It’s no secret that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a visual-effects-heavy movie. After all, there are only two human characters, and every other speaking part in the movie belongs to a CGI ape. But just because there are a lot of digital characters doesn’t mean the actors portraying them weren’t giving full performances. In fact, most of the characters were fully motion-captured, and the movie’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is here to prove it.
The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 4K set includes a special version of the movie, dubbed The Raw Cut, that’s a split-screen version of the entire movie — one side is the finished film and the other is stripped of all the film’s visual effects. In other words, it’s just the actors in their mocap suits acting out the scenes as their ape characters. (The Raw Cut is not included in the Blu-ray or DVD releases of the movie — just the 4K Blu-ray.)
On the one hand, this is probably a very awkward way to watch the movie in which you’re constantly confronted with the fact that the whole thing is just a bunch of people pretending to be monkeys. On the other hand, The Raw Cut is an excellent way to show off just how much work the actors are doing and how incredible their full-body performances are.
Showcasing the work of motion capture actors has never really been easy. First popularized with Andy Serkis’ performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002, unfinished footage of actors performing in mocap suits has provided insight into just how complicated the process is and how intricate the physical performance can be. But this Kingdom special feature shows one way filmmakers can show off just how incredible their films’ performers are, which is why it should become standard for every visual effects-heavy movie.
The 4K UHD Blu-ray version of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set to be released on Aug. 27. The Raw Cut will also include an optional commentary track featuring director Wes Ball, editor Dan Zimmerman, and VFX supervisor Erik Winquist.
