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movie review - Planet of the Apes (the remake)

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I'm not sure what it is about Tim Burton. His movies can vary from genius (Nightmare before Christmas, Mars Attacks, Sleepy Hollow) to awful (Beetlegeuse), and you never know which it's gonna be. Unfortunately, this remake of the dull 70's classic is the latter. As with AI, there's an unnecessary - and inexplicable - second portion tacked on to the end of this flick that robs the thing of whatever whiff of watchability might have lingered through the first (full length) portion. I won't spoil the ending (as I did with AI above), but I will say that even as so-so as this movie comes across in the trailers, I was expecting better.

This is a poorly conceived and executed movie, and I'm glad I didn't go to see it in the theatre. Or rent it, for that matter.

Which brings me to another matter. The version of the movie I downloaded clearly wasn't a videotaped bootleg from Singapore (as was the copy of AI I saw through). This seemed to have been cut from a DVD or similar medium, I wonder how it found its way to the 'net while the movie was still in wide release....

Not recommended.