KING KONG WORLD PREMIER REVIEW

By Jay Lamantia

 “They’ll have to think up a lot of new adjectives when I get back!”

-         Carl Denham, King Kong 1933.

That’s pretty much the understatement of the year when it comes to describing my thoughts after seeing Peter Jackson’s King Kong last night at the world premier in New York City.   For those of you that had fears that yet another retelling of the classic would desecrate the Kong mythos, please put those fears to rest.  Peter Jackson delivers once again in his god-like director ways, just as he did in his Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Expanding greatly on the established foundation of the Kong story, but yet still staying faithful to Merian C. Cooper’s vision, Jackson has conjured a masterpiece that will have Kong fans and non-fans alike buzzing for years.

 Like any movie that receives as much hype Kong has in the recent months, there are always fears and expectations of failure that surround a picture of such magnitude.  For example, there was much debating amongst fans and critics that the length of the film (being three hours) would be much too long and the pacing of the story would be horrible.  There was much speculation that Jackson would spend too much time on character development and not enough with the action of the film.  The pacing of the film is fantastic.  I went into the theatre knowing I was seeing a three hour film, and as Kong was making his ascent up the Empire State Building, I had to lean over and ask my partner Ray if we were watching an edited version of the movie.  The pacing and flow of the movie was so expertly blended, that three hours felt as if not even two hours had gone by to me.  For those of you who thought Titanic was a great flick and didn’t mind watching it for three hours, will have no problem sitting through Kong.  The movie strolls along that much better in my opinion.  There aren’t any dead spots or lack of action to speak of.  Once the crew of the venture reaches the fog banks of Skull Island, the action starts to take off and from there on in, has very little let up, much to the dismay of the Venture crew.

 For those of you that are sticklers of detail, you may actually have to watch this movie three or four times to pick up on all the discreet little items that Peter Jackson has inserted into this movie.  Posters advertising Merian C. Cooper’s Chang, billboards promoting Universal, and various props from the original Kong movie (which are now part of PJ’s personal collection) can be seen throughout the movie.  When Denham is bickering with Preston over getting a girl for his picture, he rattles off a bunch of ladies names with Preston answering with a reason why that girl can’t be used.  When Denham mentions a woman named “Fay”, Preston replies that she is already working for RKO at the moment, and a disgruntled Denham grumbles about a certain director named “Cooper”. 

 Viewers will have no problem settling into the mood of the movie.  Every setting is completed with extreme, accurate detail.  At the opening of the picture, we see a depression ravaged New York City which, through extensive research from Peter Jackson and his team has recreated to pinpoint detail.    I couldn’t help but get the feeling that I was actually witnessing life in the 30’s, the detail is so precise. 

 Unlike the original classic, Jackson takes the time to give us a little more background on each of the characters before their journey is underway.  We learn that Ann (Naomi Watts) had been working as a struggling performer before her show is shut down and suddenly finds herself out of work.  We learn that Carl Denham is as maniacal a showman as ever, and will get his picture made at any risk, no matter what the cost.  Jackson once again shows us why he is the man in charge and that we should have faith in his decisions.  Fans were horrified at the aspect of Jack Black being cast as Carl Denham, but Black may just be the most brilliant performer in this flick aside of Kong himself.  Lastly, we also learn that Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody) is a well known playwright, and not the ship’s first mate as in the original.  He seems to be a man who is passionate about his craft, but has yet to find his own peak of self gratification.  

 Jackson has also taken the liberty to expand on some of the secondary characters of the original, as well add a few new faces.  Jimmy (Jamie Bell) is still a young sailor, but has only found his passage on the Venture after being found by, and taken under Hayes’ (Evan Parke, the new first mate) wing.   Lumpy (Andy Serkis) is now the ship’s cook.  Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) is the star of Denham’s current production is also along for the voyage, as well as Denham’s cameraman Herb (John Sumner), and his assistant Preston (Colin Hanks).  Captain Englehorn’s (Thomas Kretschmann) character has been altered, too.  He is now a young captain of his own ship, whose specialty is capturing wild animals.  It’s a good logic to have as far as storytelling goes, because once a character becomes connected with it’s audience, death has much more feeling and emotion when it occurs.

