The film bussiness was forever revolutionized with the release of 1933’s highly sucessful King Kong, the big monster movie about a giant gorilla who terrorizes New York City in hopes of obtaining a young beautiful American woman. The ‘big budget’ live action/stop-motion picture garnered over $89, 000.00 during its opening weekend, with the ticket price ranging from $0.35 to $0.75., breaking the record for largest audience at an indoor event. So when Peter Jackson (known for directing the critically aclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy) signed on to direct a remake, both excitement and worry came. Fortunately, 2005’s King Kong starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody, was anything but a disappointment.
The film opens to Ann Darrow (Watts), a young vaudevill actress and performer stuggeling to find a new job. She is greeted my movie director Carl Denham (Black) who offers her a chance to lead a role alongside famous Bruce Baxtor (Kyle Chandler) in his next picture. She is reluctant but agrees after discovering her favourite playwrite Jack Discroll (Brody) is writing the screenplay.
They cast and crew depart on a ship known as the SS Venture, where the filming will take place, during which Ann and Jack fall in love. Despite there being a warrant out for Denham’s arrest, Captain Eaglehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) agrees to stay on course towards an uncharted island, called ‘Skull Island’ that Carl is seeking. After being briefly lost in fog, the ship crashes into the surrounding island’s rocks. Denham and the rest of the crew begin to explore the island and shoot footage. They come across temple ruins and are attacked by Island natives. The crew escapes but Darrow is captured and offered as a sacrifice to the god ‘Kong’ (Andy Serkins). The beast, a giant ape, appears from the jungle and takes Darrow.
The crew realise of Darrow’s kidnapping, and turn back to rescue her, encountering various dinasours and giant invertebrates along their venture. Many of the crew are killed or injured, but Denham persists, determined to rescue Darrow and capture the magnificent Kong. *Continue reading to see the second half of the plot.*
Darrow is first very frightened of Kong, but soon learns he can be gentle and is very curious of her. She entertains him with several juggeling and dancing acts she knows from previous performing career. They watch the sunset together from Kong’s lair, and she falls asleep in his palm. Jack finally finds her and attempts to help her escape, but Kong awakes, furious. The beast chases them to the temple ruins where the rest of the crew are waiting, and they trap Kong. Although Ann deeply opposes the idea, Kong is subdued with chloroform to be brought back to New York. Denham promises it will make them all abundently rich.
‘Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World’ is presented by Denham on Broadway, starring Baxtor and an imprisoned Kong. During the ‘reenactment’ play of the adventure they all had, Kong is enragged to see that Darrow’s role is not Ann, who refused to participate in the play. Kong proceeds to break free from his otherwise ‘industructable’ chains, and roams descrutively across the streets of New Yorl, desperately searching for Ann.
Jack sees what is happening and is able to lure Kong away from as many people as he can. Kong finds Ann is Central Park, and is momentarily calmed, until the military interrupts them. Kong, with Ann in his grasp, flees and climbs to the top of the Empire State building, where they find brief solace. They observe the dawn and Kong repeats the hand signal Ann showed him for ‘beautiful’ when on the island. Ann realizes his intelligence but is again attacked, by military fighter ships. Kong attempts to fight back but is shot repeadedly, falling to his death, but not before he can gaze one last time at Ann.
Jack finally reaches the top of the building and comforts her, while Kong’s body lay surrounded by hundreds of civilians in the streets below. Denham is told that the airplanes killed him, but Carl replies, “It wasn’t the planes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.”
Like the original, this movie will likely be remembered as one of the best monster movies (if not the best). But more importantly, it will be remembered as being more than just a monster movie. King Kong has heart. It has character. It has humour and drama and romance. Naoimi Watts shares good chemistry with Brody, but even better with Andy Serkins, the man behind the CGI effects of Kong. These actors give it their all in this movie, and to do that for over three consectuive hours worth of film… that’s talent. But if there’s anybody that performed well in this movie, it’s Jack Black. Now I am not a huge fan of Black. He goes regarded as ‘the comedian who isn’t funny.’ And I was not hapy to hear of his not only appearence but lead role in this extremely-anticipated remake. But Black delivers. He’s believable, funny, determined, and most of all, along with all of that somehwat of an antagonist. So the third title this movie will be remembered for is ‘the good Jack Black movie.’
Aside from the acting, this movie has great action and effects. It won the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing, and was nominated for Best Art Direction (which it derserved). Especially for 2005, the scenes of a 25 foot tall ape and T-Rexes and deadly giant bugs were brilliantly fascinating. The action is satisfying too. Consistent, lots of it, but paced, which I greatly appreciate. The film goes over a full hour before Kong or any of the other beasts are shown on screen. During this first hour we are given time to get to know the characters, which leads us back into superb acting.
Another strong point is it’s loyalty to the original. The plot is very similar, some of the dialogue is word-for-word, including the closing sentence, and it’s full of inderect references to the original and other versions of ‘King Kong’. For instance, when Denham is considering who to play the part of the young woman before he meets Ann, he suggests ‘Fay’, but Preston tells him she doing a picture with ‘RKO,’ during which music from the original King Kong is heard on the radio. Denham replies, ‘Cooper, huh? I might have known.’ Fay Wray was the acress who played Ann in the original film that was released by RKO.
King Kong is a must-see. It’s not perfect and not necessarely an easy-to-sit-through movie, but it is very well directed, casted, and written. Get ready, movie-goers; prepare yourselves for the epic adventure of the discovery of the terrifyingly gigantic, horrifyingly violent, and utteryl beautiful King Kong!