Author:
Suky
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Date Posted: 11:10:12 08/27/01 Mon
I saw POTA the other night. It was very similar to yet completely different from the original. The story parallels the original (and there's an interesting cameo by one of the original actors), but there's not a single character from the original story in this version and the premise is entirely different. Then there's that mystery ending no one can figure out. (I think I smell a sequel!) There's a poignant animal-rights message here, which is fine with me. (Made me feel guilty saying good night to my own little "prisoners" back home!) I thought the original had a tighter script, although this version had some good laughs; the ape make-up was better, of course; and, being a Tim Burton film, the art direction and score were stunning.
In this version, the apes act a lot more like apes than humans for a change--but it's almost too exaggerated, and the "flying monkeys" really stretched my credibility; whenever they get mad, they defy gravity by bouncing off the walls, the ceiling, etc.; looks like everything's trying to follow in the footsteps of the Matrix or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon nowadays. It was totally out of place here. And, as I mentioned before, for some reason, only Tim Roth, was able to enunciate around those fake ape teeth; it was almost comical to hear them try. The dialog *really* should have been overdubbed.
DW's performance as "animal"-rights activist Helena Bonhma Carter's dad was convincing and sympathetic. (All you can see of him, though, is his eyes ... and I think his lower lip and fingers are unencumbered as well.) He gets slightly more screen time in this film than he did in Wing Commander--about three or four scenes, maybe 10 minutes in all. Unfortunately, I'd seen almost all of them already in previews on the various late-night talk shows, and he disappears from the story halfway through!
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