I loved the original “Planet of the Apes” and with improvements in technology, I thought a remake would be a good idea. However, when I learned that the man in the director’s chair was Tim Burton, whose previous sci-fi “Mars Attacks!” was a spoof, I suddenly had worries.

The plot is reasonably different to the original as in this version, we find space station Oberon, which has chimps flying space pods (I know it’s ridiculous). After one chimp vanishes while exploring a magnetic storm in space, Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg “Boogie Nights”) begins his rescue attempt but he ends up being placed into the far future where the apes have evolved thus making humans primitive again.

Mark Wahlberg does an admiral job and I actually find his performance more interesting than Charlton Heston’s as George Taylor. The apes in their first few shots look fantastic; they reminded me a lot of the Ewoks in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. Then after a few scenes it gets a satirical feel as we see apes in sporty shirts playing basketball, female apes with fancy haircuts and we even see a ridiculous scene where two apes prepare for sex. The worst ape by far is played poorly by Helena Bonham Carter (“Fight Club”, “The King’s Speech”).

The movie begins as a sci-fi film, it then transforms into an outrageously bad comedy and then it has a go at being an action picture so it wants to please all audiences. The apes make the film lose its dignity. The ending scene is absolutely hilarious as it makes no sense. We get no explanation so I checked on the internet for a reason but any that I found contradicts another part of the film. I liked the sci-fi near the beginning and I was entertained by the action during the final act but in the middle, the film just gets lost.