Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * * *
We live for the moment which leaves us breathless, stunned and awed, the moment in which you can physically feel the jaw drop, the mouth salivate, the senses work overtime, unless you cling to the life of the ordered monk, the embittered human of little necessity and dull unenquiring mind, then the wow factor is an emotion to which the world loves to share, to see our eyes blaze with sheer wonder.
In art, we perhaps have got used to that moment, arguably we are led into it in the modern sense by the feeling of the overwhelmed, consumed rather than participating, the expected rather than the shock, and it is to the past that we might find solace from the continued waves of the predictable forced upon us in the present day media offerings, where snippets and previews, the sensation of being invited to see the reveal before you have even had chance to hear the opening line.
It is surely in the hands of the original Planet Of The Apes film that the finest reveal of them all has taken place, the moment in which Charles Heston, the epitome of rugged American film star appeal to a generation sees the proof of humanity’s divine fall as he looks upon the symbol of a crowning achievement, laid waste.
Until the series reboot in 2011, the themes and sheer honesty of the series could arguably be seen to lose its way, the spectacle had gone, the thought of studio dollar signs replacing the will to look deeper into the mythology of the period, the parallels with the insidious nature of racism, of animal rights issues, of class division were still there, but they had become second fiddle to the notion of churning out more films whilst the appetite was fresh.
By caving into the Box office whims, the series missed out on a crucial part of the play between humans, notably Heston’s astronaut George Taylor, and the combination of ape/chimpanzee/orangutan society, and this missing link should be seen as creating a void of appreciation which has lasted for fifty years, and until Andrew E.C. Gaska had the foresight and dream to create the world in between, as it is suggested, the tantalising continuation of what happened between the ending of Planet of The Apes and the moment where Zira, Milo and Cornelius are unveiled at the start of Escape From The Planet Of The Apes; The Terrifying Final Days Of Taylor.
Pierre Boulle’s original novel, La Planete des Singes may have been the catalyst to the fear, tension and sheer understanding of humanity’s own downfall by its own inability to grasp that racial divide is an insane premise for survival but it is surely in Andrew Gaska’s fantastic and brutal insight to all those missing moments that restore the idea of the jaw drop to its rightful place.
Such a project could fall without intricacy and an absolute working knowledge of the subject matter, and in Death Of The Planet Of The Apes the reader should be ready, to steady themselves for a story that cascades over them like Niagara Falls, the chilling battle, the confrontation between the reader’s soul and the climax to which, like the original film, does not deceive or let down.
The web of the story may be complex, multi-stranded, but it is one that is beautifully framed, elegantly detailed and one that ruffles the feeling of fear that humanity is just a short step away from its own hand pressing the destruct button.
A story which refuses to let go of the tight grip it installs on your mind from the opening pages, one in which finally the fans of the series get to understand the futility of our existence whilst we continue to bicker amongst ourselves over territories bound by nature, and by instinct.
Bold and demanding, Death Of The Planet Of The Apes is outstanding.
Ian D. Hall