Review of King Kong (Ultimate Edition)

Introduction

For the second time in twelve months, I find myself reviewing Peter Jackson`s masterly reinterpretation of King Kong. As two-thirds of this "Ultimate Edition" by necessity repeats the movie itself, I hope that readers won`t mind me repeating some of my original review - the PR company is a-nagging.

The movie has been expanded by seventeen minutes, which does not sound a lot in a movie just shy of three hours long, but consists of a number of new scenes which are inserted seamlessly into the body of the film. If you go through the scene menu, the new scenes and added material are annotated there. The material is largely concentrated around the adventure on Skull Island and the Manhattan climax - the opening and the Empire State sequences are untouched.

The movie is split at the point where the Venture crew come upon Kong`s lunchtime roost where the remains of previous brides are scattered. The two-part format seems to give the movie breathing space, as the single-disc version seemed a little cramped by technical considerations.

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. By taking advantage of splitting the revised movie over two discs, the small bitrate niggles from the original SE are gone. The film now looks immaculate.

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.

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

Disc 1:
The movie is supported by a feature-length audio commentary from director/co-writer Peter Jackson and co-writer/producer Philippa Boyens. The commentary is full of insight into Jackson`s life long fascination with King Kong and was the singular most-missed extra on the previous Special Edition.

Disc 1 also carries the Deleted Scenes. Now, these are scenes that weren`t included in the extended cut of the film for various reasons - mostly to do with continuity. A lot of the scenes are lovely character moments, and a series of scenes building up the character of Preston, Denham`s assistant cum gopher. There is also an interesting foot-in-mouth scene reversing the meeting between Ann and Driscoll where he says something he shouldn`t have and gets the gimlet-eyed look from Ann. A number of the scenes either did not have special effects completed, or, as in the "scream for your life" sequence shown in the teaser trailer, are presented without CGI or matte enhancement. There is a lovely extended sequence of Ann and Jimmy dancing in the stern of the Venture while the crew plays a motley collection of musical instruments.

There is an Easter Egg on disc 1 in the shape of an option which is only visible when highlighted by the remote control. Entitled "The Missing Production Diary", it is a shocking insight into the acting profession. No it isn`t, it`s the cast messing about talking about monitor addiction, where some of them become so addicted to watching the playback of their performance on the monitors that they become fixated.

The Eighth Blunder Of The World is seventeen minutes of bloopers and cast and crew getting quite punch drunk making the movie.

A Night In Vaudeville details the work in making the Vaudeville vignettes seen at the very start of the movie alongside Ann`s introduction.

The extras on disc 1 are rounded off with A King Kong Homage, which takes viewers into the references, lines and even props from the 1933 original which found their way into the remake.

All options are fully subtitled, including the audio commentary.

Disc 2 continues the good work, continuing the audio commentary.

The extras on disc 2 kick off with the previsualisation animatic sequences generated for some of the key moments in the picture, such as the arrival at Skull Island, the T-Rex fight, Kong`s capture and the Empire State Building.

`The Present` is a wildly over-the-top, insane short film shot by Jack Black and Andy Serkis as a birthday present for Peter Jackson and includes the entire cast taking it in turns to kill the previous cast member and steal PJ`s birthday present. Running 9 ½ minutes, the piece is wonderfully reminiscent of Jackson`s early work Bad Taste.

There is a short promotional piece on the WETA collectables being made for the collectors` market.

Disc 2 rounds off with the Teaser trailer, Theatrical trailer and Cinemedia trailer. It also contains the DVD-ROM content of the 1996 script and the 2005 script.

Disc 3 carries the bulk of the extras. The King Kong Archives is an epic, three-hour set of behind the scenes documentaries which can either be viewed all together or individually. Chapter headings are: Introduction to `The King Kong Archives` by Peter Jackson; The origins of King Kong; Pre-production Part 1: the return of Kong; Pre-production Part 2: countdown to filming; The Venture Journey; New York, New Zealand; Bringing Kong To Life Part 1: design and research; Bringing Kong To Life Part 2: performance and animation.

There is a set of video galleries (a rolling set of still images rather than stills to navigate yourself) - 1996 King Kong; The Venture; Skull Island; New York.

Conclusion

I still think this movie is a masterpiece. Expanded and full of behind the scenes goodies, this Ultimate Edition is well worth a double-dip if you enjoyed the original Special Edition and definitely worth picking up if you missed it the first time around. Bar the obviously repeated sections of the movie from the theatrical cut, there is nothing duplicated between this set, the SE or the Pre-Production Diaries.

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.