Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 27, 2024

When you get right down to it, has there ever been a film less likely to engender not one but two long lived franchises than the original Planet of the Apes? That brilliant 1968 film had the benefit of a bristling and smartly humorous screenplay by Rod Serling (adapting a rather interesting and in some ways quite different source novel by Pierre Boulle of The Bridge on the River Kwai fame), one which in rather impeccable Serling style came replete with a big heaping dose of irony in the closing moments. But that very ending seemed to be rather "closed", in that it brought what really was another morality tale from Serling full circle (in more ways than one), with no obvious way for a sequel (or sequels) to follow. Aside and apart from more salient issues like an ability to offer a continuing narrative, there's the sidebar aspect of the now probably more observable quaintness of the special effects of the first film and its immediately subsequent outings that may admittedly have been state of the art (and Academy Award winning) at the time, but may have lead even enthralled viewers back in the day to whisper to some imagined individual on the creative staff, "Um, you do realize their mouths aren't moving, don't you?" By the time that Tim Burton got around to remaking Planet of the Apes in 2001, special effects wizardry had obviously, well (franchise pun forthcoming), evolved, and perhaps kind of interestingly, the surplus of sequels to the original film, follow ups which perhaps went to increasingly frantic efforts to keep the series alive, may have actually redounded to the benefit of a rebirth, since all sorts of nooks and crannies of that original series could be interpolated and/or explored in more depth, though not always with complete adherence to the original series' presentations.

One of the kind of darkly humorous things about the "first" series of Planet of the Apes films is how the second outing, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, arguably provided even more of an "unfollowable" denouement than the first film, to the point that the subsequent sequels had to do just a bit of tinkering with the timeframe in order to keep things alive. That struggle to develop a story that had had not one, but two, seemingly "final" outcomes courtesy of its first two installments, ultimately led to the creation of the character of Caesar, played by Roddy McDowall. Now admittedly the reboot's Caesar (Andy Serkis) was not exactly the same character, though he was still a highly evolved leader and fearless chimpanzee commanding officer. The whole time travelling or at least multiple timeframes approach suffused the Caesar focused sequels of the reboot series, including Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes.

Suffice it to say that the ending of War for the Planet of the Apes was another kind of ending as well, which may have necessitated yet another "now what do we do?" question from those tasked with carrying on the series. The answer, after a brief tethering segue to War for the Planet of the Apes, is to utilize the (again in more ways than one) "time" honored technique that both the original series and the reboot series have employed, namely shifting when everything is taking place. Somewhat hilariously, then, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, despite ostensibly moving things ahead several generations, in some ways simply gets the whole convoluted thing back to where it began, with highly evolved apes dealing with feral humans, even if some of that species is "evolved" in terms of being able to speak.

Kind of interestingly in that regard, it takes a while for a "formal" introduction of a human being (after a few fleeting glances and/or interactions), and per my above comment about the reboots "revisiting" the first series, albeit in sometimes tweaked ways, the focal human here turns out to be a young woman the apes name Nova, an obvious play on the character played by Linda Harrison in the first two films (with a later cameo that some may recall), even if her "real" name is Mae (Freya Allan). While the original Caesar is mostly the stuff of legend and lore in this story, and the focal chimpanzee has a name probably suspiciously similar to Nova's, Noa (Owen Teague). There is a Caesar in this tale, a villainous lout named Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), who has adopted the original Caesar's philosophy into a, well, tool to achieve his own ends.

The problem with a series (and you can read "series" as either singular or plural, I guess) like this is most of the "surprises" that any new effort might offer might have at least been hinted at in previous outings, and that's probably once again the case here, as much as the screenplay may attempt to misdirect and/or divert. There's as much internecine drama between various ape species here as there actually is between apes and humans (which itself may recall some films from the first series), and perhaps comically given all of the above mentioned "absolutely conclusive" finales that would seem to preclude any sequel, this one is obviously set up for whatever comes next, which looks like it might be yet another round of skirmishes between intelligent apes and intelligent humans.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I've often been on record stating I'm not always complete fond of Arri Alexa captures, but this is a stunning exception to that self created rule, one that according to the IMDb had a 4K DI. (Some scenes were evidently captured with a BlackMagic, according to the IMDb.) There's a frankly almost Avatar-esque ambience to the forested scenes in particular, and not necessarily just due to the prevalence of CGI, but take it as a compliment, one way or the other. While fine detail is probably even more gobsmacking in the simultaneously released 4K UHD version of the film, this 1080 rendering (emphasis on rendering, given the ubiquity of CGI) is simply excellent across the board. Fine detail on both animated and actual "real life" elements in the frame is typically excellent and there's a seamless artistry to the combining of motion capture with actual practical props (and humans). The outdoor material in particular pops brilliantly almost all of the time. There are a few passing moments of fairly minimal shadow detail that again probably see some improvement in the 4K UHD version.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I'm kind of "cheating" in a way by offering "only" a 4.5 score for this disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, and frankly the only reason I'm not scoring it at 5.0 is because the 4K UHD release of this film offers a Dolby Atmos track which is arguably just a tad more immersive. That said, if you're not set up to play an Atmos track, you're still probably going to be more than pleased with the near constant engagement of the surround channels on this track, courtesy of a story that is pretty much totally out in the great wild, where an abundance of ambient environmental effects ranging from breezes rustling through trees to the crash of oceans meeting shores regularly dot the side and rear channels. Scoring is also very well nicely splayed around the soundstage, offering a kind of subliminal blanketing of sound at times. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Inside the Forbidden Zone: Making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (HD; 23:25) is a decent EPK with some good production information including some training regimens, and quite a bit of candid footage.


• Deleted Scenes / Extended Scenes with Optional Commentary by Wes Ball (HD; 32:15)

Additionally a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You might be able to sense just a bit of lethargy or alternatively desperation to keep this franchise alive, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes succeeds more often than not in my estimation. The film is both visually and aurally glorious, and there are some really superb characters here helping to keep interest. Technical merits are first rate, though my personal recommendation is if you have a 4K UHD setup with Atmos to get that version. The two supplements are enjoyable. Recommended.