Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Through nearly a dozen films, a television series, and a misguided remake, The Planet of the Apes has proven to be a franchise worth revisiting with the right creative team. We’ve seen amazing Apes films and we’ve seen some darn retched ones. Of late, the franchise is now on a four-film winning streak thanks to a smart creative team and some incredible state-of-the-art visual effects. While the effects work help make the action and creatures believable, it’s the stories told that make them resonate. After Matt Reeves brilliantly wrapped up the Caesar trilogy with War for the Planet of the Apes, Wes Ball was given the unenviable task of finding a path for the series to continue. By and large, he succeeds with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 

Set generations after the death of Caesar, nature has reclaimed the earth and Apes reign supreme. Living peacefully in this new world is Noa (Owen Teague) and his Eagle clan of hunter-gatherers. On the eve of his passage into adulthood, his clan is set upon by an army of apes under the rule of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) while hunting one unique human female (Freya Allan). Forced into an uneasy alliance with the intelligent human, Noa must embark on a journey to free his clan from enslavement. 

Like most long-running franchises, I’m usually fairly skeptical when a new entry is announced. I’m hopeful it’ll turn out but I leave room so that if things go south any disappointment doesn’t ruin the day. That said, I was especially skeptical of Wes Ball being handed the reigns on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes after Matt Reeves brilliantly wrapped up the last trilogy. I always figured there’d be more films, just not when or in what direction would the franchise continue. After War for the Planet of the Apes I didn’t need another film, but ultimately I’m glad we got one. 

What I love about this particular film is that our story of Ape dominance over Earth hasn’t yet reached that zenith that we saw in the 1968 original. There isn’t any uniform governance in the various ape societies as they largely exist as separate, isolated, thriving clans. It’s when one of these peaceful clans runs into the whim of a demagogue who isn’t interested in the expansion and betterment of his species as much as preserving and expanding his power that things get interesting. Director Wes Ball and writers Josh Friedman, Amanda Silver, and Rick Jaffa find that perfect dichotomy between societies within Owen Teague’s Noa and Kevin Durand’s Proximus Caeser. That’s what works best for this film.

What I don’t think worked as well were the human characters. When we last saw our fellow Homosapians, they were on their way out, ravaged by in-fighting and infected by a disease that renders them mute and completely unintelligent. We have Freya Allen playing Nova who is different from all others like her. We immediately know she’s different because she’s relatively clean and wears pants, but she can also speak. Knowledgeable on a wide range of social-political issues and classic literature, she’s the kind of character that raises more questions than gives answers and the issue is compounded when William H. Macy’s Trevathan enters the film spreading into a whole subplot that will surely playout in later adventures.

Frankly, I think the film was far more interesting and powerful without the “human element.” We just got through three excellent films about the fragile relations between Apes and Humans. Returning to that thread after what is supposed to be hundreds of years into the future felt repetitive on top of the frustration that this seems like a setup for another Man vs Ape confrontation. The film’s final moments have more to do with leaving a window open for the franchise than it does with telling a complete and meaningful story. This isn’t to say that Freya Allan was bad in her role, she’s fine, and William H. Macy is decent enough but he often feels on autopilot and looks like he was abducted from an organic food co-op rather than a believable survivor of the fall of man. 

While far from perfect, I’ll say Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a solid first step of a new storyline. Rise of the Planet of the Apes wasn’t perfect either, but it spawned Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes which are two of the best in the entire franchise. I have to give this new story that kind of time to prove itself. We’re far from the low of 2001’s Planet of the Apes - so that counts for something! I just hope what comes next is worth the effort. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes conquers 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release. The 4K is pressed on a BD-66 disc (only using about 56 gigs used) and a Region Free BD-50 disc saved for the bonus features including the split-screen Inside the Lens Raw Cut. The discs are housed in a standard sturdy case with identical slipcover art. The disc loads to the standard Disney language menu before giving you the option of diving right into the film or going to the animated main menu. 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes continues the rather frustrating tradition of having the film only in HDR10 while Disney+ enjoys the full Dolby Vision HDR experience. That gripe aside, I am impressed with the overall on-disc results. Since there aren’t any extra features on this disc, virtually all of the 56-gig file space is used for the film. Bitrates may stick to the mid-to-upper 60mbps range but the image looks terrific with crisp sharp details. Compared to the Disney+ experience I thought the details looked cleaner giving us finer lines and textures, especially for our CGI ape cast. Our humans also look nice and lifelike with natural facial features. 

