Summer isn’t even over and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is already at home (as are Furiosa, Bad Boys: Ride or Die and many other summer movies). I’ll never get used to this, but this sequel was a worthy addition to the franchise and worth adding to our collections.
They still look like real apes in 4K. Environments are a little glossy as most are digitally enhanced. The moonlight scenes at night are stunning.
Sound creates the scope of an environment fully overrun by nature. Nature sounds like chirping and eagles flying around, swooping behind you, make you feel you’re in the kingdom.
More of a rarity in newer releases is the full behind the scenes feature on the making of Kingdom. Footage of the actors in motion capture suits with dots performing the ape acting is really interesting to see. This also covers how they did the eagles, but seeing actors train to be apes never gets old. This is a new cast so they’re fresh.
32 minutes of deleted scenes are most interesting as Lightning shares wisdom with Noa. Most of these are unrendered as apes, so you get to see the actors perform full scenes without animation.