The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1668: Planet of the Apes, 2001 (Movie Adaptation Week)

I remember watching the original Planet of the Apes series when City TV would do marathons of them over the course of a day. Spending a whole Saturday on the couch watching this bizarre future history unfold was a lovely way to pass some of my adolescent time. But, as with the other movie adaptations I've reviewed this week, I've never actually seen this one.

I think perhaps that's a good thing - this way I can judge the piece on its own merits, rather than in comparison with its source material. And on that topic, you'll note that the cover says "Based on the motion picture screenplay," rather than being based on the film itself. I read a synopsis of the film, and the comic actually removes the "twist ending" from the film. Or rather, I think the film added something to the screenplay. Either ending didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. In the comic, it seems our hero Leo is going to go back in time and completely erase the future he's just helped to save, and no one seems to have a problem with this. And in the film ending, how the hell did the apes Leo defeated manage to travel back in time? Though, really, I ought to see the film before bashing it too much.

The edition I read today was signed and numbered by writer Scott Allie. I likely picked this up as a premium comic to sell at my store, though the lack of success of the film meant that the comic adaptation didn't really have a huge audience. Which brings me to an interesting question: who exactly is the audience for a movie adaptation? I suppose in the days of no streaming services or Internet, it was a way to relive a film that you might not have easy access to. But does something like this film, which would have hit home media very quickly, really need an adaptation? I suppose it speaks to people who would rather read a comic, or novelization, than sit and watch the film. And it's more portable, I suppose?

Anyway, it wasn't very good, all things considered. There was a strange propensity for the captioning to switch between past and present tense, which simply reinforces my idea that all comics publishers should be hiring ex-English academics as their editors. We do not miss stuff like that.

"Daena also knows that this she-ape wants more from Leo than a rescue."