Skip to content
Dan Owen reviews
- Cert:
- Running time: 187 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Released: 15th December 2005
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Director:
- Peter Jackson
(Bad Taste, Braindead, Meet The Feebles, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy)
Producers:
- Jan Blenkin, Philippa Boyens, Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh
Screenplay:
- Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
(based on a story by Merian C. Cooper & Edgar Wallace)
Cinematographer:
- Andrew Lesnie & Derek Whipple
Music:
- James Newton Howard
Cast:
- Ann Darrow: Naomi Watts
Carl Denham: Jack Black
Jack Driscoll: Adrien Brody
Preston: Colin Hanks
Capt. Englehorn: Thomas Kretschmann
Jimmy: Jamie Bell
Hayes: Evan Parke
Lumpy & Kong: Andy Serkis
Bruce Baxter: Kyle Chandler
Herb: John Summer
Move over Mr Spielberg, Peter Jackson is now the undisputed grandmaster of blockbuster cinema.
Hot on the heels of his phenomenal success withThe Lord Of The Rings trilogy(11 Oscars for the final movie alone…), Jacksonturned his attention to his dream project – a remake of his favouritechildhood movie, King Kong (1933).
In the famous story, Naomi Watts plays Ann Darrow, a down-on-her-luck NewYork vaudeville actress recruited by struggling director Carl Denham (JackBlack) to film a movie on the uncharted Skull Island, along with playwrightJack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) and the motley crew of The Venture.
Once there, the team discover Skull Island is populated not only by a savagetribe of people hidden behind a collossal wall, but also with giant monsters- in the shape of dinosaurs, huge bats, enormous insects and the titular25-foot gorilla known to the natives as Kong…
Its a straight-forward B-movie plot, already known to everyone after 72years of exposure to the public consciousness. Even if youve never seen theoriginal 1933s adventure, the iconic image of Kong straddling the EmpireState Building swatting bi-planes out of the air is the stuff of movielegend.
In translating King Kong for the 21st Century, Jackson brings a superlativelevel of visual complexity to the screen – as you’d expect. Movie monstershavent wowed the imagination this much since Spielbergs dinosaurs firststomped across our screens back in 1993. Perfecting techniques usedthroughout Lord Of The Rings, WETA Digital Workshop have again set a newbenchmark for the rest of the industry to aspire to. British actor AndySerkis (LOTRs Gollum) “plays” the titular ape thanks to motion-capturetechnology that brings realism to Kong that the original, and its disastrousman-in-a-monkey-suit 1976 remake, could only dream of.
Kong is simply a thing of sheer beauty here. He fights, he runs, he swings,he leaps, he chest-beats, he breathes, he sulks, he laughs he lives! Inmany ways the success of the movie relied on the success of Kong’sperformance, and the digital characters ability to believably interact andemote with the human cast and the WETA crew nail it to perfection.
Huge plaudits must also go to Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts, given a fairlyrudimentary character on the page, but able to make Ann Darrows curiousrelationship with Kong utterly believable. A scene where Ann and Kong”ice-skate” together in Central Park, before the great ape climbs to hiseventual doom, is just pure magic, and sure to tug at everyones heartstrings. Amazingly too, the fact everyone knows the ending actually works inthe movies favour – as the incessant whine of approaching biplanes brings amelancholy feel to the great apes last stand.
Elsewhere, production values are all superb – particularly the impressiveCGI rendering of 1933 New York City, being so realistic its not evennoticeably a special-effect. As always in movies of such mammothundertaking, there is the odd effects moments that could have done withfurther polishing: a dinosaur stampede suffers from some badly compositedshots, and a sequence with a pole-vaulting native is below par and sillyanyway – but these are very minor quibbles in an otherwise unrivalledproduction.
The actors involves all do a very good job, particularly Watts and Serkis asalready stated, but the greatest surprise in some ways is Jack Black as CarlDenham. Black is most famous as one-half of a comedy rock band Tenacious D,and as an anarchic comedian in films such as School Of Rock, so to see himprovide a credible and engaging performance of such seriousness is verysatisfying.
Adrien Brody does solid work, but his character is rarely more than a plotdevice to help push events along. Still, in earlier scene when his characterlooks to be more prevalent than he eventually becomes, Brodys brings hisusual goofy hangdog charm to proceedings, before the ape takes over and hisinvolvement becomes sidelined.
If there is a genuine problem with King Kong 2005, its the running time.King Kong is big in man ways. At three hours, the movie is twice the lengthof the original – yet tells basically the exact same story. Jackson takes anhour to set-up his characters before they arrive on Skull Island, thenoverloads a mid-section with far more monster set-pieces than the originalhad, before the admittely well-judged final act in New York.
Personally, I thought the set-up was slightly too long, but never boring.The promise of what lies ahead makes it a worthwhile wait – although Imsure DVD will ensure a quick leap to the Skull Island meat of the movie…
Admittedly, there are so many perils involving monsters throughout Act IIthat the dramatic adrenaline rush of such scenes slowly begins to diminishafter the initial excitement. However, such flaws never ruined themoviegoing experience for me. A popcorn film being criticized for having toomuch character set-up and monster fights is generally in a good position…
Overall, King Kong is a resounding chest-beating success. Jacksons lifelongambition to remake his favourite film wasnt the potential folly some wouldhave expected. It’s clear Jackson knows King Kong inside-out, so this remakeimproves where necessary (the Ann-Kong dynamic is far better – actuallytakings its cue from the ’76 version), updates the monsters with moderntechniques, but nevers forgets the heart and power of its illustriousmonochrome predecessor. It’s rare such a blatantly silly and effects-ladenmovie can stirr such emotion in an audience, so enjoy the experience…
After 72 years, Kong is still King!
PERFORMANCES
PLOT
SFX & MUSIC
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.