The well-known original premise stays intact in this remake and the story follows the same pilot - originally played by Charlton Heston in 1968 - who finds himself on a strange planet where apes are in charge and the world as we know it is turned upside-down.

Design, make-up and visual effects make this epic a huge Hollywood masterpiece with as much of the budget spent on advertising and PR as on the brilliantly real special effects.

A blockbuster that doesn't conform, Planet Of The Apes has refreshing energy and a playfulness that are enhanced by beautiful visual effects and a clever script.

Although there is no intellectually insightful dialogue, the banter between the characters is charming and engrossing.

Tim Burton has turned the drama into a high-speed adventure comedy that produces as many spine tingling moments as laughs.

Also, in part, a political satire, writers Lawrence Konner, William Broyles Jr and Mark Rosenthal have given the characters subtle charms which combine to create a challenging and witty undertone running parallel with the archetypal plot and scenarios.

Former pop star Wahlberg may be slightly stoic and wooden as Captain Leo Davidson, the marooned astronaut.

He comes across as the generic hero, but the other cast members hold the piece together and produce a vibrancy and a sense of humanity from deep within their monkey masks.

Helena Bonham Carter is elegant and alluring as the female chimpanzee.

Tim Roth plays a blood-curdling, murderous ape-demagogue with the unbelievable ability to exude evil aggression from beneath six inches of make-up.

Charlton Heston could not stay away from this project and returns with a cameo role as the dying ape-patriarch.

Tim Burton's previous work includes the Batman trilogy, and the panache that was the trademark of those superhero films is clearly evident in Apes.

Dark, morose and deeply interior, every character has a striking charisma; the sets are splendid and the effects are spectacular.

To add to the exciting direction, six-time Academy Award-winner Rick Baker has done it again with his stunning make-up skills.

Hanging from trees or riding horses. Leaping high off walls or loping along on all fours, these armoured, uniformed apes in action convey the sense of another world with beautiful and terrifying clarity.

Without excessive animatronics or digitisation, the film has a believably human feel.

Overscaled and grandiose throughout, the ending that jolted so many cinema-goers in the Sixties is not in the least disappointing in the 2001 version.