Saga Of The Apes

In his "About This Edit" segment, BionicBob wonders if he has made an edit that can please both Ape fanboys and Ape novices. Well, from what I've read of the other reviews, Ape fanboys are overjoyed with this. I hadn't seen any of the Apes movies (originals) besides the first one. Never saw a second of any of the sequels. (But I own the boxset, I'll take a picture for you if you want.)

So, can the non-Ape-initiated follow the plot? Can they get excited for these movies because of this edit? Does it make one want to watch all the Planet of the Apes films?

YES. YES. YES.

It's no secret that I do enjoy a BionicBob edit. I love the enthusiasm he puts into the projects - heck, you can even sense the enthusiasm and fun within the edits themselves and I've yet to be disappointed with anything he's released. Therefore, when he announced he was working on a two part edit on the Planet of The Apes movies, I was very eager to see what he'd pull out the bag this time for what was surely his most ambitious edit to date.

Now, I was fortunate enough to be granted a viewing of the workprint for Volume 1 which encompasses the original Planet of The Apes with the third film in the series, Escape From the Planet of The Apes, and as soon as I saw the "multi-screen" format (ala The Boston Strangler) being utilised I knew that this was going to have to be a very skillfully crafted piece of work, if the edit was to be successful. After all, having seen a few multi-screen movies over the years, it's quite easy to fall into the trap of trying to bombard the audience with too much information - Mike Figgis' ambitious, intriguing but flawed Timecode is one such example. For a faneditor therefore, the balance between too much and just enough is perhaps even more difficult to execute.

Volume 1, as stated previously, certainly lends itself to this style of storytelling more than the subsequent coming together of Beneath and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. What's quickly apparent is how well Planet and Escape compliment each other. Hence, Bob's nicely judged uses of the multi-screen format works like a dream and I'm not joking when I say if you didn't know any better, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is the way the films have always been presented. The extra polishing and tweaks here and there in the finished version as opposed to the workprint, push the quality that little bit further too, particularly in the excellent way the films end - perfect really. The use of quotes from the movies to split various sections works better than I initially thought they would. I was fearful that they would interrupt the flow of the edit, but in practice this is not the case at all; if anything it makes the story more thought provoking, especially as the quotes are so well chosen by Bob, who obviously knows the Apes saga inside out.

As for Volume 2? Well, I have to give huge kudos to Bob here, as Beneath and Conquest are nowhere near as natural a fit as the films used in volume 1, yet by the end of the edit he has completely drawn me into the two stories having a successfully linking narrative running through them. Whether this is in part due to the fact that I am very familiar with the films anyway, I'm not sure, but whilst the challenges such an edit as this must have presented would have been daunting to any faneditor, I can wholeheartedly say that in this case they were met head on and conquered in a way which I thought if not impossible, then certainly improbable. By the time the two films come to an awe inspiring climax worthy of Volume 1, I just turned to my girlfriend and said "amazing".

Technically, this is all but perfect both visually and sonically. Very occasionally the audio levels would fluctuate a little, but we really are talking "splitting hairs" kind of stuff here. Only on the DVD menu did I notice the sound being way too loud in the levels department. Talking of the DVD, there's a an interesting "About the edit" section and a few deleted scenes which are more than worth watching.

It's the editing which is what really makes Saga of The Apes so impressive though. I see a lot of fanedits, and enjoy the majority which I see. However, there are very few occasions which really make me stand back in awe and literally leave me speechless as to the achievement I've just witnessed. Well, BionicBob you're now on that very small list. A joy to watch for any Apes fan, this is quite seriously a big contender for fanedit of 2012, and if it isn't on the shortlist I will dress up as a gorilla and come looking for the people within the Academy who decided not to vote for it ;) A tremendous fanediting achievement.

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.

Great, great edit.

First of all, I would like to say that this edit is quite brilliant. No more so is this obvious than in the first volume. Telling the original '68 Apes film alongside '71's Escape is just a stroke of genius, to say the least. The two films parallel perfectly, and really accentuate the social commentary. That's not to say the second volume isn't well done either, because it is.

As a, practically, life long Apes fan, I've always been intrigued by the whole saga, and hope the storyline sort of loops and twists. I've always thought that there was some great potential for fan editing within the series, but could never think of a way to actually do it. I think BionicBob might have found that way. The structure here is outstanding - endlessly interesting, and altogether not hard to follow.

As I mentioned before, volume one is the real highlight. This is, mostly due to the source material. The two films just complement each other so well. Honestly, to echo a statement leeroy made, you could watch the first volume and be done. I'm quite glad that Bob split the parts in two because of this. I feel like I'll be revisiting vol. 1 more often than vol. 2, and it's good that I don't have to just stop half way through.

Again, that's not to say that volume two is bad. It's still quite awesome. The thing is, the two films within it, 70's Beneath and 72's Conquest, have very few parallels. So there's a lot less flow. Additionally, as much as I love both films, they feel a little inconsequential. A lot of the suspense is gone, especially in the Beneath portions. In fact, Beneath suffers a lot. It's shortcomings (lack of Heston, McDowall, a more original plot, etc.) are more greatly felt when placed against the other films. It's important to note that this isn't really something BionicBob could have fixed, or at least I can't think of a way. Though I must say that volume two was the only place I believe Bob made some choices that weren't the best. I think the focus needed to be on Caesar even more so than it was. In particular, I think more emphasis should have been placed on the scenes where he incites the other Apes to revolt.

Other than this stuff, I would say the edit is pretty much incredible. There are a lot of stuff that's great - a lot of highlights. But naming them all would take awhile because, like I said, this edit is exceptional.

What an excellent edit! What a labor of love! This is my new favorite way to revisit one of my favorite movie franchises of all the time. I get the complexity of your narrative, particularly on the first half. You made the much inferior "Beneath the Planet... " so much better and deeper on the second half.

The use of multiple screens is powerful and effective. The only constructive criticism I am going to share is in the audio editing department. There were some missed opportunities during the multiple screens sequences where overlapping soundtracks could have made the experience more powerful...but that's about it.

Overall for me this rates 10 out of 10.