Special K (King Kong [1933] (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	King Kong [1933] (DVD)
Date:	16/02/06 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Meticulously made, inspired CGI, Skull Island

Disadvantages: Too long

Following any movie that has achieved “classic” status is always fraught with danger; especially so for one as much loved as the Cooper/Schoedsack directed 1933 version of King Kong. For many like me, the iconic scenes of the Empire State Building towering over an equally iconic New York as a backdrop to one of the most dramatic finales in movie history was a defining moment in my celluloid gazing childhood. Peter Jackson says that King Kong was one of his favourite movies as he was growing up. In 2005 he attempted to re-create near perfection with some startling results.

The story itself generally treads the path of its predecessor of 72 years earlier. Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is a down-on-her luck actress in New York living on the breadline. When Carl Denham (Jack Black) stumbles across her looking for work, he persuades the beautiful actress to make a movie with him. Absconding from his financiers, Denham takes an acting troop together with the requisite hardware to make a movie on a boat bound for foreign shores. He persuades the captain to find the mysterious Skull Island where he plans to shoot his picture. On arriving, the refugees encounter an ancient tribe, which pays homage to a giant gorilla by way of human sacrifice. In this case, it’s poor old Ann Darrow who ends up as the offering, duly accepted by our hero, King Kong. The crew subsequently embarks on a hazardous escapade to try and recover Ann after seeing her stolen away by the giant ape.

Fresh from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it’s clear that Jackson is into making long movies. At over 3 hours running time, King Kong is a long film – too long, in fact. With a ponderous opening hour or so, Jackson builds the tension slowly telling Denham’s story like some kind of prologue. Whilst this is a useful introduction to the principle characters, it simply doesn’t have to be as long as it is.

I guess any movie on this scale is open to criticism and this epic duly has its other flaws. For me, the fight scenes on Skull island are overdone with one bone-jarring incident immediately leading to numerous others in dinosaur battles that would have made Ray Harryhausen wince. Some of the models that make up the 1930’s Time Square look just like that – models and with a meticulously invented CGI King Kong, with all its ape-like accuracy, I kind of lost the empathy that I had with the original monster having rather tired of all the carnage wreaked in the new movie.

Of course, this may sound a little harsh for such a wonderful attempt at re-creating the original and there is plenty to admire about Jackson’s effort. Probably the most dazzling aspect for me was the wonderful imagination of 1930’s Time Square with its old, horn honking vehicles and neon signs of Yesteryear. Throw in a vertigo-inducing New York skyline and the depiction of the most famous city in the world is about as daring as you can imagine. None of the romance and danger of bi-planes circling the Empire State Building and Kong’s love of Darrow is lost in translation although Fay Wray’s legendary status in movie lore was always going to be a hard act to follow.

I always wonder about the status of the acting when set against such a special effects laden affair as this is. With so much effort channelled into the sets and stunts, sometimes the script and its delivery can come a poor second. This is close to being the case here with Jack Black’s moustachioed villain lacking any real menace or conviction and Naomi Watts doing just enough to do justice to the role but it always felt like the main characters were playing second fiddle to everything else going on around them. For example, the lengthy sequences on Skull Island are only occasionally punctuated by the odd bit of dialogue as the search for Darrow turns into a prolonged, head-spinning chase. Granted, the Tyrannosaurus Rex fight is taken to a different level courtesy of the wonders of CGI and the man-eating plants add a whole new meaning to hiding in the undergrowth but this all leaves little room for any meaningful relationships to be developed and explored. For many, the relentless action more than makes up for any lack of character development and the Neanderthal quality of the resident tribe on Skull Island is a triumph. With an eerie, claustrophobic feel enhanced by rolling fog and hidden savages, the scenes with the tribe are probably the most scary for kids with several jump out of your seat moments. The detail and make-up are straight from a horror set making the locals every bit as intimidating as anyone could imagine and provides a sound platform for the introduction to the king of the jungle looming in the background.

As supporting roles go, both Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), the screenwriter for Denham's latest epic and leading man, Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) both do a competent job. Driscoll is suitably reserved but ultimately brave, Baxter overtly brave but vein and ultimately a coward. If anything, their characters are allowed more time to develop than the lead roles, what with Baxter’s admiring self-glances in the mirror and Driscoll’s lonely efforts at writing in the ship’s cargo hold.

The biggest driver in the movie is the relationship between King Kong and Ann. This is central to the whole premise and for the most part works. In 1933, Ann was terrified of Kong. He treated her like a plaything, and she hated and feared him. In Jackson’s vision, Ann is more forthright playing mind games in the jungle with Kong and the attention to detail in making the giant ape a believable gorilla is probably one of the movie’s most stunning facets. Both its movement and mannerisms make King Kong a completely authentic beast complete with chest thumping, sideways glances and running on all fours to make the audience believe that he’s real. The passage that leads to them being re-united in New York and the rather unfortunate ice-skating sequence does take a little off the gloss but, on the whole, the new dimension added to their relationship transcends the mundane and propels the movie beyond the run-of-the-mill movie fayre.

The musical score is satisfactory although hardly mind-blowing but then maybe that doesn’t detract from the relentless action. Maybe intentional or not, James Howard Newton was selected by Jackson late in the process to replace Howard Shore, and only had a couple of months to write and record everything.

For all its flaws and nuances, I loved Jackson’s reworking of one of my favourite movies of all time. True, it’s too long, true it lacks any real depth but prepare yourself to be totally immersed in as convincing a Depression Era New York as you can imagine. Hold on tight for the comparable thrills of a rollercoaster ride and you are in for a blockbuster in every sense of the word.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Certificate PG
Running Time 187 minutes
More info at:http://www.kingkongmovie.com/

Summary: Summary of the movie