King Kong- ***1/2

To get ready for Peter Jackson’s King Kong I rented both of the earlier versions. I found I was pleasantly surprised at how good the original is, and more sickened by how stupid the 70s version is. Jackson’s remake falls somewhere in between. He does manage to capture much of the spectacle of the original, but he’s also mired in the tedium of the 70s remake.

The movie begins with a quick overview of New York in the 30s (flashes of Cinderella Man) before introducing us to Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), a vaudeville actress who finds herself out of work. She loves the plays of Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), who is actually writing a movie for Carl Denham (Jack Black), an adventurous filmmaker who is down on his luck. Denham helps Darrow out of a jam and talks her into starring in his new film, and away they sail to Skull Island. This section of the movie is, for the most part, unnecessary. It feels as if Jackson, bloated from his Lord of the Rings success, has forgotten how to pace a movie. He tries to build suspense, but it comes off mostly flat. Despite a couple clever nods to the original, the whole first hour feels crowded, yet uncompelling.

The action finally begins when they arrive at the island. Only, this time, the natives are vicious, cold-blooded killers for some reason. They of course kidnap Ann to be sacrificed to Kong, a giant gorilla they worship. There are two incredible sequences on the island, one as the rescue team tries to outrun a herd of dinosaurs, and another when Kong fights not just one, but three tyrannosauruses. These are great action scenes, and I can’t figure out why the rest of the movie isn’t more like them.

The longer the movie goes on, the more it solidifies itself. It actually becomes quite tragic by the end, as Kong faces down a fleet of biplanes. Kong is more than a fish-out-of-water monster, he’s given real emotions and actions. Jackson manages to humanize Kong in a way he just can’t manage to humanize his characters. Particularly the character of Denham. Instead of being the rugged, reckless adventurer from the original, he’s now more of a sniveling, greedy little man. Black fits the part perfectly, but you never like him. The best performance though, not counting Andy Serkis as Kong, is from Naomi Watts. Her character has a depth that no one else in the movie does, and she fills it out completely.

The movie itself, despite being overlong and extremely self-indulgent, is still not a bad movie. It is exciting, fun, and except for a couple moments, visually stunning. But I feel like Jackson is becoming less and less interested in pacing his movies (the tedious new director’s cut of The Frighteners is a testament to this). King Kong manages to survive this, and I’m hoping that Jackson relearns how to edit before his movies become unwatchable.

--reviewed by Brandon