War For The Planet Of The Apes: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
When Caesar’s ape community is discovered by a small band of humans, both species must battle to survive. Ultimately, after suffering unimaginable losses, Caesar resolves to avenge his kind, pitting him against a human army in an epic showdown that will determine the future of the planet.
These new bunch of Planet Of The Apes films have really set in motion a fantastic story that I never really knew that I wanted so of course I’ve been highly anticipating this one. In this film they do a great job at establishing the future story without having to address or call back to anything that came before. There was a fair share of emotional moments when dealing with Caesar’s cause and seeing his world collapsing around him. I loved the continuing overall story and with each film it feels closer and closer to the original Planet Of The Apes films. It’s impressive how this story has gotten me completely behind Caesar as opposed to the original Planet Of The Apes film where you wanted to root for the humans. The one thing that was a bit weird was that the previous films were a lot more serious in tone but this one had a lot of humor thrown in. I’m not completely opposed to it but it did feel like it did take me out of certain moments where there should’ve been a bit more seriousness. In the end I totally loved the film though and I really hope that that they continue to push the story along to the point where it leads right into the Charlton Heston original. I can easily recommend picking this one up if you haven’t already. Definitely a great movie to check out. 8/10
4K Presentation:
This is another case where there isn’t too much of a difference between the standard Blu-ray and the 4K release. In comparison I really didn’t see a huge change in quality except for a few instances here and there but it was mainly during scenes that involved battle and fighting. Those scenes looked really nice and you could see plenty of detail and clarity in the landscapes and the apes themselves. Nothing too extravagant here as far as the presentation goes but it still does look good.
Special Features:
Waging War for the Planet of the Apes – A “Making Of” feature that includes interview from the cast and crew as well as film clips.
All About Caesar – This focuses on the main character of the film and goes in depth about the motion capture and CG creation of him.
Deleted Scenes – An interesting collection of scenes to check out mainly because it does show human actors acting against people in motion capture suits.
WETA: Pushing Boundaries – A great look at all the special effects in the film.
Music for Apes – This feature focuses on creating the score for the film with composer Michael Giacchino.
Apes: The Meaning of It All – A really good look back at what the franchise has become over the years all the way back to the original films.
The Apes Saga: An Homage – Another good feature that looks back at the previous films and talks about some of the concepts behind them.
Audio Commentary by Director Matt Reeves
Concept Art Gallery
