Since the film LOOKS so good, not just in ads but on the screen, and thanks, not just to Tim Burton, but to the King Kong of ape makeup himself, Rick Baker, it should not be allowed to go to waste.  All we need is some one to write a new script who has  an ability to develop characters, to dramatize ideas rather than belaboringly state them, and some one who knows why Jar-Jar Binks is such a bad idea that insults the audience's intelligence and bores it.  In other words, if they'd only hired a writer and fired the executives in charge of making "blockbuster" movies with insulting B-movie scripts, we might have had something here.
But instead what we have is hackneyed and tedious to listen to.  Helena Bonham Carter is the only thing I liked watching and that was just because her beautiful eyes still communicate even through all the makeup.  It was fun to WATCH the apes walk around and it was a stroke of insightful genius to see them express emotions like apes.  It was delightful and thought-provoking to watch the enlightened, sophisticated, educated Helena Bonham-Carter ape break into terrified monkey yelps as she rode Marky Mark's back across the river in which she was afraid of drowning.  This, the sniffing each other, the jumping around---all the behaving like real apes was great.  It was like being able to see human emotion and its expressions from an exterior point of view.  We would look funny when we laugh or shout or sweat or fidget, etc.  if we could only see ourselves externally with the physicality and audibility of ourselves not understood from within, loaded up with cognitive content, but rather seen from without as the expressive quirks of animals.
Unfortunately they changed not only the ape way of behaving but they also changed the humans a little from the previous planet of apes movies.  They made the humans capable of speech and then proceeded to give them nothing whatsoever worthwile to say.  EVER.  Instead we get a STUPID and UNREALISTIC boy who tries to take on an entire army of charging apes by himself with complete disregard for the larger plan that Marky Mark is trying to get to work, ALL so that we can see that Marky Mark, in trying to save him, has learned to think of others before himself like Helena Bonham-Carter does.  AWWWWW.  Isn't that sweet?  And utterly lame?
Or there is Amazon Woman, pure human physical beauty who pines after our hero while he falls in love with an ape woman.  How ever will this love triangle be resolved?  Well, Marky Mark can always add to the male harem fantasy by getting to kiss the adoring women of two different species before flying away in his spaceship!  My, oh my, have we evolved!
Prepackaged drivel loaded with cliche "morals" pasted into the script at random points by a team of trained monkeys apparently.  What is this movie about?  Animal rights?  Race relations?  The welfare state?  Man's inhumanity to man?  The O-Zone layer?  Making lots of money off an assumed-to-be-unthinking public?  AHH, I think it's the last one.
Last but not least the laughable, extremely boring and unimaginative plot ends with an ending which I almost thought made the whole preceding borefest worthwile.  I got a kick out of our surprise ending, although in subsequent weeks I can't seem to find any one who can exactly decipher what it was supposed to mean.  But there's the surefire way to make your ending unpredictable, have it make no sense.  That way no one can anticipate it by using their good sense.
The worst part of it all is Tim Burton's affiliation with this project.  You would think that a man so bitter about studio control over Batman, a man capable of such works of beauty as Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas, a man capable of fighting against formulas as he did with Beetlejuice, a man so willing to follow his artistic and thematic guts in Ed Wood and Mars Attacks!-- even at the price of financial humiliation, would not be capable, this far into his career, of becoming a puppet of a money-grubbing studio.  Maybe the commercial failures of Ed Wood and Mars Attacks have ruined his ability to assert himself creatively.  Or maybe, this was a chance to earn another IOU in credibility from the studios that he might go and make another Edward Scissorhands, like he did after Batman opened up his chance to do whatever he wanted.  Maybe that's what this is all about.  Paying dues to Hollywood before making real films again.  Yeah, maybe that's it.
Since the film LOOKS so good, not just in ads but on the screen, and thanks, not just to Tim Burton, but to the King Kong of ape makeup himself, Rick Baker, it should not be allowed to go to waste. All we need is some one to write a new script who has  an ability to develop characters, to dramatize ideas rather than belaboringly state them, and some one who knows why Jar-Jar Binks is such a bad idea that insults the audience's intelligence and bores it. In other words, if they'd only hired a writer and fired the executives in charge of making "blockbuster" movies with insulting B-movie scripts, we might have had something here. But instead what we have is hackneyed and tedious to listen to. Helena Bonham Carter is the only thing I liked watching and that was just because her beautiful eyes still communicate even through all the makeup. It was fun to WATCH the apes walk around and it was a stroke of insightful genius to see them express emotions like apes. It was delightful and thought-provoking to watch the enlightened, sophisticated, educated Helena Bonham-Carter ape break into terrified monkey yelps as she rode Marky Mark's back across the river in which she was afraid of drowning. This, the sniffing each other, the jumping around---all the behaving like real apes was great. It was like being able to see human emotion and its expressions from an exterior point of view. We would look funny when we laugh or shout or sweat or fidget, etc. if we could only see ourselves externally with the physicality and audibility of ourselves not understood from within, loaded up with cognitive content, but rather seen from without as the expressive quirks of animals. Unfortunately they changed not only the ape way of behaving but they also changed the humans a little from the previous planet of apes movies. They made the humans capable of speech and then proceeded to give them nothing whatsoever worthwile to say. EVER. Instead we get a STUPID and UNREALISTIC boy who tries to take on an entire army of charging apes by himself with complete disregard for the larger plan that Marky Mark is trying to get to work, ALL so that we can see that Marky Mark, in trying to save him, has learned to think of others before himself like Helena Bonham-Carter does. AWWWWW. Isn't that sweet? And utterly lame? Or there is Amazon Woman, pure human physical beauty who pines after our hero while he falls in love with an ape woman. How ever will this love triangle be resolved? Well, Marky Mark can always add to the male harem fantasy by getting to kiss the adoring women of two different species before flying away in his spaceship! My, oh my, have we evolved! Prepackaged drivel loaded with cliche "morals" pasted into the script at random points by a team of trained monkeys apparently. What is this movie about? Animal rights? Race relations? The welfare state? Man's inhumanity to man? The O-Zone layer? Making lots of money off an assumed-to-be-unthinking public? AHH, I think it's the last one. Last but not least the laughable, extremely boring and unimaginative plot ends with an ending which I almost thought made the whole preceding borefest worthwile. I got a kick out of our surprise ending, although in subsequent weeks I can't seem to find any one who can exactly decipher what it was supposed to mean. But there's the surefire way to make your ending unpredictable, have it make no sense. That way no one can anticipate it by using their good sense. The worst part of it all is Tim Burton's affiliation with this project. You would think that a man so bitter about studio control over Batman, a man capable of such works of beauty as Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas, a man capable of fighting against formulas as he did with Beetlejuice, a man so willing to follow his artistic and thematic guts in Ed Wood and Mars Attacks! -- even at the price of financial humiliation, would not be capable, this far into his career, of becoming a puppet of a money-grubbing studio. Maybe the commercial failures of Ed Wood and Mars Attacks have ruined his ability to assert himself creatively. Or maybe, this was a chance to earn another IOU in credibility from the studios that he might go and make another Edward Scissorhands, like he did after Batman opened up his chance to do whatever he wanted. Maybe that's what this is all about. Paying dues to Hollywood before making real films again. Yeah, maybe that's it.