King Kong (2005) is Peter Jackson's Newest Masterpiece

In 2005, several remakes of older movies were released. Some were much better than others. Ever since I heard that Peter Jackson was planning to make a new version of King Kong I was interested in seeing the movie even though I never saw the original version of the movie.

In the 1930's in New York City, Carl Denham was determined to get his latest movie made. Somehow he had discovered a map to an uncharted island, Skull Island, and decided that would be the perfect place to film. Carl wasn’t telling anyone else where he intended to take the cast and crew. The actress he had originally hired backed out and Carl had only hours to find a new actress before they were going to set sail for the island. He saw Ann Darrow, an actress that was out of work, and decided she would be perfect for the part. Ann was hesitant but took the job once she found out that Jack Driscoll was writing the screen play. Jack had written several successful plays and Ann was a fan of his work. Filming started on the ship and after an awkward first meeting Ann and Jack grew close.

Carl quickly took his cast and crew ashore once they reached Skull Island. They saw some disturbing things before spotting a native child. Soon after that, more natives arrived and the meeting did not go well. Captain Englehorn was able to get everyone back to the ship and they planned to leave as soon a few repairs were made. A native managed to get on the ship that night and take Ann back to the island to be some kind of sacrifice. Jack, Carl, and many men from the ship returned to the island to try and rescue Ann. They had to travel into the jungle where they saw that a giant gorilla had her. Jack was determined to find Ann while Carl just seemed to be concerned with making his movie regardless of the cost.

I only knew a little bit about the basic plot before I started to see previews for this version of King Kong. Really all I knew about the original was that there was a large ape, a blond woman, and they ended up at the Empire State Building. There was really quite a bit going on in the new version. I just have no idea how closely this version stayed to the original. After seeing this version, I was told that the ending was different from the original. I’m not sure that I believe that though since I had heard other things related to the ending of the movie that seemed to indicate it was like what happened in the new version. I didn’t particularly care for the ending, so I would have been fine with something a bit different, though I suppose that would have greatly changed the movie.

After what he was able to do with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I did expect a lot from Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong. In at least one of the books I had read about the making of those movies, it was talked about how Jackson had wanted to do a new version of King Kong for years. In fact, he had spent a lot of time working on getting a remake done, only to loose studio backing after months and months of work. Since The Lord of the Rings trilogy was so successful, I wasn’t surprised when I heard that Jackson was going to make his version of King Kong after all. Jackson has once again managed to make an amazing movie and I think it shows just how much this project meant to him when watching the movie.

Jackson used the same type of motion capture technology that brought Gollum to life in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Andy Serkis, who provided the performance and voice for the character, did the same sort of work to provide a performance for Kong. I think his performance is the biggest reason why Kong worked as a character and was believable. Special effects were used to transform the footage of Serkis into the huge Kong. The effects for Kong were absolutely amazing. Kong’s hair moved with the wind and really looked like real hair blowing around. When Kong and Ann had scenes where they were touching, the interactions between them looked completely real.

During the time the action took place on Skull Island, a lot of effects were used for other creatures as well. Ann, Kong, and the men searching for them encountered different types of dinosaurs on Skull Island. Jack and the others also had to deal with some kind of huge, nasty looking insects and I think I remember seeing at least one large spider as well. Those creatures looked completely real to me and were creepy looking since I really don’t like bugs. I’m just very, very thankful that Jackson didn’t decide to put some kind of huge people eating snake on the island as well. There was some kind of creature that looked sort of worm like. Those things were bad enough. There were several scenes that involved Kong running through the jungle of the island while carrying Ann or even fighting off dinosaurs or other creatures while still somehow holding her. For the most part I thought those scenes looked very impressive as well. There were a few times, especially when Kong was running, when the effects didn’t look as good. Overall I thought the effects were very impressive and added to making the movie more believable.

There were many action scenes in King Kong, most of which took place on Skull Island. King Kong was in a lot of the action scenes on the island, but not all of them. There were sequences that involved just the human characters, including the natives of the island, along with how Jack, Carl, and the other men from the ship dealt with all the unique creatures they encountered while searching for Ann. Once the movie returned to New York City, there were more action sequences involving Kong, cars, and ultimately the Empire State Building and biplanes. I did think that the action scenes were well done and helped to move the story forward. Some of the scenes on Skull Island probably could have been made a little shorter or left out completely. There were a few times when the pace of the move did seem to slow down. I was never bored, but many of the other people in the theater got more and more restless, even having rather loud conversations with each other, the longer the movie was on. The movie was three hours long, so it will be too long for some people. The longer length provided more opportunity for the characters to be developed. Most of the first hour took place on the ship traveling to Skull Island. That gave the chance for Carl, Ann, and Jack to become more rounded characters. It also provided the time for a relationship between Ann and Jack to begin to blossom. Anyone that doesn’t like longer movies shouldn’t bother seeing this one. There were several children in the theater that couldn’t sit still and were very disruptive to the entire theater. This movie is entirely too long for children.

I really don’t think that King Kong was an extremely violent movie overall even though violence was included in many scenes. Some events, like what the natives did to a few characters, were mostly shown off camera, but it was still very clear what had happened. The crew of the ship had all kinds of guns on board that they took out when they went back onto the island to find Ann and they were used. The fights that Kong got into with a few dinosaurs were graphic and probably the most violent scenes in the movie. Violence was included in later scenes as well. I do think the movie is too violent for younger children. People that don’t like violent movies should stay away from this one. There were plenty of scenes that had no violence at all, so it wasn’t like the movie had nonstop violence. There were actually some humorous things added in as well that did help to lighten the mood though I would not consider the movie a comedy.

