No surprise here, I still really enjoy this movie and now having it on Blu-ray is an added bonus, even if the new special features don’t particularly sweeten the deal.
Fox is debuting the entire Planet of the Apes original franchise films on Blu-ray and you can buy each of them individually or as one mega collection as 2008 is the 40th anniversary of the original film that started it all, and this set and its features are out to remind you of what kind of impact the film had, especially on marketing, which seems to be a major point they wanted to get across here.
Before I say anything more about the features I will say this film is one I can see easily polarizing audiences as well as those, like myself, that agree with both sides of the conversation but manage to enjoy the film just as much for its weaknesses as they do for its strengths. Quite simply, this is not that great of a film when it comes to acting and dialogue. I personally think Charlton Heston is a nightmare to watch on screen as he comes off as one of the more egotistical actors I have ever seen. Luckily for this flick it doesn’t depend on acting or dialogue, it simply needs the actors to show up and read the lines because its concept is the big draw.
Imagine an upside down world (what’s the chair doing on the ceiling?) where humans have devolved to the point apes are the dominant mammals. Primates have become able to walk, talk and reason just as the humans did before them. Only a few apes know the truth and have chosen to hide it from the majority and have no interest in learning more knowing simply that humans caused their own demise. The idea is telling and could even be prophecy. This is what makes this film so fantastic. It is hard for me to remember a film that was just barely able to keep me captivated throughout only to throw me for such a loop at the end. It isn’t as if the ending is that much of a twist as much as it is an eye-opener once you really start to think about it.
The idea is certainly covered in the accompanying features, but a lot of them you have seen before including an actors and make-up artist commentary, the Jerry Goldsmith composer commentary, a mind numbing text commentary from Eric Greene, author of “Planet of the Apes as American Myth” and a two-hour documentary hosted by Roddy McDowell. There are also several before-seen mini featurettes looking at the make-up, trailers, vintage featurettes, etc. However, there are a few new goodies to take notice of.
First is the BONUSVIEW pop-up feature that plays as the film plays. This feature is described as “Science of the Apes” and from that angle I personally wasn’t all that interested since a lot of it isn’t all that new. After all, this is a 40-year-old film based on a 45-year-old book; I think the science of it has been discussed enough. However, this feature isn’t anywhere near being an abundant one. It only pops up a few times throughout the feature and may be of interest to many as a result, at least an unobtrusive interest.
The features called “Evolution of the Apes” and “Impact of the Apes” take a look at the adaptation of the Pierre Boulle’s original novelization and its transition to the screen despite Boulle’s insistence the book wouldn’t adapt well to the big screen as well as the obvious impact the film had on movies, primarily the marketing of them. “Impact of the Apes” takes an interesting look at how producer Arthur P. Jacobs had a pretty big marketing failure with Doctor Doolittle in 1967, which caused Fox to go light on marketing Apes in terms of toys and other movie merchandise, but once it was a hit they went hog wild and this featurette serves as the proof.
There are also a couple of goofy features by way of the “Beyond the Forbidden Zone” DVD game and a drummed up PSA from ANSA, the space program that sent Taylor and friends into space. The game is a trivia feature that plays during the film. I fooled around with it a little but found I didn’t care about a trivia game about apes and quit. The PSA is not at all interesting, at least not to me. Then again, I like movies for the movies and that’s what makes this disc a solid buy. I do, however, think die-hard fans of the Apes films will have a lot of fun with the new interactive features, as well as the in movie trivia game so don’t make your decision on those based on my jaded opinion.
Overall, you have your options of individually released titles or the set of all five films in the Planet of the Apes franchise as well as an unrated version of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes that is eight minutes longer. You can click here to take a peek at all of your options.
