After reading some of the early reviews of this film, I was beginning to worry that Tim Burton had finally become just another cog in the mind-numbing machinery of the SFX-laden film industry. It was a huge relief to discover that Burton's *Apes* -- easily the most entertaining film so far this summer -- is perhaps his most visually and dramatically gripping film ever. This is despite Mark Wahlberg's woodenly resolute performance, which displays about as much screen charisma as an orangutan's hairbrush. The apes, however, in their far more pliant makeup, steal the show.
Paul Giamatti absolutely steals the film as the conniving human-trader "Limbo," and Tim Roth's General Thade is robustly animalistic. The apes' habit of leaping in the air in displays of anger owes something to Jane Goodall and something to Hong Kong action flicks -- but wherever it comes from, it adds an extra zest to the simian world.
While it doesn't reach the darkly sublime heights of Batman or Edward Scissorhands, *Apes* is Burton's best in some time, and easily steals the show from the series of stumbling (and expensive) zombies the studios have vomited forth so far this summer.
Paul Giamatti absolutely steals the film as the conniving human-trader "Limbo," and Tim Roth's General Thade is robustly animalistic. The apes' habit of leaping in the air in displays of anger owes something to Jane Goodall and something to Hong Kong action flicks -- but wherever it comes from, it adds an extra zest to the simian world.
While it doesn't reach the darkly sublime heights of Batman or Edward Scissorhands, *Apes* is Burton's best in some time, and easily steals the show from the series of stumbling (and expensive) zombies the studios have vomited forth so far this summer.