film - King Kong (2005)

3/ 5

Directed by Peter Jackson as an hommage to the 1933 original, King Kong runs a bit too long and ultimately feels like a film that really didn't need to be remade. The original film was a marvel at the time, but this one is yet another orgy of computer animation that we see far too much of in films these days.

The crew heads off to southeast Asia, not realizing that the director, Carl Denham, really wants to sail to the mysterious and uncharted Skull Island. The images of the inhabitants of the island are quite scarry! The scene will Kong running away from the wall with his prize, Ann Darrow, seemed like a neck-snapping journey for sure. You wouldn't expect anyone to survive.

I felt the battles with the T-rexes were quite exciting, but a bit anti-climatic, since we all know how the film ends. The scene with Kong sliding around on the ice in New York didn't seem necessary and actually felt too cheesy to me.

There are some parts of the story that we don't see that would have been interesting. How,exactly, do they get Kong on the boat? He looks too big to fit aboard, for starters.

The filled is being billed as having a lot of heart. We see that there is a real relationship between Kong and Darrow when he puts his life on the line to rescue her on the island. We also see his personality when he walks away after defeating the dinosaurs, not caring if she would follow him.

Was Kong a challenging film to remake? Given the use of today's gee-whiz technology, I would say no, actually. So long as you have the money, I'm not so sure that this film required a great deal of vision or even directing talent. I don't expect to see any Oscar nominations for the actors. Naomi Watts wasn't exceptional and neither were Adrien Brody or Jack Black. It's tough to know to what extent Andy Serkis, as the human that Kong was modelled on, is responsible for the success of the animation of the big beast.

As many times as we are asked to make huge leaps of logic (anyone for an escape hundreds of feet above the ground, clinging onto a human-sized vampire bat's talon?), there are scense that bristle with energy and non-stop action. There are scenes that some children would find too scarry, and at just over three hours, the film seems too long. But, overall, it is an entertaining blockbuster. Not one of the top ten best films of the year, however.