--- title: "Planet of the Apes" year: 2001 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes-2001" fi1m_score: 40 critics_score: 34 critics_reviews: 15 published: "2026-09-19T16:51:49.149177+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:52:09.401398+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Planet of the Apes (2001) Directed by Tim Burton · 2h 00m · MPA PG-13 · Thriller, Science Fiction, Action, Adventure **Fi1m score: 40** · Critics 34 from 15 reviews *In a sentence:* Tim Roth throws himself at the walls while Mark Wahlberg waits, politely, for the film to end > Tim Burton’s return to the ape planet has superb make-up, a furious Tim Roth and nothing for its human lead to do. Handsome, occasionally alarming, and dull for most of its middle hour; most critics were unimpressed, and so were we. ## Synopsis Aboard a space station, Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) trains chimpanzees to pilot pods. When an electromagnetic storm approaches, one of the chimps is sent into it and vanishes. Leo takes a pod after him against orders, is thrown through the storm and crashes on a jungle planet where humans run through the trees from apes on horseback. He is netted along with Daena (Estella Warren) and her father Karubi (Kris Kristofferson) by soldiers under the gorilla Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), and sold in the ape city by the orangutan trader Limbo (Paul Giamatti). Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), daughter of Senator Sandar (David Warner), buys him, arguing humans deserve better. General Thade (Tim Roth) wants every human dead. Leo wants to get off the planet, and Thade wants him caught first. ## Review Tim Burton did not want to call this a remake, and it was sold as a re-imagining of the 1968 [*Planet of the Apes*](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes), which Franklin J. Schaffner made from Pierre Boulle’s novel. The distinction matters less than it was meant to. This is the same story with the furniture moved: an astronaut crashes on a world where apes rule and humans are hunted, and has to get home. Burton has spent 120 minutes on it, and the result is a poor film with some fine things in it. Most critics said so when it opened, and we are not going to argue. The opening is the best of it. Danny Elfman’s credits, drums and a low male chorus over Rick Heinrichs’s ape armour, helmets and breastplates turning slowly in the dark, promise something heavy and strange. Then we are on a space station, where Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) trains chimpanzees to fly pods, an electromagnetic storm arrives, and he goes after a lost chimp against orders. The crash and the first chase through the forest, Philippe Rousselot lighting the trees a wet grey-green with mist hanging between them, are done with real pace. For twenty minutes we thought the reviews might have been unfair. The apes are the reason to stay. The make-up lets the actors work their faces: brows lower, lips curl back, teeth show, and you can read a thought crossing an ape’s mind. Tim Roth’s Thade, a chimpanzee general who wants the humans wiped out, is the performance everyone remembers, and rightly. He moves in bursts, dropping to all fours, hurling himself at a wall, then going still and quiet, and when he leans into a captive’s face and breathes in, we were frightened, briefly, and grateful for it; nothing else in the film manages that. Helena Bonham Carter, as Ari, the senator’s daughter who keeps humans as a cause, does the opposite job, holding still so that the eyes do the acting, and she is good. Paul Giamatti’s Limbo, an orangutan who sells humans by the cage, is given the jokes and lands them. Michael Clarke Duncan carries Attar’s gorilla bulk as if he had always had it. The humans are the problem. Wahlberg plays Leo as a man who would like to leave, which is the character, but he plays it with so little variation that by the middle hour we were bored and then puzzled: the film keeps asking us to follow him and never gives us a reason. Estella Warren’s Daena is there to be looked at and to be told to run. Kris Kristofferson, as her father Karubi, is on screen long enough to be recognised. The screenplay, by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, hands the apes lines from the 1968 film turned inside out, and every time it does we were pulled out of the picture to notice the joke. The middle is a trek: escape, forest, pursuit, camp, argument, forest again. Joel Negron and Chris Lebenzon keep it moving, but nobody has explained what it is moving towards, and each scene is shaped around the next chase rather than the people in it. The final battle is fought at dusk on a dry plain, and in the wide shots it is hard to tell one ape from the next; the geography goes and the stakes go with it. Elfman’s score, so good at the start, pounds through all of this at one volume. Burton’s better films, *Batman* (1989), [*Ed Wood*](https://film.one/film/ed-wood) (1994) and *Sleepy Hollow* (1999) among them, are about odd people in worlds that do not want them, and he plainly likes his odd people. Here the only one he seems to like is Thade. The 1968 film was a satire; this one is an action picture that has borrowed the satire’s props and put nothing behind them. Nobody says anything about humans and apes that a twelve-year-old has not already thought of. The last few minutes take a turn we will not describe, except to say that we sat up, and then realised the film had not earned it and was hoping we would not check. See it for Roth, for Bonham Carter and for the first reel. Bring something to do during the middle. *Fi1m score 40, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics dislike Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, and they dislike it for the same reasons. Thirteen of fifteen reviews are negative. What praise there is goes to the ape make-up, which nearly everyone judges first-rate, and to the actors working underneath it, Tim Roth above all, with Helena Bonham Carter a frequent second. Several also admire the opening sequence and Burton’s eye, and concede the film is handsome enough to look at. The reservations cluster on the story. Critics call the script thin, muddled and short on ideas next to the 1968 original, and most find Mark Wahlberg a bland lead. Many note how little of Burton’s usual strangeness survives. The spread is narrow: almost every review sits around the same low mark, and only The New York Times comes out in favour, finding wit and energy the others miss. The Evening Standard goes further than most, objecting to what it reads as a racist allegory. ### Reviews we read (15) - **The New York Times**, Elvis Mitchell (70/100, inferred): The critic finds glimmers of wit and energy in Burton's remake, praising the graceful opening and the film's visual style with a hint of schlock. