Directed by:
Peter Jackson
Starring:
Naomi Watts ………. Ann Darrow
Jack Black ………. Carl Denham
Adrien Brody ………. Jack Driscoll
Andy Serkis ………. Kong/Lumpy
Colin Hanks ………. Preston
Jamie Bell ………. Jimmy
Thomas Kretschmann ………. Captain Englehorn
Craig Hall ………. Mike
Evan Parke ………. Hayes
Kyle Chandler ………. Bruce Baxter
John Sumner ………. Herb
Lobo Chan ………. Choy
Universal presents King Kong. Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson. Based on a story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace. Running time: 187 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images). Available on DVD: March 28, 2006.
OK, your Peter Jackson, you’ve just finished directing one of the most praised trilogies in film history, you won 11 Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture for its final instalment. The film making world is your proverbial oyster at this point so what do you want to do next? Well… the answer was obvious to Mr. Jackson, remake the one film from which his passion for the craft first developed, King Kong. When your at the top of the world like he was at the time every studio wanted him to direct their next epic project but the only thing he had his sights on was a certain gorilla and Universal was more than happy to allow him to make his vision of the classic Merian C. Cooper film, and make it he did. But is that a good thing?
Which is the most important thing to take this film, it’s not King Kong Redux, it’s “Peter Jackson Presents King Kong” this is the vision that has been running through his mind ever since he was nine years old. This is how he wanted it to be, how he saw it and what he wanted to know that was never explored or shown in the original. So to say it’s a little biased on his part is a fair assessment.
The spine of the film is still intact from the 30’s version, just like the original we’re taken to the 1930’s where we meet Ann Darow played by Naomi Watts who’s a struggling vaudeville actress trying to get by during the depression. When her theater gets closed down she’s out on the streets with no future prospects, that is until she meets filmmaker Carl Denham a man who would sell out his own mother if it meant for a chance to break it big. He’s hit a bit of a dry spell and is desperately trying to find a hit to put himself back in the good graces of the studio executives who are about to can his latest project. So he hires playwright Jack Driscoll who has gotten nothing but praise for his work to write him up a script that is a sure fire hit.
They plan to shoot on an exotic location for the film in hopes to attract more viewers to get a look at the strange new lands, Carl has come in to possession of a map that has the location of the last uncharted piece of land and he’s going to shoot his film there for everyone to line up and see. The island you might be wondering is named Skull Island so naturally nothing wrong could possibly be going on over there. When they reach the island they’re confronted by a tribe of hostile natives which leads to our leading lady being kidnapped and sacrificed to the mighty Kong. A giant misunderstood gorilla.
From there it’s an almost two hour thrill ride that rarely slows up to allow us to catch out breath. From the Venture crew traveling through the dangerous forests to Kong having a battle between three giant T-Rexes in order to keep Ann safe. And let us not forget his little tour through the urban jungle of New York and when he goes sight seeing at the top of the Empire State Building.
The plot on its surface may look the same but every character in the film has been altered so much they no longer reflect what they once stood for, where the only pure character of the film is Kong himself. Denham has been turned in to a man who’s sole purpose in life is fame, no longer a man trying to bring culture and knowledge to the world. Jack and Anne no longer have that blossoming love instead it has been replaced with resentment and regret towards one another. The relationship between Anne and Kong is no longer about Kongs love for Anne that isn’t given back. Instead we get this bizarre motherly type bond between the two where they are drawn to each other by a bond build on the island.
As you can see it’s all changed and yet at the same time all still the same so now certain lines spoken by certain characters no long hold the impact they once did and instead feel hollow and meaningless. On top of all of this we’re given so much unneeded character development on characters (Jimmy the cabin boy) that ultimately mean nothing to the big picture which bogs down the flow and pace to what is a proven classic fable. There’s no form of sublty or mystery to the characters, everything gets wrapped up or explained leaving the viewer not having to bother with thinking about what’s going on or why as it’s all laid out before them.
Which leads us to acting, Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, and Andy Serkis are four actors who any one can sit down to watch their films and admire their work and dedication to putting on as best a performance as they can. But here they’re all taken out of their comfort zone (except Andy perhaps) and are place in front of blue screens and in doing so tend to appear uncomfortable playing off of nothing. These are three actors who require someone to play off of on screen, that’s how they perform at their best, when they’re with other talented actors. Now it’s not so much that the cast is bad they just don’t feel suited for their roles in the film.
Then there are the effects, the thing that everyone was talking about, the marvelous world that Jackson has created. Well, most of that praise is deserving except there are times that you get the feeling like an amusement park ride, you go along with everything but there’s always that lingering feeling of how fake the surroundings are which are so over glaring at times they take you out of the experience. How can the designers work so diligently on Kong and Skull Island yet forget to handle the obvious work such as making sure the actors and CGI is seamlessly blended? To be honest, at times I was wondering if I was watching some updated look at the old Land of the Lost TV show the green screen work looks so poor. While the small screen release does little justice to the experience of seeing the feature on the silver screen there are still parts that stand on their own and are jaw dropping.
