Ann (Naomi Watts) and Kong (performed by Andy Serkis) in KING KONG (2005).
© Universal Pictures
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis
Writers: Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, based on the screenplay by Merian C. Cooper & Edgar Wallace
Director: Peter Jackson
Distributor: Universal Pictures
KING KONG
By: Abbie BernsteinDate: Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Let it be said upfront that there is no way a remake, or indeed much of anything else, can surpass the impact of the original 1933 KING KONG. The movie world was relatively new then; concepts and indeed whole genres were being invented, rather than extended or improved upon.
Having said that, director Peter Jackson and his co-scenarists Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens the team that brought us the LORD OF THE RINGS films have really thought and felt out hidden potential in the original KING KONG, with results that are emotionally and dramatically rich and satisfying, as well as giving us a cornucopia of movie riches. Their KONG has two love stories to root for, tragedy, black comedy, fabulous monster action, a bit of horror and a real sense of spectacle.
The new KONG is fairly faithful to the original in its broad strokes, though characters have been fleshed out, particularly the title anti-hero portrayed by a combination of CGI and a motion-captured performance by the extraordinarily talented Andy Serkis (who had similar duties in a very different role as Gollum in the RINGS trilogy) and actress heroine Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), who as we meet her is in the process of losing her job as a vaudevillian. We're in Depression-era New York, where moviemaker Carl Denham (Jack Black, playing the character as an homage to Orson Welles) is bent on utilizing a secret map to make his new spectacle. When his leading lady drops out, Carl spots Ann on the street and offers her the part, based on the fact that she'll fit the costumes and does in fact have an intriguing tragic quality. Intent on staying ahead of his investors, who want to pull the financial plug, Carl gets an expedition underway on the somewhat rickety sea vessel The Venture, which has in the past been used for animal capture. Key personnel aboard are Ann, soulful writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), self-adoring leading man Bruce Baxter (an amusingly on-target Kyle Chandler) and wary Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann), who strongly suspects that Carl's ambitions will lead to everyone's undoing. The quest leads to Skull Island, where Carl hopes to photograph something (he doesn't know what yet) that no one has originally seen. However, when Ann is kidnapped by natives and offered as a sacrifice to the giant ape they call Kong who dominates the island, priorities change. Jack is determined to rescue Ann and Carl becomes determined to capture Kong.
On a strictly thrill level, one big difference between this KONG and the original is that the creature factor has been substantially amped up. Both Ann and the rescue party encounter a horde of monstrous animal life multiple species of dinosaurs, gigantic bugs and ferocious bats that give the second act a lot of big (in every sense of the word) pulp thrills, with extended sequences that escalate wonderfully.
However, where the new KONG really succeeds is in developing the nuanced kinship between Ann and Kong. Here Ann is very much a participant in her own survival, using strategy rather than just looks to pique Kong's interest, then gradually becoming intrigued herself, then grateful, and finally empathetic. The film doesn't attempt to clean Kong up in the sense of making him any more sympathetic to humans in general he kills quite a few people (including some we like), but his sentiments are easily readable, whether infuriated, amused or caring. In both behavior and appearance (size notwithstanding), this is one of the best-rendered, most realistic-looking screen gorillas ever Jackson, Serkis and the effects team have done an extraordinary job here. Watts adds to the impact, reacting so thoroughly (and shot at such apt angles) that we easily accept that she's really interacting with a 25-foot-tall ape.
The performances are quite wonderful. In addition to Serkis as Kong (he does double-duty in a droll performance as the ship's tough-guy British cook), Watts shows a deft physicality and quiet intelligence that make her utterly likable as well as lovely, while Brody as the intellectual forced into action displays appropriate terror, tenderness and grit. Black's manipulative Carl is alternately hilarious and appalling (sometimes both) and Kretschmann is persuasively world-weary and imposing as the ship's captain.
It should be said there are a couple of iffy moments with some of the CGI, but none of it involves the superb Kong himself and there is so much of it that is seamless that the few less than perfect shots are noticeable primarily because of the splendor surrounding them.
The new KING KONG probably won't single-handedly stun a whole generation of moviegoers in the same way the original did, but it will move, excite and thrill a number of its viewers in some ways that the first one did not. It is wonderful filmmaking twenty-first-century style, done with respect, skill and obvious love.
