Great 'Apes'

By Bob Graham

From The San Francisco Chronicle, 07.27.2001

RATING: (WILD APPLAUSE) PLANET OF THE APES: Science fiction. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth. Directed by Tim Burton. (PG-13. 119 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

Forget "A.I." Forget "Jurassic Park 3." Hell, forget even "The Fast and the Furious." "Planet of the Apes" is the summer blockbuster we've been waiting for.

Director Tim Burton has rethought and re-energized the sci-fi classic, now more than 30 years old, and despite its familiarity has come up with a surprise-punch ending that outdoes the original yet keeps its spirit.

The new "Planet of the Apes" is not a remake, and it's not a sequel. It is an amazing display of imagination.

Burton ("Batman") has given up none of his kinship with the dark, alienated and subversive, which has always kept him in tune with male adolescents -- and other adventurous spirits.

This story, set in 2029, opens in a space research station where Mark Wahlberg, as Capt. Leo Davidson, goes out in a pod to rescue a chimp astronaut. The chimp preceded him in a similar vehicle and disappeared in an electromagnetic storm. The whole thing gives a nice spin to NASA's simians-in-space experiments, and Davidson is one astronaut who is not PO'd to be upstaged by a chimp.

Soon there will be plenty of opportunities for that.

Davidson's pod goes haywire, too, and the captain crash-lands on a strange planet ruled by apes who keep human slaves.

The rubber masks for the apes -- created by makeup genius Rick Baker -- are much more sophisticated than those in the original 1968 film. The features and personalities of the actors, like those of Jim Carrey as the Grinch -- also done by Baker -- seep through the latex.

These apes -- played to greatest effect among them by Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth -- not only have teeth and expressive lips and speak English, some of them have false teeth, too. But their noses may be their most expressive feature, good for sniffing out everything from trouble to sex.

SIDES WITH HUMANS

Wahlberg's sex appeal is apparent even to an ape. Although Davidson finds himself at the head of a slave revolt, the kohl-eyed chimp Ari (Bonham Carter) is clearly attracted to him. She defies ape leadership and sides with the humans. Fascist military honcho Thade (Roth) goes ape, teeth bared and snorting.

Ari's interest in Davidson leaves him with an interesting dilemma: Should he choose the beguiling, if apelike, Helena Bonham Carter or the human slave woman in loincloth played by model Estella Warren?

THROWING TANTRUMS

The thing to remember about these actors is that apes really can chew the scenery. These creatures may have evolved, but they're still apes. They don't disguise their feelings. There is ferocious hissing, sniffing and growling. They screech and throw tantrums. Sound like anyone you know?

Some of the parallels to human behavior probably are too facile. They pray to a father who created all apes in his own image. They are superstitious, and science is considered sorcery. Their sacred ruins, "the secret of creation," look something like the Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona stuck at an angle into the ground.

These apes know their Shaw: "Youth is wasted on the young." They drop common expressions: "Don't solve problems by throwing money at them." It could become tiresome quickly, even if the writers are making monkeys of the earthlings who use such phrases, and is a momentarily alarming sign that the movie may be bogging down in un-Burtonlike cuteness.

Burton backs off just in time. He's like a Ringling Bros. aerialist who feints a fall in order to make his recovery all the more impressive.

The look of the film has the Burton stamp. The ape planet is thick with mist and smoke. Cliff dwellings rise out of craggy wilderness landscapes. Warrior apes mounted on horses ride off in helmets, armor and mesh.

They use slings as weapons, but Roth has a particularly good moment when he sniffs an ancient firearm. Power means what it always has: Carry a big stick.

FIGHTING APES

The fighting apes are capable of taking great bouncing leaps and pouncing suddenly. They mount their horses with a bounce, too. They are mean mothers and pound the bejesus out of their victims. One thing they're afraid of is water -- "That's why every day we pray for rain," says one of the human slaves, who are sometimes held in neck restraints for branding with hot irons.

There is a brief but very effective episode in the space station sequence when quick flashes of historic images from Earth have been caught as they spread out from the planet toward infinity. These images are replayed like a time-warp flashback.

What Burton does with the last 20 minutes of this "Planet of the Apes" is the thing that sets this movie apart. For the viewer's sake, the less said about it here the better.

Meanwhile, there are wonderful touches. Danny Elfman's music, particularly its pounding rhythms for the closing titles, will send people ape-dancing up the aisles. Bonham Carter's costumes could start a fashion trend in some circles, and she holds a pencil to write with prehensile toes.