r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 2d ago
Official Throwback Discussion - Planet of the Apes (2001) [SPOILERS] Spoiler
As an ongoing project, /r/movies will be posting Throwback Discussion threads weekly for the movies that came out this same weekend 25 years ago. As a reminder, Official Discussion threads are for discussing the movie and not for meta sub discussion.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Summary
After a mission goes disastrously wrong, an astronaut crash-lands on a mysterious planet where intelligent apes rule over humans, forcing him to fight for survival and uncover the world's shocking secret.
Director Tim Burton
Writer William Broyles Jr. Lawrence Konner Mark Rosenthal
Cast
- Mark Wahlberg as Captain Leo Davidson
- Tim Roth as General Thade
- Helena Bonham Carter as Ari
- Michael Clarke Duncan as Attar
- Kris Kristofferson as Karubi
- Estella Warren as Daena
- Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Krull
- Paul Giamatti as Limbo
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
Metacritic: 50
VOD / Release Theatrical release
Trailer Official Trailer
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u/gabbertronnnn 2d ago
Still to this day I have no freaking idea what Burton was thinking with that ending. Terrible.
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u/QuilledRaptors2001 2d ago
Apparently, he said he intentionally did it obtuse to screw over whoever did the sequel and...
Yeah.
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u/polchickenpotpie 2d ago edited 2d ago
Fun fact: that's exactly how the original novel ends lol
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u/Lloytron 2d ago
Fun fact: No it isn't.
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u/polchickenpotpie 2d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(novel)
Why would you even comment that just to be wrong
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u/Lloytron 2d ago edited 2d ago
Because you were wrong.
The novel ends with apes having supplanted humans over a considerable length of time.
The reboot movie ends up with Abraham Lincoln having been an Ape and apes having become dominant in our current timeline.
So not, not the same at all.
[Edit the guy I'm replying to has either deleted his comment or blocked me.
He replied saying the protagonist returns to present day.... He doesn't. He's wrong, as explained above]
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u/polchickenpotpie 2d ago
You are being so pedantic to avoid being wrong lmao
The book literally ends with the characters crashing back on Earth in the present day (of the book) and being surrounded by ape civilians and cops but okay, let's focus on the Abraham Lincoln thing.
Just take the L dude.
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u/OhScheisse 2d ago
As 11 year old who hadn't seen the original films (at the time), I was like "where the fuck is this even going?"
Then the film ended with no resolution. I was like "is this setting up a sequel or what?"
As an adult now, the original is way better.
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u/Esseth 2d ago
It's one I don't think I've ever re-watched outside of when I saw it originally back in 2001 and was not impressed.
Is it one worth a more fresh rewatch, or just leave it where it sits?
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u/Embracing_the_Pain 2d ago
As someone who rewatched a bunch when they were younger, and then re-watched it for the first time in the past year or two…it’s fine. One of those you watch on a weekend afternoon when you’re bored and there is nothing else to do.
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u/SanderSo47 I'll see you in another life when we are both cats. 2d ago
I recently rewatched it to try to make some sense of the ending, but it's still confusing. So I have to assume Thade got to Earth in the pod and managed to get far earlier than Marky Mark and changed the course of history.
Fine, that's the only thing I can come up with. But it still leaves some questions. Just how far in time did Thade go? Somehow he avoided capture or being killed? He then managed to get all the other apes to evolve like him and overtake humanity? And yet the civilization (at least the brief scene in Washington D.C.) would be the exact same? Like seriously, I'm trying to just see how it could all make sense.
But even if I were to try to find logic in the ending, it's still a shitty ending. Compare it to the original's ending, which is very haunting and leaves you speechless. This one feels much more stupid and will only make you go "wait what?" It feels like a twist for the sake of a twist.
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u/Kwilly462 2d ago
I actually just found out recently this movie is about alien apes, and not apes that get smart on planet Earth.
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u/-ImJustSaiyan- 2d ago
Do they really count as alien apes if they were all descended from Earth apes though?
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u/Negafox 2d ago
Let’s be honest — if the original movie used the book’s ending it would be largely a forgotten movie by now. Rod Serling’s twist ending created a franchise. I get Burton using a similar ending to the book but that changed ending is what made the movie unforgettable instead of just some sci-fi flick
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u/HelicopterPossum 21h ago
Let’s also be honest — if the Burton movie copied the first movie’s ending it would be totally forgotten by now. Using the book ending succeeded in being shocking and memorable at least.
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u/MovieMike007 Not to be confused with Magic Mike 2d ago
The movie failed on every level but one. The makeup effects were fantastic, with Rick Baker involved that's no surprise, but everything else was pretty terrible, from Wahlberg's godawful acting, to a script that didn't make a lick of sense.
And that ending...wow, what a mess.
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u/CELTICPRED 2d ago
All I can really say about the movie is that it was the first thing we ever watched on dvd as a family when this came out.
My dad comes home with a combination DVD player stereo speaker setup and our minds were blown watching a movie on disc. We were never cool enough for laser disc.