 And death there is!  Kong is a PG-13 movie, but is not watered down as far as brutality and grisly death goes.  There are more sailors who meet their untimely demise due to Kong, raptors, brontosaurus, and even the natives of Skull Island.  These aren’t the classic natives that your grandpa remembers.  These natives are a primitive, savage lot who obviously do not know the meaning of compassion and do what they do to survive.  Kong also goes ballistic in New York City, just cleaning out hordes of people in his wake.  The body count is higher in this movie than in any other incarnations of Kong. 

 Skull Island is as about as close to hell on earth as one can get.  There are non stop dangers besides Kong himself, and the terrain is absolutely treacherous.  It truly is survival of the fittest as predators prey on anything that can satisfy their hunger whims.  One of the most grisly, morbid scenes is Jackson’s version of the infamous “spider pit sequence”.  Edited and forever lost from the original film, die hard fans will be talking about this one forever.  At a point when things couldn’t get any worse, the rescue party, already being pulverized and thrown into a chasm off a gigantic fallen tree by Kong, are attacked by dozens of insect like abominations that the island has to offer.  It is here the feeling of hope is truly lost, and that death is imminent.  But of course, without giving away too many spoilers, the search for Ann does go on...

 The special effects, needless to say, are state of the art.  Kong looks and moves phenomenally.  As mostly everybody knows, Andy Serkis studied gorillas and their actions, then while hooked to a computer motion capture costume, acted out Kong and brought life to his character.  Kong moves, walks, and acts like a gorilla.  Again, many fans may actually have a problem with this, for in the first two Kong movies, the ape actually walked upright.  Jackson went for the more realistic type of ape, therefore placing Kong on all fours.  Love it or hate it, I’m sure everyone will agree he looks unbelievable.  I think the only time people may find fault with the special effects is during the brontosaurus stampede.  It is no doubt probably one of the hardest sequences that had to be orchestrated, and living in this day and age of special effects one does tend to get spoiled.  However, it may look like just barely for a couple of instances, that the sailors running have been generated into the scenes.   Again, this is just if you are being really nit picky.

 As for any other negatives fans may have with the movie, the one that stands out to me most is the relationship between Kong and Ann.  It is definitely different from the original, and for fans that are going to constantly compare blow for blow with the original, you may be disappointed.  First off, I will admit, I was skeptical when I first heard  how the relationship would be.  But after seeing the movie, it totally works.  It’s not a love affair; not on Ann’s part anyway, but a dependency that turns into a caring compassion; let’s say that one may have for a baby or a pet.  Yes, Ann is at first terrified and wants nothing more than to be away from Kong, but after she faces the dangers of Skull Island, and seeing that Kong wants to do nothing more than to protect her, not only is she dependant of him for her own survival, but does she realize that he truly has a soul.  Besides, look at it this way; you’ll be spared the constant screaming torture that Fay Wray put us through!

 I’m not going to get into any deep detail about the entire plot of the movie, as not to give away too many spoilers and ruin it for you.  You must see it and enjoy it for yourself.  But as I said earlier, the movie carries along at a fantastic pace, and even though it is truly three hours long, I found that there may still be actual chunks of scenes that are missing from the film.  You may all remember seeing in the trailer the men on their makeshift rafts rowing through the swamp.  This scene does not appear in the film at all.  When Jack rescues Ann from Kong, one minute they are swimming in the water, the next they are already at the wall waiting to get back in.  I just wonder if there was more to this pursuit than what we see.  Nothing is mentioned about the natives after the sailors take off after Ann.  Where did they go?  When Kong breaches the gate and chases the crew to the beach landing, there is no scene of him ravaging the native village like in the original.  One may wonder if these scenes do exist, but were edited for screen time.  Maybe we just need to wait for Peter Jackson to release a four disc special edition DVD of Kong for the longer version!

 Don’t let those questions or criticisms I have of the film mislead you.  There may not be a bigger fan of Kong ’33 than myself, so my expectations were extremely high going into this movie.  It does not disappoint!  King Kong 2005:  A+!

 If you have ay questions or would like to contact us regarding the world premier of King Kong, please feel free to email us.

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