Saga Of The Apes

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.

While I wasn't a fan of the multi cam the way Bob pared up the movies was inspiring! Movies that I didn't enjoy before I was able to get a new appreciation for them here.

I now have a way to watch the original series in a way that I can digest because he also kept the run times low for these without feeling like we were missing anything. That is quite a feat.

This was the first movie from this editor that I have watched and I'm sure it will not be the last.

The movies are in SD format but I didn't knock any points off here for that.

Finally got around to watching this edit and it is just a super cool way to watch the whole darn Planet of the Apes saga in one sitting. (except Battle for the POTA, which is a fairly irrelevant and pointless sequel anyways) BionicBob is rapidly becoming one of my favorite editors. He has a real instinct for storytelling and maintaining the flow. The use of multiple scenes on the screen was remarkably effective in telling the dual stories simultaneously.

I still haven't been able to answer the question I raised in the forum, which was whether the story as it is cut could be made sense of by a novice to the POTA. I tried to get my 15 year old son to sit and watch it, but to no avail. He has only seen this 21st century versions and I wanted to see if he could follow it. If I get this done, I will report back.

This is a short review because I really don't have any nitpicks with the edit. Any nitpicks would be with the source material, outside the control of the editor.

Great job Bob and congratulations. Your creativity and technical acumen are outstanding.

Another keeper!

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.

This was long, but held my interest throughout.
BBob's editing choices were always inventive, often uncanny.
Excellent pacing, and the sprawling narrative was generally clean.

Saga Of The Apes presupposes the viewer has a working familiarity with the chimp flicks.
(FE stipulates viewers possess the originals.)
Fair enough. Were you going into this cold - you would be going out confused.
Third act seemed helter skelter - that could have been me.

Not a fan of split screen. Often confusing.
The screens themselves seemed smallish.

Audio fine. No jarring cuts or volume spikes.
Video was nice. No editing errors to my eyes.
(Note: I love The Carpenters. The shopping and the song? No no no.)

Highly recommended.
Great job, BBob