Hollywood, bless its unoriginal heart, continues to churn out reboots and sequels that don’t improve on the original properties, clinging to the coattails of past glories like they've got a fear of the new.

Adapted from Pierre Boulle’s novel, the original five-film marathon kicked off in '68 with Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall under heaps of ape makeup. The twist ending? Earth itself was the "distant futuristic planet." Fast forward through some sequels, each more inventive and slightly bonkers than the last, and you've got yourself a franchise.

Then came Burton’s 2001 attempt, a reboot that felt more like a sleepwalk through the original, minus the punch of its twist ending. It was like watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat, only the rabbit’s dead, killed by the magician’s assistant.

However, in 2011, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" came along, which we covered last week, followed by "Dawn". Like a glimmer of hope in a sea of creative bankruptcy, they're a masterclass in how to breathe new life into a tired franchise. Instead of rehashing the same old story, the films zoom out for the long view, detailing how Earth became a planet of apes, starting from our own era. They demonstrated that you don't need to cling to the past; sometimes, a fresh start, a tight script and a focus on character development is all you need to tell a gripping story.

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