Review of King Kong (Special Edition)

Introduction

Peter Jackson`s remake of the world`s most influential monster movie had a tough act to follow. The 1933 original is so well known and loved that any remake faces passing a gauntlet of fans and aficionadoes ready to tear apart any director with the temerity to tamper with their precious movie. Peter Jackson had the added handicap that he was a huge Kong fan himself - Kong was the movie that inspired him to be a movie maker. If he made a mess of the project he would be hung out to dry.

As I`ve mentioned in my reviews of the original movie and the production diaries, I`m a Kongophile myself. I managed to miss the movie on its theatrical release, so I was doubly looking forward to the DVD release. In many ways that can be the kiss of death for a movie - if you`re really looking forward to it, the end product can be doubly disappointing.

I wasn`t disappointed.

I was blown away. In the online community, it has become increasingly fashionable to knock Peter Jackson. The moment somebody makes a name for themselves, it`s open season for the professional whingers and naysayers. There was as much negative reaction to the movie online as there was positive reaction. I don`t know what movie those people were watching, but it certainly wasn`t this one.

I laughed, I cried, I hurled. Movies rarely live up to expectation, and even more seldom exceed expectation. King Kong delivers. It delivers to the extent that (maybe heretically) I`d say it`s a better movie than the original. The characters are more rounded than their 1930s equivalents, their motivations clearer. The action sequences are certainly a whole order of magnitude more spectacular. If anything, the movie could have been longer, devoting some running time to the return voyage to the US, but that might only have enraged the attention-deficit types who complained about the sheer length of the movie, (three hours compared to the 104 minutes of the original). The additional 76 minutes is anything but padding. Cooper and Schoedsack`s 1933 original was written in the cinematic shorthand of the day (and stands as a textbook piece of economical screenwriting). This movie is written with post-Titanic (Jim Cameron`s movie, obviously) sensibilities, and modern audiences expect more depth to their movies than their 1930s counterparts. You get that in spades. There is a scene in Central Park on the frozen lake which a lot of people have dismissed as saccharine and superfluous. It`s a sweet little scene which juxtaposes against the brutality of Kong`s remaining existence. Like Titanic, you know the end of the story and you watched the movie to see the big monkey standing on top of the Empire State Building, but by the end of this version of the adventure the last thing you want to hear is Denham`s "Oh no, it wasn`t the airplanes…" line.

The original Kong was the Star Wars of its day, an effects-driven movie which set new standards for technical wizardry. The new Kong does pretty much the same, building on the success of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. It was a labour of love for Peter Jackson and you can see that love and the dedication of his production team in the sheer every-buck-on-the-screen of every frame. Dino deLaurentiis` 1976 version of the story made two fatal mistakes - a contemporary setting for the movie and leaving out the dinosaurs. Peter Jackson, whose Mum didn`t raise no fool, retains both the 1933 setting of the original and builds on the dinosaur sequences. Don`t listen to anyone who says the V-rexes aren`t as good as Jurassic Park`s model Ts, these lizards are all teeth and attitude. The rumble with three of the scaly so-and-sos is one of the most breathtakingly fun and audacious bits of filmmaking I`ve seen in a long time. Not least the shots of Naomi Watts swinging helplessly on a vine while a dangling Rex tries to chomp her like Spike the Bulldog after Tom the Cat in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

While Kong owns the movie named after himself, and that has to be down to the virtual performance of Andy Serkis as well as the army of animators and technical boffins who brought him to the screen, he is more than ably supported by the live cast. Naomi Watts` Ann Darrow is a plucky but vulnerable heroine, far removed from Fay Wray`s shrieking, helpless victim of the 30s. Adrien Brody is a likeable hero, an ordinary sort of bloke who rises magnificently to the occasion and pretty far removed from Bruce Cabot`s two-fisted first mate of 1933. Jack Black manages to walk a knife-edge between likeability and his Carl Denham being a complete sonofa. Andy Serkis, in his secondary role as Lumpy the cook, steals every scene he is in. Special mention in dispatches should be reserved for Kyle Chandler`s marvellous turn as Bruce Baxter, Ann`s self-absorbed co-star in Denham`s doomed movie venture.

Video

The movie is presented in its theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio as anamorphic widescreen. Andrew Lesnie`s cinematography is particularly lush, and I honestly lost count of the number of beauty shots of New York and Skull Island that had me muttering "Wow!" under my breath. The shot of Ann and Kong at the base of the Empire State`s pinnacle was a particular wow moment. However, it is a credit to Peter Jackson`s storytelling skills that these "wow" moments never pull you out of the momentum of the story. You can admire the scenery all you want on repeat viewings, and this is one movie that will stand up to being watched again and again.

The transfer is technically excellent, as one should expect from a brand new movie. There may have been some compromises over bitrate to fit the movie on a single, double-layer disc as there are a few misty or foggy scenes around the arrival at Skull Island that show contouring effects. They are not so bad as to be unacceptable, but might pull some particularly sensitive types out of the movie.

Audio

The movie soundtrack won the Best Sound and Best Sound Editing Academy Awards®, and is presented in its Dolby Digital 5.1 incarnation. John Newton Howard`s somewhat last-minute score is highly effective and co-exists perfectly with the very lively soundstage which genuinely surrounds you in sound rather than overly relying on showy directional effects. That said, there are some highly effective directional sound effects that should give your home theatre setup a nice workout.

Features

The movie disc has scant space for extras other than full subtitling and two short advert-shorts. One is the making of the Volkswagen Touareg advert which is nicely amusing. "Donut, anyone?". The second is a straight non-Kong travelog-advert for New York entitled "Wish You Were Here". Neither last for more than a few minutes.

All of the extras are to be found on (surprise surprise), the extras disc which is fully subtitled throughout for HOH viewers. The main bulk of the extras are the 35 Post-Production Diaries which complement the Production Diaries released on DVD around the time of the film`s release in theatres. The Post Production Diaries, which run accumulatively for a staggering two hours and forty minutes, cover everything that was done on the movie on completion of Principal Photography up to the premiere of the movie. The highlight has got to be the sight of Andy Serkis Konging it up in the motion-capture studio where they translated his performance into the animation of the big monkey. The Post Production Diaries, which are introduced on the disc by Peter Jackson, can either be viewed as a feature, or piecemeal by date or post-production department. There are also two short background documentaries, one about New York in the depression which serves to flesh out the early scenes in the Big Apple, and a second on Skull Island.

Conclusion

Peter Jackson has done it again. He`s made a completely convincing, utterly immersive world full of breathtaking adventure, scary stuff and above all fun. This time it isn`t Middle Earth, this time it`s 1930s New York and an Orc-infested island called Skull. This is Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer, The Shadow and Sky Captain rolled into one. This is maiden sacrifice, honking great dinosaurs, bugs the size of sanitation trucks, feisty heroines and plucky heroes. Oh, and a whacking great heartbreaker of a gorilla called Kong.

It isn`t usually in my nature to gush about a movie, using terms like "masterpiece", because when I read stuff like that I wonder how much of the review is PR hyperbole. This is one instance where I can honestly, hand on heart use the "m" word. Masterpiece. There, I`ve said it, and in spite of having to review a studio-watermarked disc which I have to courier back to the PR people within 48 hours of receipt. To date, this looks like my New DVD Movie Of The Year and I`m off to have another quick look before it goes in the Jiffy bag.