An average movie

I have actually seen this movie but it was already more than 10 years ago when it was released. Back then, there was huge buzz about this flick. Indeed, at that time, it seemed like a good idea to let Tim Burton direct a remake. Fast-forward 10 years later and nowadays we can’t wait to see him finally developing an original idea…. Anyway, a remake had been in development for almost 15 years involving various directors such as Sam Raimi, Oliver Stone, Phillip Noyce, Chuck Russell, Chris Columbus, Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, and the Hughes brothers. So, the expectations were pretty high and most of us thought Tim Burton would deliver the goods. Unfortunately, the whole thing was terribly disappointing, probably the worst thing made by Burton so far. I would go even further by saying that it was worse than any movie made in this franchise which is quite shocking when you think that this new version had a budget 20 times bigger than the classic 1st installment. After re-watching it, it was even more obvious to see what they messed up. First of all, it was quite honorable that they tried to create a really different story but, in the process, they removed most of the coolest elements from the original version such as Taylor wandering on this strange planet, the fact that humans seem to be some wild animals unable to speak and, of course, they completely butchered the legendary ending. I mean, the whole thing looked pretty awesome, above all the make-up and costumes but it is as if they didn’t bother to build up a solid story. Furthermore, the acting was way below average. Back then, Mark Wahlberg was a rising star and it seemed to be a smart move to show up in such a blockbuster but he gave here probably his worst performance I have seen so far. To be honest, the rest of the cast was not much better and even Tim Roth, who looked just awesome, eventually really got on my nerves with his over-the-top psychotic monkey act. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was really disappointing, I’m probably being too generous with my rating, but somehow, it is still worth a look just to see those awesome monkeys.

6/10