Movie Trailers – Planet Of The Apes (2001)

It is very easy to have mixed oppinions about this movie, I wouldn’t necessarilly call it the worst Planet of the Apes movie, but it’s nowhere near the best! I got my first taste of the Planet of the Apes films just a little over a year before this film’s release, thanks to a BBC documentary on the series. I briefly saw the iconic end of the first film, and then saw at great length Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

As for this one, well I eventually got to see it, when it was shown late on TV one night, and yeah, it’s a bit off. It does have it’s moments, especially in some of it’s monkey casting, with Michael Clarke Duncan, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Tim Roth; plus that ending is pretty cool too, but other than that, it’s just a bit too silly. The trailer does sell it rather well though.

As a trailer goes, it’s a bit generic, and it’s format doesn’t really stand out much from the pack. But imagine for a second, you’re seeing this trailer for the first time, and barely known anything about Planet of the Apes. So nothing you’re seeing is registering with you what this could be. If you go in, knowing more of the existence of the Planet of the Apes, then it’s a bit obvious as to what this could be. But imagine you don’t, just for now.

First off, it looks like an epic film, crossing the genre’s between science fiction and fantasy, talking about the sudden arrival of a ‘hero’. Then it shows images of a spacecraft crashing into a primitive world (this is beginning to remind me of Outlander), whilst also highlighting other major films directed by Tim Burton. Then we get introduced to a world, filled with humanoid like animals, as well as other humans, who are treated like slaves to these wild creatures.

We then see a wild and fast montage, of more of these wild beasts, and the cruelty they exhibit to humans (with maybe one or two more ape like creatures on show, again, imagine you don’t know much about Planet of the Apes). This is then followed by clips of an escape led by Mark Wahlberg‘s character, to a mysterious place in the desert. Meanwhile the army of the ‘creatures’ (OK Apes, I mean they actually say Apes at one point), prepare for an assault, on the humans gathering to fight back. Then the montage picks up even more speed, highlighting moments of action, and images of the battle to come, before then finally arriving, at the killer blow; the title of the film.

When I saw this trailer at the cinema, nothing registerted with me. I had only just heard of The Planet of the Apes, and I did like the look of this film from the trailer, it’s a pretty cool trailer. But when I saw the title, I fully understood what it was.

Yes, it’s a very basic trailer, but does carry some cool imagery, that makes you want to at least, see some of it, even if it probably wasn’t entirely worth it!