Planet of the Apes 2001 vs Original movie, essay, article

MOVIEPROP.COM'S PLANET OF THE APES PAGES

Site Map>>Home>TV and Movie Pages>Planet of the Apes>2001 Movie>

Comparison to Previous Apes Films

Differences from the Original Movies

Ape Society and race

In the original Ape films chimapzeees, orangataun, and gorillas all had a different position of power in the world. The gorillas were soldiers, the chimpanzees were persecuted intellectuals, and the orangautans were politicians. The new movie has little such societal disctintion between the ape races. Chimapanzees are seen early on as soliders hunting humans in the 2001 movie, this is far different than the intellectual/war protesting chimpanzees seen in the original Apes movie and its sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes. A chimpanzee is even the villian in the 2001 movie which is a far cry from the original movies where chimpanzees were always the logical creatures who despised militarism in all its form.Orangautans however seem to be the politicans of this ape world much as they were in the original Apes saga however

*Read more about the Ape society from the original Planet of the Ape movies.

Humans are Smart in the New Film But still Dominated

In the original Apes film humans were dumb brutes, who died in Ape research, or spent all day scavenging for food. Its not too hard to fathom them being dominated by apes or any animal civilization for that matter. In the 2001 movie humans talk, make tools and use weapons, and gather in their own form of civilization. The Apes use them for research, and target practice, but also as a source of slave labor and pets. The new movie features a quite different human the original movies did. Not only are the humans able to communicate and reason; they also outnumber apes four to one. With the apes posessing no knowledge of guns and ranged weapons (except for General Thade toward the end) it becomes hard to believe that rational humans who outnumber apes could so easily be dominated.

Ape Science and Ape Technology

One of the original hallmarks of the original Apes movie (and TV Series) was the gorilla warrior on horseback shooting human prey with his rifle. The new 2001 movie features apes with no knowlege of guns at all, but instead features Gorillas with shiny ornamental metal armor and stabbing weapons. With no bow and arrow, no crossbow, and no catapults, the Apes learn how to craft metal without first learning how to create weapons that can attack from a distance. In addition to a lack of scientific knowledge in regards to weapons, the apes have no understanding of the principles of floating and water travel. The original Apes movies also presented a world of unusual scientific progress in which apes had machine guns, but no mechanical vehicles of any sort. The lack of ranged weapons coupled with a world where humans outnumber apes four to one makes it hard to explain how humans can be so easily controlled in the 2001 movie. What really sets this movie apart from the original is that an actual spacecraft with weapons and a nuclear power source is not studied or learned from at all. After its crash, its just abandoned by humans and apes alike who then form their own separate groups over time. Thade's father even posesses an original human laser gun, but it was not studied only locked in a vase. The original Apes film focused on two chimpanzee scientists and their theories of evolution and science. In the new 2001 film evolution is accepted by the apes but there appears to be no scientific foundation in ape society at all to come to such conclusions. A society without the science to produce ranged weapons would find it almost impossible to come to acceptance with evolution. The gorilla Krull powerfully and confidentally states that monkeys are below apes on the evolutionary ladder just above humans. But the entirety of Ape civilization seems to believe a single ape, Semos is the source of all ape life. So how can a society simaltaneously believe in evolution from humans and a single ape from which all apes sprung? Its like believing in Jesus and Darwin at the same time. In short Ape science is strange and illogical in what it has achieved compared to what it hasn't..

Similarities with the Original Movies

Both use time travel.

In the original Planet of the Apes movies a group of three astronauts crash land on a strange new world. By virtue of their traveling near the speed of light their perception of time slows, and they travel thousands of years into the future. Only one of the astronauts Taylor survives in the first movie. In the second movie, Taylor is killed right before he detonates a bomb which destroys the world. Three ape astronaut time travel and arrive in present day America at the start of the next film. The movie saga then continues forward telling the events that happened before the first and second Planet of the Apes films. In the 2001 movie one astronaut is propeled into the future via a means similar to that of the original movie. The human then travels back into the past and arrives on his world which is ruled entirely by apes which is quite similiar to the third apes movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes in which three apes arrive in modern america.

Both sagas have twist endings.

In the Original Planet of the Apes movie, human astronaut Taylor travels to the Forbidden Zone and discovers the top of the Statue of Liberty on the beach. Taylor then realizes that the world he is on ruled by Apes is his own world that was destroyed by greed and war. After human civilization ended, the Apes rose up as the dominant force on the planet. In the 2001 Planet of the Apes movie, human astronaut Leo travels to what he believes to be the Earth in the past. There he discovers Washington, D.C. with the Apelike Lincoln Memorial dedicated to General Thad. In this film's ending somehow Leo's world became dominated by Apes. Both of these films showcase an ending that uses a cultural icon (the Statue of Libery or the Lincoln Memorial) to illustrate that something drastic has happened to human civilization. An ending on a dark note with a twist that leaves viewers with something to contemplate about human civilization is the hallmark of both of these endings.

Ari plays a Zira like character

Ari the female chimpanzee human rights activist is in many ways a new version of Zira from the original Planet of the Apes films. Zira was a veterinary surgeon that performed brain research on human beings. When human astronaut Taylor arrived she risked everything to help him along with her husband Cornelius. Taylor even kisses Zira at the end of the first film. In the 2001 movie Ari while not one who dissected humans for science was a great believer in equality between humans and apes. Just like Zira, a chimpanzee kissed a human, Taylor in the original movies, Ari kisses a human Leo, in the new one. The original movie involved Zira helping human Taylor find his way to the Forbidden Zone. In the new movie Ari helps Leo find his way to the forbidden zone. So its easy to see that Ari's character basically fills the role that Zira played during the original Apes film.

RETURN TO PLANET OF THE APES PAGES