Saga Of The Apes

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.

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.

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.