There are some movies that are hard not to get excited about when thinking of watching in 4k: Alien, The Godfather trilogy, and any of the elusive Star Wars films to name a few. Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) is one of them. Just imagine the memorable grunge match between Kong and two T-Rex’s in illustrious 4k.
This King Kong Ultimate Edition follows the release of the ‘Ultimate Edition’ on standard Blu-ray Disc back in February, that included both theatrical and extended editions of the film. Boy are we glad we waited for the Ultra HD Blu-ray edition.
Just how will ‘Kong’ be presented on Ultra HD Blu-ray? The video is formatted at 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio at 2160p resolution with High Dynamic Range color utilizing the REC 2020/HDR10 specs. What’s that all mean? It means ‘Kong’ will be sharper than ever before, with color depth not previously available in home media.
Audio also gets an upgrade from the standard Blu-ray edition. The soundtrack is formatted in immersive DTS:X and DTS:X Headphone for a whole new experience. However, if your audio system doesn’t support DTS:X the soundtrack is backwards compatible with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.
A Digital HD copy is also provided on this edition, as well as a code to redeem on iTunes (we’re not sure about Digital UHD – iTunes doesn’t even offer UHD yet).
Bonus material appears to be mostly the same as the Ultimate Edition Blu-ray release, but with audio commentary provided on the new 4k UHD disc. Extras on the bonus BD add up to over 13 hours including 2006 introductions from Peter Jackson, production and post-production diaries of the film, deleted scenes, plenty of featurettes and more.
Bonus Material
- Includes a digital copy of King Kong – Ultimate Edition (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)
- Features High Dynamic Range (HDR10) for Brighter, Deeper, More Lifelike Color
- Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer/Producer Peter Jackson and Co-Writer/Producer Philippa Boyens
- My Scenes
- BD-Live Features: My Scenes Sharing
- U-Control: Picture in Picture
- U-Control: The Art Galleries
- Feature Commentary with Writer / Director Peter Jackson and with Co-Writer / Producer Philipa Boyen
- 2006 Introductions by Peter Jackson
- Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong
- Production Diaries
- Post Production Diaries
- Deleted Scenes with Introductions
- The Eighth Blunder of the World
- The Making of a Shot: The T-Rex Fight
- Skull Island: A Natural History
- Kong’s New York, 1933
- A Night in Vaudeville
- King Kong Homage
- Pre-Visualization Animatics
- Conceptual Design Video Galleries
- “The Present”
- WETA Collectibles
- The Volkswagen Touareg & King Kong
- Trailers
King Kong Ultimate Edition on Ultra HD Blu-ray carries an MSRP of $39.99, but get a discount when purchased from Amazon (see updated price below).
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