Extras:
Introduction to Peter Jackson, Post Production Diaries, Kong's New York 1933,
The Natural History of Skull Island
Director:
Peter Jackson
Producers:
Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh
Screenplay:
Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Music:
James Newton Howard
Cast:
Ann Darrow: Naomi Watts
Jack Driscoll: Adrien Brody
Carl Denham: Jack Black
Lumpy/Kong: Andy Serkis
Engelhorn: Thomas Kretschmann
Peter Jackson is surely now the undisputed grandmaster of blockbuster cinema.
Hot on the heels of his phenomenal success with The Lord Of The Rings
trilogy (11 Oscars for the final movie alone...), Jackson turned his
attention to his dream project -- a remake of his favourite movie,
King Kong (1933).
In the famous story's update, Naomi Watts replaces Fay Wray as
Ann Darrow, a dispirited New York actress recruited by struggling maverick
director Carl Denham (Jack Black) to shoot a movie on an uncharted
island, along with playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) and the
motley crew of The S.S Venture.
Once they reach Skull Island, the team discover it's populated not only by
a savage tribe of people hidden behind a colossal wall, but also with giant
monsters -- in the shape of dinosaurs, huge bats, enormous insects and a
25-foot gorilla known as Kong..
It’s a straight-forward B-movie plot, already famous to everyone after
72 years of exposure to the public. And, even if you’ve never actually seen
the original black-and-white adventure, the iconic image of Kong straddling
the Empire State Building swatting bi-planes out of the air is the stuff
of movie legend.
In translating King Kong for modern audiences, Jackson wisely keeps the story
grounded in its 1930s setting and brings superlative visual complexity to
the screen. Movie monsters haven’t wowed the imagination this much since
Spielberg’s dinosaurs first stomped across our screens back in '93.
Perfecting techniques used throughout Lord Of The Rings, WETA Digital
Workshop have again set a new benchmark for the rest of the effects industry
to aspire to. British actor Andy Serkis (LOTR’s Gollum) "plays" the
titular ape by utilizing motion-capture technology, helping bring a sense of
realism to Kong that the original could never achieve with stop-motion
animated models.
Even the 1976 remake had to struggle with a silly man-in-a-monkey-suit
technique.
No such compromises in 2005. Kong is now a creature of sheer beauty throughout
Jackson's movie. He fights, he runs, he swings, he leaps, he breathes, he
sulks, he laughs … he lives! In many ways the success of the movie relied on
the complexity of Kong's performance and the digital character’s ability to
interact and emote with a real cast… and the WETA crew nail it to perfection.
Plaudits must also go to Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts, given a fairly rudimentary
character on the page, but able to make Ann Darrow’s sweet relationship with
Kong utterly believable. A scene where Ann and Kong "ice-skate" together in
Central Park, before the great ape climbs to his eventual doom, is just
pure old-fashioned movie magic, and sure to tug at everyone’s heart strings.
Amazingly too, the fact everyone knows how the story ends actually works in
the movie’s favour -- as the distant whine of approacing biplanes brings a
melancholy feel to the great ape’s last stand...
Elsewhere, production values are all superb -- particularly the impressive CGI
rendering of 1933 New York City, being so realistic it’s not even noticeably
a special-effect. As always in movies of such mammoth undertaking, there is
the odd effects moments that could have done with further polishing: a
dinosaur stampede suffers from some badly composited shots, and a sequence
with a pole-vaulting native is below-par and ridiculous anyway. But these
are very minor quibbles in an otherwise unrivalled production.
The actors involved all do a very good job, particularly Watts and Serkis
as already stated, but the greatest surprise in some ways is Jack Black as
Carl Denham. Black is most famous as one-half of a comedy rock band Tenacious
D, and as a high-energy comedian in films such as School Of Rock, so
to see him provide a credible and engaging performance of such seriousness is
very satisfying.
Adrien Brody does solid work, but his character is rarely more than a handy
plot device to push events along. Still, in earlier scene when his character
looks to be more prevalent than he eventually becomes, Brody’s brings his
usual goofy hangdog charm to proceedings, before the ape takes over and his
involvement becomes sidelined.
If there is a problem with King Kong 2005, it’s the running time. King Kong
is big in many ways. At three hours, the movie is twice the length of the
original -- yet tells essentially the same story. Jackson takes an hour to
set-up his characters before they arrive on Skull Island, then overloads a
mid-section with far more monster set-pieces than the original had, before
the admittedly well-judged final act in New York.
Personally, I thought the set-up was slightly too long, but never boring. I
enjoyed the slow build-up and getting to know the characters (even if most
of the cast don't get any kind of satisfying pay-off by the movie's
conclusion). Another slight quibble is the sheer amount of perils involving
monsters in Act II. The initial adrenaline rush slowly diminishes due to
overkill at times, although there are some amazing spectacles to behold.
However, even these storytelling didn't ruined the experience for me.
A popcorn film being criticized for having too much character set-up and
monster fights is generally in a good position...
Overall, King Kong is a chest-beating success. Jackson’s lifelong ambition
to remake his favourite film wasn’t the potential folly some expected it to
be. It's clear Jackson knows King Kong inside-out, so this remake improves
where necessary (the Ann-Kong dynamic is far better -- actually takings its
cue from the '76 version), updates the monsters with modern techniques,
but never forgets the heart and power of its illustrious predecessor.
It's rare such a blatantly silly and effects-laden movie can stirr
such emotion in an audience, so enjoy the experience...
After 72 years, Kong is still the King!
The quality of the movie is awesome visually, with its anamorphic 2.35:1
widescreen image beautiful in all regards. 1933 New York is just sumptuous
(both in daylight and night), the Venture is suitable grimy and Skull
Island's jungles are lush and beautiful. This is demo material.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is excellent, with a gorgeous mix of sound from
all departments. The sound effects are perfect, the surround-sound mix is
wonderful, and James Newton Howard's brilliant score is thrilling. There is
no DTS mix (perhaps on a later edition) but for now this DD5.1 transfer
is just wonderful.
The extras are as follows:
Post-Production Diaries:
If you followed the making of King Kong via the KongIsKing.net website then
you've probably seen the Production Diaries that site hosted, or maybe you
bought them separately on DVD. Anyway, the diaries presented here are the
Post-Production Diaries, and cover all aspects of the film after principal
photography (pickups, sound-effects, visual-effects, dialogue recording,
premieres, etc).
This is 3-hours of essential material for fans of King
Kong, and especially anyone interested in making movies. There's
practically no filler material, and everything shown is interesting,
revealing and occasionally quite funny. Fantastic.
Skull Island: A Natural History:
This is an interesting documentary that blends reality with fiction to
give you an insight into Skull Island's history and ecosystem. It's quite
amazing to see the level of detail and thought that went into Skull Island,
from creating all the creatures, to providing a believable history to the
island's geography and its indigenous people. This is packed will gorgeous
concept art and is very entertaining.
Kong's New York, 1933:
Another documentary, this time focusing on New York. The emphasis is on
reality for this extra feature, and gives you an insight into the 1930s
time-period King Kong takes place in. Everything is discussed, from The
Great Depression, vaudeville theatre, to skyscrapers. Definitely one for
the history buff, primarily, but it's certainly interesting.
This is a great release of King Kong, with a fantastic audio/visual
experience, and some very entertaining extra features. Although, despite
being a Special Edition, I'm sure a better version is on its way with more
extensive special features, but for now this first release should please
most fans.
The menu screens are slick, although not as memorable as you'd perhaps
expect, but the packaging art is first-rate. This is an essential purchase
for any fan of escapist action-adventure cinema.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
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Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
