KING KONG (2005)
Director: Peter Jackson
Genre: Adventure/Tearjerker
THE MOVIE:
King Kong has been around the block a few times. He starred in the classic 1933 movie and its sequel, a couple of Japanese movies (including one in which he fought Godzilla and in another he fights Mechanikong) and a 1976 remake and its sequel. And let’s not forget all of the giant ape copycat movies that Kong inspired. One could have been forgiven for thinking that the 2005 remake was less than necessary (especially after the disappointing Godzilla remake in 1998).However, when you have a filmmaker like Peter Jackson-who was at the height of his creative powers having just finished the Lord of the Rings Trilogy-it changes the equation a bit.
The most important factor was that Peter Jackson absolutely loves and respects the original 1933 movie. One has to only see the extras on the DVD of the original King Kong in which Jackson painstakingly recreates the lost Spider Pit sequence using only 30’s era technology. You can clearly see that this is the lucky guy who loves what he is doing.Again, I have to go back to Emerlich and Devlin’s Godzilla remake. Here were two guys who were given a brand and were told they could do what they wanted with it. They had no particular love or interest in the original series and decided to do a remake that had almost nothing to do with the original Godzilla movies. In contrast, Jackson took the original movie, knew there were things he could do to better realize it, and made a movie that might have been very similar to what the original filmmakers would have done if they had the 2005 technology at their disposal.We all know the story of Kong. We all know how it ends. But what really works in this version is the relationship between Anne Darrow (Naomi Watts) and Kong (mo-cap by Andy Sirkis, who did similar duty on Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies.) Really, the whole movie hinges on this relationship. In past versions of the story there is an element that is, shall we say…creepy…about this pairing. I think the previous versions of Kong have been informed by an idea that he represents a sort of primitive Third-World sexuality focused on this white blond woman, whereas, Peter Jackson’s Kong behaves more like a real gorilla. He is presented as being isolated on Skull Island and is the last of his kind in a hostile environment. Anne is equally isolated and afraid to reach out to anyone. The fact that these two are able to form such an important connection is very beautiful and touching and gives the movie its center, and makes this version of King Kong the great unconventional love story it was always meant to be. Respect for Watts and Sirkis for being able to bring this relationship to the forefront despite several layers of technology. Peter Jackson once again shows that he can make a big budget special effects movie that focuses on character, relationships and emotion.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
The greatest special effects application is the use of motion capture which allows Kong to be inhabited by actor Andy Sirkis resulting in an actual performance and not just an animation. This is part of the reason that the film is so successful and heartbreaking because you really feel invested in Kong as a character and not a guy in a monkey suit, a stop motion puppet, or a giant animatronic head.
There are a lot of special effects in this movie, from the obvious creature effects to the more subtle effects used to create or enhance environments. There’s nothing necessarily groundbreaking but all the effects are well executed.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Skull Island is crawling with monsters. There are dozens of dinosaurs, from T-Rex and Raptor analogues to larger sauropods. There are bugs galore, including giant man-eating wetas. There are some creatures that defy description such as one that I can only call the “Foreskin monster.”
Much like James Cameron's Avatar four years later, King Kong attempts to create an ecosystem (although an impossible one; Skull Island would have to be huge to support all of those dinosaurs). There is even a great companion book to the movie, The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island, which is book of concept art for the movie disguised as a guide book to the flora and fauna of the island. The main idea behind Jackson's concept for Skull Island is that it is a place where prehistoric animals never went extinct and continued to evolve for the last 65 million years, so they are not exactly as we know them from the fossil record (hence the V-Rex being slightly different from its extinct ancestors).
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
V-Rex Fight. Kong fights three V-Rexes, on a cliff, suspended on vines and on the ground, mostly while holding on to Anne. And the absolutely heartbreaking end of the movie.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
There have been several releases on DVD. The Extended Edition restores about 22 minutes of footage, including the river raft sequence that features an giant fish that resembles Giger’s Alien more than a little bit. Although, the movie does take its time getting going so the extra 22 minutes might be a dealbreaker for some people. There are plenty of other documentaries and extras.
Most, if not all, of these features are available on the Bluray version of the movie, which features both the theatrical and extended cuts. Like many Blurays, the featurettes and other supplemental materials are only available as branching features while watching the movie. What the hell is up with that anyway?
SEQUELS:
None planned or needed.
SEE ALSO:
King Kong* (1933), King Kong (1976)
TRAILER:
*The 2005 Collector’s Edition of the 1933 movie features extensive interviews with Peter Jackson in which he talks about his love for the movie. It also features a very interesting documentary in which Jackson’s 2005 Kong crew attempts to recreate the infamous and lost “Spider Pit” sequence using technology available in the 30’s. The documentary takes you through the whole process and you get to see the final recreation of that scene.
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