be on the top of evolutionary scale, event that stops the battle and the way main character ends his adventure are three main and totally unexpected twists that are completely new and original. I saw all five movies from old franchise and I was still surprised by every plot twist here. Nothing was already seen or too predictable. Because this is not really remake. Crash-landing scene is the only one visually similar to 60's movie. But if you think about it, he had to land somehow, and there are not so many ways to do it and survive. I mean, he could not teleport himself or catapult from ship and land by parachute from outer space...8/10

(Originally seen a few years ago) I was never a fan of Tim Burton, I didn't care much for his Batman films, I didn't like Edward Scissorhands and the only film I really enjoyed of his, was Sleepy Hollow. Now here's a modern film of his, and it's absolutely dreadful; Mark Wahlberg who can be good, is laughably awful here, along with the rest of the cast, and the apes are terrible, they look like cartoonish toys, as for the dialogue it's abysmal, much like the production design, Burton's direction, the action sequences, the god-awful writing and the horrible plotting. Planet of the Apes is one of the worst film's ever made.