I really like Tim Burton- Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, Ed Wood, Batman, Beetle Juice and Sleepy Hollow are all great movies. The thing is this remake(or re-imagining if you like) is not, in fact this could very well be Burton's worst movie, even worse than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and that could have been much better. Tim Burton, what has happened to you? Before I get to the many negatives of this film, I will say the apes are very well done. Their mannerisms and the way they move are perfectly convincing. Plus Danny Elfman's score was pretty good, it's no Edward Scissorhands or Big Fish but it's good enough. And the scenery and special effects are fantastic.

However, that is all the praise I can give it. I am briefly going to say it is vastly inferior to the 1968 classic, which was much more exciting and much better written as well. The script is awful, not quite Pearl Harbor kind-of-awful, but some of it is lame and unintentionally cheesy. The story takes a while to get going and meanders all over the place, not helped by pedestrian pacing and drawn out scenes and very rarely gets interesting. Plus is it me, or does the film get unnecessarily loud at times? Tim Burton's direction was also a disappointment, usually his films are full of heart, that's what made Edward Scissorhands especially such a gem, but here he seems lost, bogged down might I say. On top of that, the character development is non-existent, as is the chemistry between the actors and the characters are extremely clichéd, especially Kris Kristofferson's character. And the acting didn't fare that much better, Mark Wahlberg is a bland lead, while Estella Warren acts like a zombie throughout. Then we have Tim Roth trying hard and giving the only credible performance as Thade, and Helena Bonham Carter wasted as sympathetic Ari, while Paul Giamatti is useless. Not even the talented David Warner can save this film. And don't get me started on the ending, what a bummer, so predictable and obvious.

Overall, a case of all style no substance. Definitely not Burton's finest hour. 3/10 Bethany Cox

You know, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Tim Burton. I like where he's coming from, and he shares much of the same taste as me: a liking for the offbeat, the Gothic, a love for the Hammer horrors of old. But his films are a mixed bag and for every great one (MARS ATTACKS, ED WOOD) there are ones that leave me ice cold (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, ALICE IN WONDERLAND).

My favourite Burton film is SWEENEY TODD, so it may be that I get on better with the ones aimed at adults rather than kids. Sadly, his PLANET OF THE APES remake is aimed purely at kids, and in fact there's no material that ever goes above the intellectual level of your average 4 year old. And if ever there was a film that didn't need remaking, it was PLANET OF THE APES! Everything goes wrong with this picture, and I mean everything. The muddled, dumb-ass script which never goes beyond characters running from A to B, then B to C, and so on for what feels like hours and hours. The ridiculous-looking apes, never menacing for a second and looking more dated now than the ones from the original back in the '60s. Burton's clear disinterest in the material, as evinced by his mundane direction. Wahlberg's embarrassingly wooden performance, or Bonham Carter's embarrassingly mannered one.

It's all a great shame, in that it wastes money and the talents of lots of interesting supporting cast members whose skills could have been put towards something more genuine and original. Instead this is one of the worst films I've witnessed in a while, a truly abominable production.

In 2029, USAF astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is training chimps to fly spacecrafts on a space station. They encounter an anomaly and send a chimp. The chimp's pod disappears. Davidson disobeys orders and flies off after him. Both pods are taken by the anomaly. Davidson lands in a strange land where a human tribe is hunted by intelligent apes. He is captured along with Daena (Estella Warren) and Karubi (Kris Kristofferson). General Thade (Tim Roth) is gorilla military leader. Limbo (Paul Giamatti) is the human trader. Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) is a pro-human chimp.

It's got great ape style. The human in this version can still speak English. The story doesn't have the simple symmetry of the original. It is an inferior movie. There are interesting additions like Thade opening up Davidson's mouth to ask if there is a soul in there. It's got some B-movie goodness until the nonsense of the final ending.