King Kong

Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts give standout performances in this special-effects-filled remake by Peter Jackson.

By:Bob Brown
   Had King Kong been made when director Peter Jackson intended, it might not have been as spectacular as it is. Because of rights problems, the movie had to wait until the Lord of the Rings trilogy was completed, and Jackson had honed his special-effects crews, including the now-famous Weta Workshop. Along with the J.R.R. Tolkien classics, Kong certainly cements Jackson and his New Zealand teams as the pre-eminent creators of special-effects magic.
   Spectacle aside, what is it like sitting through this 187-minute remake of a classic? It’s part entertainment and part endurance test of one’s gluteus maximus. Jackson has tried to honor the 1933 production, including some actual props that he owns from the original, copying some scenes and some dialogue, even having movie maker Carl Denham (Jack Black) tote around an antique Bell & Howell 2709, the same camera used to make the original King Kong.
   The present version, with screenplay by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (the Lord of the Rings duo), is closer to the original than John Guillermin’s 1976 film, which is based on a petroleum expedition finding Kong on an isolated island. Jackson’s movie takes off rather woodenly against the backdrop of Depression-era New York. Comic performer Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) scrambles for anything that pays, after her burlesque theater is closed. What she picks up by serendipity is a starring role in Denham’s rogue production, filming on a deserted island that is yet to be found.
   One might say the acting is no worse than that in Merian C. Cooper’s 1933 movie, but the plot itself is so thin that it hardly matters. Denham and his film crew, along with scriptwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) in tow, sail for Malaysian waters on a tramp steamer. After they are washed ashore on the walled Skull Island, they battle a vicious band of spooky primitives, who sacrifice Ann to appease the island’s giant gorilla, Kong. The filmmakers and crew dodge herds of dinosaurs, slash man-eating lampreys and machine-gun swarms of giant insects to rescue Ann, who by now has charmed Kong with her burlesque routine. Ann and Kong cement their beauty-beast relationship as he saves her from attacking reptiles. Denham and crew capture Kong and bring him to the Big Apple, where he headlines a Broadway act that breaks Ann’s heart and ends in tragedy atop the Empire State Building.
   It’s a story we all know, about power, love, animal rights and the greed of the entertainment industry. (In one humorous exchange, Denham reassures the reluctant Ann by saying, "You can trust me, honey, I’m a film producer.") But what Jackson gives us is an extra half-hour of special effects and eye candy, the making of which has apparently been a major industry in most of New Zealand since the first Lord of the Rings feature. In nature, the landscapes and creatures all have a similar stamp, the look of a Jurassic Park as imagined by Maxfield Parrish after a bad dream. New York around Times Square flashes with brilliant retro dazzle, including period-perfect product placement ads for Coke and even Universal Pictures. (Ironically, Universal was set to re-make King Kong in the mid-1970s, but backed away when Paramount launched Dino de Laurentiis’s now much-maligned production.)
   These days, marauding dinosaurs and many-toothed sucking and biting things are so ho-hum that a little dab will do. Jackson, however, is all-powerful at the box office. He gets away with what amounts to piling on. The clock ticks and ticks as thundering herds and flesh-ripping monsters do their worst, on and on and on, to a sound track that bludgeons the ears and deadens the senses. Rather than being on the edge of one’s seat, one is checking one’s cell phone for important text messages that may be arriving from friends or mere acquaintances.
   By exception, there are a few inspired moments where some gripping encounters have been thoughtfully choreographed and humorously presented. A particular example is a literal cliff-hanger: Ann dangles like a trapeze artist from stout vines, swinging back and forth toward the snapping jaws of a vine-tangled Tyrannosaurus Rex, while Kong, on another vine, punches the dinosaur’s head and tries to snatch her back.
   Standouts include performances by Mr. Black, especially in the first half of the movie, Mr. Brody, and by Ms. Watts, whose glowing features and radiant hair are more ravishing than ever. She actually makes gorilla-love touching and believable. Kong himself, as digitally realized by the actions and voice of Andy Serkis (Gollum in Lord of the Rings), is truly a masterpiece of the art. He’s about as close to a personality as one gets without actually having flesh and blood. And he’s not so anthropomorphic that the distance between ape and human is artificially bridged. The score, miraculously delivered in later stages of production by a replacement composer James Newton Howard (Batman Begins) is viscerally exciting.
   But one thing saves the film when it threatens to drown itself in digital technology: a sense of humor. Without that, it’s a long haul with lots of noise and jumpy camerawork that might weary the most ardent Kong fan.
Rated PG-13. Contains frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images.