Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by caa on August 08, 2001 at 16:19:16

In Reply to: Yep, I hated that ending too; it almost looked tacked on as an afterthought! :o( posted by Audiophilander on August 06, 2001 at 07:45:26:

for some reason, I don't see too much politics in this one. Its supposed to address more basic questions, instead of those about 'liberal' or 'conservative'. And why American politics? why do they speak english? why can/do those apes tell 20ish-century american jokes with impeccable timing? People don't question these anymore.

Although the first one was not too exciting, I think it still told a better story. Here, I don't know what the points of this remake are. If there're the same as the original's, then they did a terrible job in telling it. For example, the two main female characters (human, and ape) in the original movie are there to make the story more credible. The role of human girl for instance to me gives a very strong sense of rawness and primitiveness, and that adds up. Here's it seems the girls are there to provide sexual tensions, which by the way don't lead anywhere. When he kisses the ape girl, I saw that too clearly: in the original, the ape girl said, "...but youre so ugly...", here she kissed him back. What was that about?

Although I think its a ok action movie, I would characterize it as 'balf-baked', and in ways more that one. Mark Wahlburg is a good actor, and in each individually scene, he's somewhat believable. But on a whole, I don't know what purpose his role serves. The same for other things as well, e.g. the final show-down. I think the apes actually out-act the human and are much more coherent here. Tim Roth is very convincing from beginning to end. THe same for the girl ape. Perhaps, the human are just lazy, so if you put them behind masks, they have to act.

And when he had a chance to get back to Earch after thousands of years, he never questioned why, if its a good idea -- staying, he would have the girl (ape or human), the respect, etc... going, too much uncertainty. But there's a very good reason he didn't question these possibilities at all, and simply jumped into the ship and never wondered what the Earth looked like now after thousands of years... The reason is simple: they don't want to hint the audience at the surprised ending. This cheap shot really doesn't help story at al.

The costumes are really nice though. Then again, you'll have to follow the conservation law of stuffs. If you spend so much on the special effects, you'll have to skim back on other materials.

Overall though, an ok action film.