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/27/movies/film-review-get-your-hands-off-ya-big-gorilla.html) - **Radio Times**, Andrew Collins (3/5): It is a mixed re-imagining with upgraded ape make-up allowing strong performances from Roth and Bonham Carter, but the story is slight and convenient with no emotional depth for Wahlberg; the twist ending works but quoting the original feels wrong. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-e5jtmr/planet-of-the-apes/) - **Time Out**, TCh (40/100, inferred): The review describes Burton's re-imagining as facetious and forgettable, owing as much to pop ephemera as to its themes; it notes visual élan and strong ape performances (especially Roth) but criticizes the slapdash narrative and climax. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/planet-of-the-apes) - **Empire**, Angie Errigo (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film visually striking with strong make-up and effects work but criticizes it as dramatically thin and unengaging, with weak lead performances and little socio-political depth. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/planet-apes-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (30/100, inferred): Burton's visual gift is on display but the film is disappointingly not very fun, lacking surprise despite strong performances like Tim Roth's evil ape. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jul-27-ca-27032-story.html) - **Screen Daily** (30/100, inferred): The critic calls it a truly mediocre picture that lacks Burton's singular vision, suffering from a pallid Wahlberg performance, confused storytelling, lack of dramatic momentum, a disappointing twist, and a mish-mash of visual styles. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/planet-of-the-apes/406412.article) - **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (30/100, inferred): The critic highlights how the film's promising opening credits sequence, scored by Danny Elfman, sets up expectations for a superior movie that the rest of Tim Burton's misguided 2001 remake fails to deliver, devolving into poor execution after the credits. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-opening-credits-promise-a-better-apes-movie-than-ti-1798275641) - **The Guardian**, Philip French (30/100, inferred): The critic finds Tim Burton's remake bland and idea-light compared to the 1968 original, relying mostly on special effects and prosthetic make-up rather than satire or surprise. He singles out the faultless make-up and a brief, amusing moment featuring Charlton Heston for minor praise amid an otherwise disappointing re-imagining. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/aug/19/philipfrench) - **The New Yorker**, David Denby (30/100, inferred): The film is spectacular but empty, with Tim Roth as the standout ape; Burton's dynamic style fails to match the original's intelligence and emotional pull. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/08/06/misanthropes) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (30/100, inferred): The pairing of Burton and the material is a mismatch; the reworking is listless, witless, conventional and lacking Burton's trademark weirdness. [Read](https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/planet-of-the-apes-3-1200469014/) - **Evening Standard** (10/100, inferred): The critic dismisses the film as expensive but dramatically inert summer schlock that fails as witty satire or suspense and carries an unwelcome racist allegory by equating apes with Black characters and post-colonial themes. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/planet-of-the-apes-7433892.html) - **Vulture** (10/100, inferred): The piece ranks the 2001 film last among Apes movies, describing it as a complete disaster with lazy storytelling, inattention to detail, and a lack of Tim Burton's characteristic curiosity, despite an intriguing ending. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-best-planet-of-the-apes-movies-ranked.html) - **Eye for Film**, Stephen Carty (40/100, inferred): The re-imagining falls way short of expectations despite strong ape makeup effects and standout performances from Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter. It plays like a compromised popcorn adventure with little of Burton's usual quirkiness, bland human leads, and a muddled story that hints at behind-the-scenes problems. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-planet-of-the-apes-film-review-by-stephen-carty) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (D): The critic finds Burton's reimagining devoid of personality or fun, resulting in a humorless and forgettable film whose action climax is obscured and ineffective. [Read](https://collider.com/planet-of-the-apes-remake-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Carley Tauchert (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the 2001 Tim Burton remake underwhelming overall, with an undercooked script that lacks the stakes and depth of the 1968 original and a miscast lead in Mark Wahlberg. The standout element is the impressive prosthetic ape makeup and performances, achieved through practical effects and ape school training for the actors. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/revisiting-tim-burtons-planet-of-the-apes/) ## Details - **Director:** Tim Burton - **Director:** Tim Burton - **Screenplay:** William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal - **Novel:** Pierre Boulle - **Cinematography:** Philippe Rousselot - **Editor:** Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron - **Music:** Danny Elfman - **Production design:** Rick Heinrichs - **Producer:** Richard D. Zanuck - **Cast:** Mark Wahlberg as Captain Leo Davidson; Tim Roth as Thade; Helena Bonham Carter as Ari; Michael Clarke Duncan as Attar; Paul Giamatti as Limbo; Estella Warren as Daena; Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Krull; David Warner as Sandar - **Runtime:** 2h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 27 July 2001 - **Genres:** Thriller, Science Fiction, Action, Adventure - **Budget:** $100 million - **Box office:** $362 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-a4eIA8KWM ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, hd - Disney+: add-on, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $4.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Planet of the Apes* (1968), Fi1m 84: The original: slower, stranger, and it actually has something to say about us — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes.md) - *Fantastic Planet* (1973): French animation in which humans are kept as pets; the allegory the remake misplaced - *Ed Wood* (1994), Fi1m 84: Burton with an outsider he loves, and the difference shows in every scene — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ed-wood.md) - *Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes* (1984): Actors in ape suits who make you forget the suits; patient and oddly moving - *Rise of the Planet of the Apes* (2011), Fi1m 80: The reboot that got it right, with a chimp who is the best thing in it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes-2001