HDR10 might not offer the nuanced lighting schemes of the Dolby Vision grade, but I can’t deny the results are impressive. Regardless of HDR format, I appreciate this disc doesn’t have to deal with blocky unsightly black levels and shadows. My feeling for Disney+ streaming lately is that the quality just keeps getting worse so if you have a visually exciting feature like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes the best experience is going to be on disc. Colors are healthy with lovely primaries. Black levels are nice and inky with some gorgeous shadows. Scenes by firelight or when Noa is climbing the old skyscraper wreckage for an eagle egg look terrific. The sense of depth and dimension is also much more notable on this disc than the Disney+ stream. It might not be everything we’d hope for considering Sony’s new roll in manufacturing and distribution, but the transfer is a quality presentation.

On the Atmos side, the track is another solid effort. Without the need for volume adjustment, I’m starting to feel like the days of anemic middling Atmouse mixes are behind us. From the get-go this is an impressively immersive experience. That opening of the Eagle grabbing a fish out of the water to soar into the remnants of old skyscrapers as our young apes traverse the wreckage is some slick sound design work for subtle but immersive audio work. Throughout dialog is clear and at the front with plenty of activity in the sides and rear channels while the heights offer expansion and some exciting pinpoint effects. Anytime you have these monkeys zipping through the brush the feeling for vertical audio movement is quite exciting. Again levels are spot on without a problem there. I would have liked a little more rumble in the subs for some sequences, but for big action scenes and the film’s climax, there’s plenty of LFE to bring the mix to life. 

Bonus features for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a rather unique bunch. The 4K disc doesn’t feature anything because everything has been saved for the bonus disc. While we get a very good behind-the-scenes making-of doc and over half an hour of deleted/extended scenes, the main attraction is the Inside The Lens: The Raw Cut presented with DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio. Offering a split-screen experience, we see the finished film alongside animatics of storyboards, pre-viz VFX, unfinished renderings, as well as the live footage of the actors in their mo-cap suits playing their scenes. I don’t quite know if I needed the whole film like this, but it’s a very cool and unique extra. To make it more interesting, there’s an audio commentary for this experience with Wes Ball, Dan Zimmerman, and Erik Winquist offering ample discussion about how the scenes were captured, rendered, and the final edit. It’s not the biggest selection of extras ever but it’s very cool and unique giving fans a true window into the work that went into making this film come to life. 

• Inside the Forbidden Zone: Making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (HD 23:25)
• Deleted Scenes/Extended Scenes w/ Optional Commentary (HD 32:15)
• Noa, Soona, Anaya Climb First Ledge
• Noa, Soona, Anaya Post-Egg Climb
• Noa/Soona Hammock Talk Lightning & Sylva on Hunt
• Eagle Clan Prisoners
• Noa Dreams of Father
• Noa Meets Raka in Temple, Raka Shows Him Out
• Lightning & Sylva At Noa’s Campfire
• Noa & Raka Leave Airport
• Noa Chases Down Mae, Encounters Marauders
• Noa & Mae Talk About Dreams
• Entering Silo
• Anaya Stumbles
• Beach Walk - Ape Exodus 
• Inside the Lens: The Raw Cut (HD 2:24:47)
• Inside the Lens: The Raw Cut Audio Commentary featuring Wes Ball, Dan Zimmerman, and Erik Winquist

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes wasn’t perfect, but then after War for the Planet of the Apes, that’s a tough act to follow. Wes Ball and his writers not only had to introduce a new chapter in the Apes storyline but also prove this franchise is worth returning to. Some small stumbles with the human characters aside, they showed there’s plenty of life left in these damn dirty apes. I’m certainly intrigued to see where the story goes from here so hopefully, they’ve got something worth exploring in future films. Kingdom reigns supreme on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an impressive HDR10 transfer and Atmos audio. Sure I’d love to see more BD-100 discs and Dolby Vision employed, but what’s here is better than the streaming and I can’t complain about that. On disc, we also get to enjoy the surprisingly exciting and arresting Raw Cut version showing the final edit in finished and rough form simultaneously - and it's a fascinating watch. It might not be the best Apes film, but it’s entertaining, intriguing, and makes for a heck of a disc. Highly Recommended. 

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