What we have here is Jackson being too self indulgent and using Universal as his own personal piggy bank to make it all possible. Had Jackson cut around thirty minutes of material it would have been a much tighter film and wouldn’t have had such a bloated budget. However to his defense when you watch King Kong you see every single dollar put in to the film on the screen. It’s fine for Peter to go crazy with the movie since he loves the source material so much but he really could have tightened up the pace and then released the three+ hour version later on DVD. In the end much like its leading man the film is too big for it’s own good.
Story: 7/10
Acting: 6.5/10
Look/Feel: 9/10
Originality: 6.5/10
Entertainment Value: 8.5/10
Total: 37.5/50
FINAL Score: 7.5/10
Video:
(Presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
What can I say, there isn’t an adjective that best describes how good this film looks on DVD, the thing from start to finish is nearly perfect, plain and simple. Not once did I catch any digital errors or imperfections on the print. The film could certainly benefit with a later release splitting it over two discs for a higher bit rate but what’s here is nothing short of perfect and looks great on any screen.
Score: 9.5/10
Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
If there were a film just SCREAMING for a DTS track it’s King Kong and yet when Universal put the film out on DVD for all to enjoy the option is nowhere to be seen. Now that’s understandable as DVD technology is pushing its limits as far as storing data goes and a three+ hour film is going to require a bare minimum of what is needed, hence no glorious DTS experience for us. Hopefully this can be corrected if the studio goes along with a possible extended set where they can split the film over two discs and add more audio options, like a director’s commentary. But on to the actual audio option on the disc itself which is DD 5.1 and as much as I complained above what we’re given here is still one of the best listening experiences you’ll have in your home with a surround sound setup.
Score: 8.5/10
Extras:
Here we are, only a few months after the films theatrical release and only a few months since the release of the Production Diaries DVD Set which I covered when they were released back in December. Much like with that set we first start off the second disc with an Intro by Peter Jackson that simply welcomes us to the DVD set and tells us what we’ll be seeing. And I won’t lie, what we get here is more of the same as far as the Post Production Diaries (2:44:00) go, only less fluid, they tend to jump from job to job and it rarely feels very natural to watch as a “view all” feature. Now the copy I have for review is not the official street product so I don’t have the option that allows for you to watch specific sections of all the pieces like there were for the Production Diaries set but I recommend viewing them that way as they tend to jump around with the “play all” feature.
When first released on the KongisKing.net website they were put out as a countdown with 33 weeks to go until the movies worldwide debut. Here we get to see all of the cool behind the scenes stuff that was done to bring the film and everything it’s comprised of to life. Too bad there are only so many ways you can make someone sitting in front of a computer screen interesting. But when we’re at the miniature stage is when we really get to see the inner workings of WETA and their talented crew. The Weta crew has evolved in to quite possibly the most known effects company outside of ILM in the industry.
Also shown in the diary entries are sound departments for the film for such things as the musical score, ADR (additional dialog recording), Foley artists and more. Since they run roughly five minutes a piece they tend to get your interest in what they’re talking about just when they wrap up their diary entry. Then your off to yet another aspect of the film making process. Since they are all so short and to the point the time really flies by when your watching which has its good and bad qualities, while it’s certainly informative sometimes the more important parts aren’t covered as well as one would like them to be.
An interesting thing about the diary entries is that the one Howard Shore was a part of while he was still doing the musical scores for the film has been removed as if it had never been recorded. This could be Howard requesting for it to not be included or perhaps the studio not wanting to confuse viewers by having two different composers talking about the music but for those who followed the films production like myself certainly would have like to see it be included even as an easter egg. Or atleast talk about it somewhere on the DVD as to why he chose to leave the project for those who weren’t aware instead of acting as if he had never been a part of the film.
Also on the DVD are two exclusive pieces which I can only image are here to wet our appetite as to what could be ahead of us if Universal chooses to go forward with a three or four disc collection for the film. First up we have Kong’s New York: 1933 (28:34) which takes a very detailed look at the New York living conditions during the depression era as well as the story behind the Empire State Buildings construction. While the information gathered here is a blast to watch, I’m beginning to wonder why they bothered to go so far in to detail for things that are simply brushed through in the film. We’re shown shades of what is discussed here in the movie but you’ll begin to wonder if they were too caught up with the minute details to worry about the bigger ones.
The second featurette is Skull Island: A Natural History (17:10) that is actually a faux-documentary where Jackson and the rest of the WETA people talk about Skull Island as if it were an actual location. Basically giving the entire island it’s own back story explaining why the dinosaurs are still around, why certain creatures exist and the explanation for why the native islanders have become what we see in the film. On a whole it’s a fun little piece but again you have to wonder why they choose to go this far in to details that aren’t relevant to the plot. Still it’s something that fans of the movie will love to watch.
And finally we’re given some shameless commercials disguised as bonus material that are on disc one of both the single and two disc collection. First is The Volkswagen Toureg & King Kong (2:10) which is a behind the scenes look at the shooting of the commercial for the car and all of the computer work that was done for it. And also See More of NYC in “Wish You Were Here” (1:05) which I can’t tell if it’s an actual trailer promoting something or a plug for Kodak film.
Score: 8/10
