Yes, AEA, I realize that by the third movie they "chickened out" on the original (controversial) concept. So this would not be the first time an "Ape" movie did that.
I actually loved the first three "Planet of the Apes" movies, including "Escape" which offered this time-travel explanation of how the apes evolved. I found the ending to be so sad and horrifying for Cornelius and Zera, and at the time (I was a kid), I actually liked those final scenes with Ricardo Montalban at the circus. I was glad things worked out the way they did.
And it wasn't until later that I realized they had screwed up the whole clever and volatile idea of "reverse evolution."
The fourth Ape movie is pretty good, too, but again, they compromised the ending and actually reshot a lot of it, taking out much the violence and Caesar's final ruthless speech where he murder's the governor in front of the crowd. On the Blu-ray Disc, you can watch both versions, and it makes me mad now that they backed away from it. At the time, it was considered too much of a "terrorist"-type attitude, and the studio made them take it out. Makes the movie even darker than it already is.
And the fifth Ape movie REALLY sanitized everything at the end. That wimpy "can't we all get along?" coda was so horribly conceived. It felt like a sitcom ending to what had started out as a brilliant idea (with the first film and its source book).
The Burton reboot was awful, and this new movie looks like, once again, they're missing what is so special about the idea. It's not "humanesque" apes who challenge man's authority. It's the fact that they came from us, not that we came from them in the evolution chain. That's what really rocks the boat.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22