King Kong (2005) Movie Information:

King Kong (2005) Directed by: Peter Jackson King Kong (2005) Written by: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens King Kong (2005) Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Kyle Chandler, Evan Parke, Lobo Chan, Jamie Bell, John Sumner, Craig Hall, Geraldine Brophy, Will Wallace, Joe Folau, Ray Woolf, John Clarke, Pip Mushin, Jed Brophy, Jason Whyte

King Kong (2005) U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures King Kong (2005) U.K. Distributor: UIP

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King Kong (2005) Synopsis:

Maverick filmmaker Carl Denham (Black) is determined to shoot his latest adventure flick on a mysterious, unexplored island, despite the fact his bosses want to close the picture down and his leading lady’s walked. With the authorities on his tail, he convinces Ann Darrow (Watts) to join him aboard the Venture — a ship which takes the actress to that very island to meet her giant-gorilla-shaped destiny…

King Kong (2005) Movie Review:

With his movie about to be taken out of his hands, director Carl Denham (Black) steals filmmaking equipment from the studio and charters Captain Englehorn’s (Kretschmann) ship the Venture. This is because he has procured a map to an undiscovered island that is filled with mystery, an ideal place to shoot his picture. All he needs is a leading lady to bring writer Jack Driscoll’s (Brody) script to life but as the Great Depression grips New York and no one wants to work with him, Carl sees a vision of beauty in Ann Darrow (Watts). When they finally arrive at the island, they discover a place that is completely out of time, filled with creatures that were thought to be extinct or shouldn’t even exist and natives that worship strongest of them all, Kong.

Hollywood’s obsession with looking to the past for ideas continues but when Peter Jackson announced he was going to remake the 1933 original you know that was going to be a special update of ‘King Kong’.

When it comes to remaking a movie that is rightly defined as a classic of its era you need to find someone who will pay homage to the original but be able to update it for a modern cinema audience and in Peter Jackson you have that filmmaker. When someone confesses that the original is his favourite film that made him want to be a filmmaker in the first place and that he has been wanting to remake it since he was twelve years-old, you know that you have someone who will treat the material with the respect it deserves.

The best thing about this new version of ‘King Kong’ is the decision that the filmmakers took to set the film in the original time frame. The 1933 setting allows Jackson and his team to utilise the skills they learnt on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy to recreate New York at that time and then really go to town on Skull Island. A modern Kong didn’t work in the ill-conceived 1976 remake and it wouldn’t especially have worked now, so a period setting was the best option and the ultimate homage to the original.

The production design on the movie is extraordinary with the boffins at WETA throwing all of their creative skills into the frame. The film combines the brilliant set design, astoundingly realistic miniatures and CGI effects that raise the bar again. From the recreation of New York during the Great Depression in the 1930s to the jungles and ruins of Skull Island, the film looks simply stunning throughout and shows again that anything a filmmaker can imagine is now possible on film.

The creatures of Skull Island also pay homage to era. The dinosaurs have the traditional look of how palaeontologists and filmmakers envisioned these creatures in 1933 and they have even included a giant iguana. The T-Rexs, brontosaurus and raptors look like their stop-motion brethren but with much more animation and realism that comes with the modern technology used to bring them to life. They also go to town on the insect inhabitants of the island to create a sequence that is not for the squeamish. This is the film at its most frightening and the reason for the 12A (PG-13) certificate.

The King of the creatures however is Kong himself. WETA digital and motion capture performer and star Andy Serkis set the standard with Gollum in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy but with Kong they have raised the bar to an unprecedented level. The huge gorilla looks real and is again brought to life via the brilliance of Andy Serkis. Peter Jackson’s virtual performer of choice dons the motion capture suit again to create the movement for Kong but it is the facial capture technology that really brings the character to life. This gives Kong a personality as he reacts to situations and creates a bond with Ann. These attributes make Kong the star and the battle hardened, lonely gorilla now has an even more emotional bond with the audience.

The human actors are much more fleshed out than in the original. Now with more than an hour worth of development time in the act, taking place in New York and on the Venture we become more invested in the characters. Jack Black’s Carl Denham is a man obsessed with his film and is willing to sacrifice anything to get footage that will make his name. It could have been so easy to make Denham the over the top villain of the piece but Jack Black makes him a character might be the most reprehensible person on the screen but he is one that you can’t take your eyes off. In a change from the original Jack Driscoll character, Adrien Brody now plays the character as a screenwriter and not as the Venture’s First Mate. This is a real leading man role for the Oscar winning actors and he does an excellent job in creating a 30s style screen hero with a heart. Kyle Chandler is excellent as 30s film star Bruce Baxter, who is obsessed more with saving his own skin than recreating his onscreen persona. Colin Hanks as Driscoll’s assistant Preston and Thomas Kretschmann’s Captain Englehorn are not as developed however. There is also a strange subplot about the relationship between Jamie Bell’s Jimmy and Evan Parke’s Hayes, which serves nothing to the main story and is completely forgotten about as soon as they leave Skull Island.

The star of the show however is Naomi Watts. Taking on one of the most famous female roles in screen history was always going to be an arduous task for any actress but she proves again that she is one of the best actresses working in Hollywood at the moment. Ann Darrow’s interaction with Kong has to be the heartbeat of the film and if it didn’t work, neither would the movie but Watts makes the relationship believable and plausible. She sees the giant gorilla for what he is, a lonely animal who just wants some company and it is the actress’s skill to portray emotions to nothing (because the CG Kong wasn’t there during filming of course) that makes the character so understandable.

The film isn’t without its problems however. The three hours plus running time might be far too long for some people to watch in one sitting at the cinema. The New York/Venture character development of the first act doesn’t all seem necessary and makes the film quite slow at first. The Skull Island sequence is slightly overlong with one too many set pieces. Also you can tell that the film needed a little more postproduction time, as some of the CGI isn’t as good in some scenes as it is in others, especially when it comes to hiding the fact that most of the scenes were shot against green screens. The film’s main failing is inherent of all remakes of classic movies, you know what is coming. The shortcomings of the original story also come to bear, with the lack of backstory about the history of the island been the most obvious failing.

‘King Kong’ is a labour of love for Peter Jackson and his team. While it might be slightly over indulgent in parts and in length, this still proves that the director is on his way to becoming a cinematic genius that he has already been labelled by some. Kong is as big a movie as the gorilla himself and shows again how big budget event movies should be made. The film is worth seeing for the final act alone as Kong rampages through New York and driven to scaling the Empire State Building. The visual effects for this sequence are quite simply stunning and some of the best ever put to film. This is a monster movie on every scale and one that shouldn’t be missed.

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King Kong (2005) review written by: Jamie Kelwick