The attention to detail and the incredible visual effects by WETA are stunning and easily make for one of the best HD-DVD releases yet.
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Peter Jackson's "King Kong" is a film that I have desperately tried to love, but ultimately find myself conflicted as to how much I truly enjoy the film. There are times when I consider the film a tremendous achievement in entertainment and other times when I believe it to be a shining example of modern excess. There are elements of the picture that excite me and things that I wish could have been trimmed to allow the film a far shorter running length. It is a monumental picture that shows that Jackson is one of the finest big budget directors on the planet, but for a man that began with films such as "Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive," has he gone too far?
There is no denying that Peter Jackson's re-imaging of the legendary film is one of most visually exhilarating films ever brought to audiences. This is a fact further driven home with the HD-DVD release. The lush tropics of Skull Island and the detailed fur and scars of Kong exhibit a level of detail to filmmaking that is seldom attempted or achieved, even with today's filmmaking technology. The recreation of 1940s New York City is breathtaking and wonderful example of how a capable director can use digital effects effectively to bring their visions to life.
The story is about a hapless filmmaker, Carl Denham (Jack Black) and his desires to create a film on the mysterious Skull Island. He tricks his writer/friend Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to join him on the trip and finish the screenplay. When his first choice of actress backs out, Denham enrolls the help of a young actress named Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to become the film's leading lady. They ship out on a freighter helmed by Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann). The ship becomes damaged as it approaches Skull Island and Ann Darrow is kidnapped and offered as a sacrifice to King Kong (Andy Serkis). Carl is out to make his picture and Jack is out to rescue Ann. Eventually, Ann is rescued and Carl captures Kong to make him the biggest show on Earth.
I still question the casting of Jack Black in the role of Carl Denham. I can imagine many others who would have better suited the part. Jack Black is a funny man and it is hard to believe him as a scruple-less filmmaker. After watching "Mission: Impossible: III," Philip Seymour Hoffman stands out as a better choice, though I could sit here all day and drop names. Adrien Brody was great as Jack and Namoi Watts was stunning as Ann. Andy Serkis needs to earn more respect as a character actor. He did the motion capture work for Kong and was also the ship's cook, Lumpy. He is an incredible talent that is unknown to most. Colin Hanks provides a supporting role and I believe will one day be a big star. As far as casting goes, with the exception of Black, "King Kong" is wonderfully cast.
Where "King Kong" is all about wonderment and adventure, the film runs for an overly long 188 minutes. This is nearly double the length of the original feature. The added length of the film is to provide further adventure on Skull Island, an entertaining chase scene in the Big Apple and to flesh out the relationship between the gigantic ape and petite blonde that was never established in the original production. Jackson spends a considerable amount of time explaining to the audience the reasons that Kong did not kill Ann Darrow and why she was saddened when the big ape made his final plunge from the top spire of the Empire State Building.
"King Kong" is an experience. The original stop motion picture is heavily expanded to add depth to the characters and bring about a modern revitalization of the wonderment delivered by the original film. The stop motion and effects were considered cutting edge at the time and "King Kong" served to surprise and shock audiences with these effects. The story was minimal, but served the purpose nicely. That was 1933. In 2005, the first "King Kong" is viewed as incredibly primitive and today's audiences demand more story. Jackson helped solidify this higher set of standards with his brilliant "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The latest "King Kong" pushes the envelope of digital effects and Jackson attempts to make this telling of the story as epic as his Hobbit trilogy.
The end result is an incredibly entertaining film that is a sight to behold. The stampeding herbivores and carnivorous bugs are two scenes that scream of excess. They are entertaining, but drag on forever. Once you've seen them, you simply want to move further along and witness the incredible battle between Kong and the Tyrannosaurs. You want to see the amazing chase through the streets of New York and the eventual fight at the top of the world. The film presents a budding romance between Ann Darrow and Jack Driscoll and of course, between Ann Darrow and Kong. The film consistently tries to surprise you with incredibly detailed action scenes and it succeeds.
However, by adding in the character arc sequences and the romantic underpinnings of the film, it feels every bit as long as its 188 minutes suggest. With some further editing, "King Kong" could have been one of the greatest action films ever created. It could have been everything that the 1998 telling of "Godzilla" was not. With a two hour running time, Peter Jackson could have created a roller-coaster ride of a film that would not have been as strong in a storytelling sense, but an exciting tour de force that never allowed its audience to take a long breath. I'm sure many would have argued that by removing some of the subplots of the film, it would have not been the picture Jackson wanted, but with the way extended DVD editions sell, the 'epic' telling of "King Kong" could have been a profitable double-dipping at retail outlets.
I enjoy "King Kong" and consider it to be a very good picture, but it is a film I cannot find myself falling in love with. The long running time separates it from the typical "popcorn" film and it moves more into the "epic" category. However, there is not quite enough story to be epic. People land on the island. They find monsters. They die and fight the monsters. A big ape takes the girl. The girl is rescued and the ape becomes a freak show on Broadway. The story is good, but ultimately, it just drags on and leaves the audience waiting longer for the great climax.
Video:
As I said in the main portion of this review, Peter Jackson's "King Kong" is truly a sight to behold. The attention to detail and the incredible visual effects by WETA are stunning and easily make for one of the best HD-DVD releases yet. Only a certain number of films produced each year have the visual aesthetics to deliver a "Wow!" from audiences on visual strength alone. "King Kong" is one of these films and was remarkable looking on DVD. Now that it has been re-incarnated on HD-DVD, a completely different "Wow!" can be heard from those viewing the film. This disc was the packed-in title for the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD Add-on and it does not take long to realize why Microsoft had chosen this particular package to give purchases of the Add-on unit instant gratification in their purchase.
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