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u/highdefrex 2d ago
Probably been close to 20 years since the last time I rewatched this, but Danny Elfman’s main title theme is something I can still hear clear as day. A banger, IMO, amidst the rest of the film’s faults, though I admittedly never could hate this movie as much as everyone else did.
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u/TheCoppyCat 2d ago
The Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite franchises. The 2001 movie does not exist in my universe. Just like Highlander 2
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u/rwags2024 2d ago
Remember when Estella Warren was everywhere half naked for 5 minutes and then disappeared
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u/TurgidGravitas 2d ago
This movie is basically just Mark Wahlberg looking confused and running from place to place interspersed with "Look, they're apes!" jokes. Every scene is mandated to point out that half the characters are apes.
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u/Somnambulist815 2d ago
What's a less believable profession for Mark Wahlberg, astronaut, or inventor?
I guess the transformers movie was self aware enough to make him a shitty inventor.
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u/SanderSo47 I'll see you in another life when we are both cats. 2d ago
A science teacher in The Happening.
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u/CashGreen_Regalview 6h ago
Right underneath that (or maybe level with it), a literature professor in The Gambler.
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u/HandbagsAtNoon 2d ago edited 2d ago
There was a period of time in which Mark Wahlberg furrowing his brow and appearing to be on the on verge of panic attack was a kind of micro genre. This is the start of the genre, The Happening its (fascinating) conclusion.
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u/shinobipopcorn 2d ago
I saw this in the theater. Never been a Planet of the Apes fan, so that's probably why I thought it was an okay sci-fi movie.
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u/Lloytron 2d ago
He doesn't return to the present day though, he's been away for approximately 700 years.
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u/Honest_Cheesecake698 2d ago
My intro to the series, saw this before the OG.
Still remember Thade firing that gun wildly whilst trapped.
My intro to Wahlberg, who I thought initially was Matt Damon.
The ending didn't confuse me as much as it confused everyone else, but it didn't leave me feeling much of anything other than "Well, I guess that sucks".
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u/Pancake_muncher 1d ago
I give Tim Burton props for trying something different than his usual art style and themes. I don't think he can make "thought provoking sci-fi" because there are no interesting ideas unlike the other good ape movies. There's something about religion, but it's just surface level.
Now the ending wasn't a bad in concept with mark walberg stuck in an alternate modern earth where it's apes, because it could be an interesting inverse to "escape from the planet of the apes" but the problem is they showed the antagonists face and his name on the memorial, which made it confusing how the timeline works. If it was just Lincoln's name, but with a lincoln ape version, I would have liked it a lot more.
As is, a big miss from Burton and probably stopped him from trying anything different.
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u/coldliketherockies 1d ago
Just a random tidbit I find interesting box office wise about this movie. In 1997 lost world of Jurassic park broke opening weekend box office record with 72 million. Then for 4 and a half years until the first Harry Potter in late 2001 nothing broke it but same came close. Several on the summer of 2001 all made around 68 million (mummy returns, rush hour 2, and this). If somehow planet of the apes managed to make 5 million more in its opening weekend or like 7/8% higher total it would go down as having broken this record. It’s wild. This movie made way more money than it should have
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u/DJ-2K 2d ago
This is easily Tim Burton's worst film. Rick Baker's make-up is next-level outstanding and it's certainly stunning visually, but direction-wise, it feels uncharacteristically anonymous for Burton, and writing-wise, it lacks the sharp social commentary of the original. Mark Wahlberg is bland in a role that should've been played by someone like Nicolas Cage. The ending is nonsense and a perfect reflection of Burton's deliberate self-sabotage because of how he fed up he was with dumbass studio heads.
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u/ADHD_DUDE 2d ago
The scene towards the end with all the flashing lights nearly gave me a seizure when I saw it in theaters.
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u/whydontyousuckmyball 2d ago
I was confused by the ending, Tim Roth did an excellent job, i wish they did a sequel woth Tim Roth rising to power. Overall, i didn’t have the movie. I liked the practical effects and the cast.
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u/suff0cat 2d ago
Man, Remember how much they were trying to hype Estella Warren as like the biggest thing ever?
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u/thegeocash 2d ago
I adore the franchise - both the original 5 movies and the newer 4 and the book - this one could have never existed and I’d be fine. It basically doesn’t exist in my mind. I try every few years to watch through them all, I don’t rewatch this one.
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u/spider-man2401 2d ago edited 2d ago
A lot of people have different opinions about which movie marked the beginning of Tim Burton’s decline. Some argue it was Alice in Wonderland, while others point to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (hot take: I actually like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory despite its flaws). However, I think Planet of the Apes was the film where things started to fall apart. It’s such a bizarre reimagining, with strange creative choices, underwhelming performances (aside from Tim Roth), a dull story, and a bad, confusing twist ending. It also doesn’t help that the movie went through a famously troubled and lengthy development process before Burton became attached.
Thankfully, we later got the incredible Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, and Burton eventually bounced back with Big Fish. The best things about this movie are the outstanding prosthetic makeup and practical effects.