King Kong
March 2nd, 1933. This is the day that started it all. In the “Golden Age of Hollywood”, 2 directors and RKO Pictures presented the world with the film that would inspire directors for decades to come. 72 years later, on December 5th, 2005, the mighty ape returns for a fantastic retelling of the original 1933 classic, KING KONG.
Set in the early 30’s, an over-zealous film directory named Carl Denham (played by Jack Black), his screenwriter, Jack Driscol (played by Adrian Brody), a vaudvilian actress, Ann Darrow (played by Naomai Watts), and the crew of a tramp steamer set out to find the mysterious Skull Island. Upon their arrival, they discover the natives and the animal they worship, Kong. Soon Ms.Darrow finds herself set to be sacrificed to Kong, only to eventually befriend the beast. Shortly after Ms.Darrow is found and “rescued”, Kong is brought back to New York against his will, to be showcased as the 8th wonder of the world.
The important thing I think audiences have to keep in mind, is that the point of the film is that King Kong is not a monster, merely a misunderstood giant ape. Because of this, it’s important that the actress that plays Ms.Darrow, to not only play well to a green-screen, but deliver a performance not entirely based on words. Naomi Watts does an excellent job of, not only coming to pretty much love Kong, but handled the vaudeville comedy acts she performs wonderfully. While, I’m not a big fan of Jack Black, he didn’t over do his role. Adrian Brody, which apparently was the only actor the producers wanted for the role of Jack Driscol, also played is part well. You can see from the time they capture Kong to the end of the film how Jack changes. With all that said, we get to the giant Ape himself. Animated with motion capture, provided by Andy Serkis (who provided the motion for LORD OF THE RING’s Gollum), Kong is brought to life like never before. However, it’s not so much the movement of the Kong character that gets to you, but the tremendous detail and emotion they put into the facial expressions of Kong.
Commanding the helm of this epic (3hrs 7mins), is the same creative team of the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens. Mr. Jackson perfectly handled feat of getting the audience to care about Kong, to hurt when he’s hurt, and applaud his triumphs. Unlike his LORD OF THE RINGS movies, the music score is not done by Howard Shore but by James Newton Howard. The score while adequately done, doesn’t take away from the movie to be something by itself, which in this case is a good thing.
All’n’all, this was a good film. As an audience member of an opening night viewing, it was a great experience cheering and feeling for the characters. While it may not get the acclaim of the Academy, its not a movie that should be missed. Plus, even though it’s a long film, its definitely a date movie (you’ll understand why after you see the film).