I was actually surprised by how emotional and touching King Kong ended up being. I really wasn’t expecting that. I guess I had thought that it would just be an action movie featuring a large gorilla. Jackson took the time to make the main characters developed and show why they did certain things, which doesn’t always happen in movies, especially ones that have as much action and special effects as this one does. He managed to make the characters come to life in a way that made me care greatly about what was happening. He had a villain that I don’t think was like a typical movie villain. That character did things later in the movie that made me want to reach into the screen and slap him silly. I was heartbroken by some events, something I truly didn’t think would happen in this movie even though I do get emotional in movies at times. Some people may think I’m a giant wimp for this, but I did cry more than once. The last time I got this emotional from a movie was when I saw Serenity. This movie touched me on an emotional level that I never expected. Because of just how emotional the movie made me, I really not sure right now if I could watch it again. I honestly don’t know that I could sit through certain scenes again. I don’t mean the scenes with the giant bugs or graphic violence either.

The relationship that developed between Ann and Kong gave the movie a heart. I knew from the little I had heard or read about the original movie that Kong took Ann for some reason. In the new version, the natives of Skull Island decided to use Ann as a sacrifice to Kong. She had no idea what was going on, so naturally she was terrified. Her terror continued after Kong took her since she didn’t know what would happen. She tried to get away from Kong, which didn’t work. Kong ended up protecting her from other creatures, including dinosaurs. I think that is what started Ann to changing how she thought about Kong. She discovered a way to entertain him and actually made him laugh. Ann was the first person to see beyond his scary exterior and realize that he had the capacity to be kind and gentle. The small acts of kindness she showed him humanized him.

Ann and Kong didn’t spend that much time together on the island, but it was long enough for them to develop a very unique friendship. There was a genuine connection between Ann and Kong that came through the movie and was completely believable despite the fact that he was a giant gorilla. Ann and Kong shared some truly beautiful and touching scenes. Carl managed to figure out that Kong at least felt some kind of connection to Ann and decided to exploit that in another money making scheme. Carl never stopped to think how anyone else, including Ann, would feel about his plan. He only saw Kong as a way to make tons of money back in New York. Kong got so upset late in the movie because of something that Carl was ultimately behind. As soon as he saw Ann, he calmed down. He wasn’t a danger to anyone at that point, but no one would stop long enough to figure that out. He and Ann shared a very sweet scene when he first encountered a frozen pond and snow. Kong was like a child getting to play in the snow for the first time. They were truly happy and having fun which made the ending of their brief reprise even more abrupt and jarring.

Ann, Jack, and Carl were very important characters to King Kong and firmly established by the time the ship actually arrived at Skull Island. Ann was out of work and getting desperate, but not so desperate that she would take a job that required her to take her clothes off. Carl figured out early how to manipulate her into agreeing to be in the movie without telling her the truth about most of the plans. Ann was a very sweet, kind, beautiful, somewhat naive woman. She truly came to care for Kong and was devastated by certain events. Naomi Watts was perfect in the part. I had only remembered seeing her in The Ring movies before, so I wasn’t extremely familiar with her work. He was wonderful in the movie, especially in the scenes late in the movie when she didn’t say much. Her face conveyed so much emotion it was perfectly clear what she was feeling.

Kong wasn’t shown until just over an hour into the movie. The natives had built a huge wall to keep him away from where they lived and they had something set up to make it possible to offer human sacrifices to him. He seemed to be very vicious, especially once many human skeletons were shown in one area of the jungle. He battled dinosaurs, but only did that to protect Ann and himself. He didn’t eat them. The only thing he was ever shown eating was some kind of vegetation. As he spent more time with Ann, Kong developed feelings for her and showed that he did have a kind side. Andy Serkis has once again given an absolutely amazing performance playing a character that no one would recognize him as. Motion capture technology allowed Serkis to provide wonderfully expressive facial movements that added so much depth to the character and made him come to life. Without the emotions that Serkis was able to provide, Kong would have been just a giant gorilla terrorizing New York. Serkis gave Kong heart and soul. Serkis was also Lumpy, a crew member on the ship.

Jack was a well known play write that was writing the screenplay for Carl’s movie. The two men had been friends, which I think may be why Jack agreed to write the screenplay. He wasn’t happy about many things that were going on. He developed feelings for Ann while they were traveling to the island. I thought that Adrian Brody was fine in the part. The only other movie I’ve seen him in was The Village. Right from the start, it was clear that Carl was up to something sneaky. He was keeping the cast and crew in the dark about where the real location was. Even once he managed to get everyone on the ship, he still kept the true destination a secret. He was willing to do anything to get his movie made, a fact he demonstrated many times once they were on the island. More and more of Carl’s true nature came to light as the movie progressed. He was the true monster of the movie, not Kong. Before seeing this movie, I had only seen Jack Black in a few comedy movies. He also provided a voice for the movie Shark Tale. Carl was a much more serious character and I thought he handled the part very well. He had a shifty eyed look that fit perfectly for the character.

Main Cast

Jack Black - Carl Denham
Adrian Brody - Jack Driscoll
Andy Serkis - Kong/Lumpy
Naomi Watts - Ann Darrow

Peter Jackson - Director

Peter Jackson has created another masterpiece with his version of King Kong. He made something very special with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he has proved that it wasn’t a fluke and he is one of the best directors. The man is a genius. He took a movie about a giant gorilla and made it truly moving, touching, and even heartbreaking at times. He made me care about Kong, something I really didn’t think would happen before I saw the movie.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ~ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ~ The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ~