Saga Of The Apes

Wow, just wow! As a longtime POTA fan/collector, I thought I had seen it all...almost to the point of being bored of the franchise. What used to be a yearly marathan (movies and tv series) for me slowly transformed into an "every 3 years watch" and eventually into "well one day I'll feel like watching it again".

Then Bionicbob announced his Saga of the Apes and I paid attention...then watched the two volumes recently and boy! He did it right! I just cannot imagine how many hours were spent into the planning alone for such an undertake. Also, it is well-executed: I personnally did not notice any sound or visual flaw. This new way of watching the franchise is absolutely amazing, it brought back my interest in those movies. I can already say that Saga of the Apes will deserve a yearly watch for me.

I do watch a lot of fanedits and I have to say that regardless of this one being based on one of my favorite franchises, I have to admit it is one of the most original fanedits out there (along with the Jaws sharkploitation edit) as far as originality is concerned.

One more thing: on disc 1, Bionicbob thanks his bride and daughter for their patience...well...please Bionicbob please forward a sincere "thank you" on my part to your bride and daughter for their patience! They allowed me and other people to enjoy a very entertaining 3 hours of your talent and dedication!

THANK YOU!
Eric

An GREAT fanedit with a very strong concept very well executed.
The first volume is simply amazing because movies 1 and 3 are echoing each other the best, IMO;
but volume 2 have very strong moments too and makes the overall saga complete.
I did not have any trouble following the different stories and my jaw dropped quite often during some very smart transitions.
When I'm talking about music I often says: "can you imagine if the Rolling Stones never wrote Satisfaction, or if Deep Purple never wrote Smoke on the Water?
Those songs would still be there somewhere, floating in the air for someone to catch them." Well, this fanedit is a bit the same: it had to be done.
I'm glad BionicBob was able to make it the way he did.
To me volume 1 is a perfect fanedit and the whole project including both volumes is something you NEED to see if you're a fan of those movies.

You know, I used to love my Planet of the Apes boxed set. Any time I wanted to get my Apes fix, I could crack open Caesar's bust, slide out any one of the classic movies, throw it in the DVD player and immerse myself in Apeland. Then bionicbob had to come along with this stupidly awesome fanedit and rendered my boxed set completely and utterly useless. Now Caesar's bust gathers dust: Alone, untouched, unwanted. What was once the proud centrepiece of my DVD shelf, Caesar now sits there, staring at me with dead eyes, wondering what happened to our relationship. I try to explain to him: Bionicbob happened.

I'm sure bionicbob will swear up and down that that this fanedit is meant to be an alternative viewing experience of the Apes universe and in no way intended to improve on the original version. Don't believe a word of it. In the span of 3 hours bionicbob has taken the essence of the Apes universe and created something remarkable. It's that rare moment in the fanediting world when creativity melds with technical prowess to create something truly special. Saga of the Apes is now the definitive entry in the POTA universe and one of the best fanedits I've had the pleasure of watching.

There's not much else to say except you really have to see for yourself the way the time lines are presented, the dots are connected, the parallels are revealed, and how the whole massive Saga is brought together as one coherent piece.

This is an instant classic of the fanediting world and everyone reading this should do themselves a favour and watch it. Now.

Overdue review from moi, but necessary.

This is quite an achievement both technically and narrative-wise. It elevate my enjoyment of these films to a new level, especially with the removal of poor material and adding the new. The use of split screens is great, and it is a form of storytelling that seems to have fallen by the wayside, so thank for shining a light on that too.

Overall, Highly recommended and a breath of fresh air frankly!

Bionic Bob has taken the two best sequels, which had great ideas executed poorly, and has made them a meaningful expansion of the original.


For this review, I'm going to break down each Volume SEPARATELY , since they're essentially separate films.
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VOL. 1 is framed around Escape from the Planet of the Apes, the best sequel. So it's no wonder it's the better Volume. The greatest strength of Escape was ironically also its greatest weakness, in that it was an ironic reversal of the first film narratively...
which is great... if you've seen the first film. A sequel must stand on its own weight, and the fact you can't watch it without the original as context means the ironic reversal would fly over a viewer's head. By basically taking Escape and cutting it together with the original film, you can now compare and contrast the two narratives as they play out together! You can see the similarities! Now you don't miss that ironic reversal. The only major problem with it is fixed, elevating it from an average film to a great one.
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VOL. 2 is framed around Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Essentially it is a suspense thriller, because we know what the lead characters are doing will cause the future destruction of the second film... but they don't know that...
which is great... if you've seen the second film. But if you haven't then the suspense would completely fly over your head, and you'd have no reason to be worried! So he simply cross-cuts between the second film and this one. It heightens the suspense! We see the future they're trying to prevent! We're afraid when we see them causing it!


The Planet of the Apes saga was always one I enjoyed the idea of, but it was always too poor in execution to enjoy. Having each Volume cut together two movies also gives him the ability to cut out the worst parts of both AND STILL have a feature length runtime. So you ADD missing exposition and LOSE bad scenes.
I now like to think this forms a nice little trilogy (Planet of the Apes, Saga of the Apes: Vol. 1, Saga of the Apes: Vol. 2)
Which serves as a companion to the prequel trilogy (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes).

Bravo, Bionic Bob.
~Silver Screen Samurai~
(PS some have said you need to see the original versions to understand this... not really, you only need to have seen the first one)