THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
There are some stories so compelling that you got to hear it more than once to believe it. In one case, the story of King Kong has been so generational that the standard story of the character’s rise and fall has been told multiple times. If you’re gonna ask me what the best iteration being before being rewritten as a superhero in the MonsterVerse, in which his crossover his Godzilla was retold, I would have to say the 2005 adaptation directed by Peter Jackson, who arguably revolutionized the story as a whole.
PLOT
The film takes place in the Great Depression era and follows filmmaker Carl Denham who is struggling to make a successful motion picture. Not wanting the producers he’s working for to scrap it before completion, he boards the SS Venture to shoot the rest of his movie alongside his personal assistant Preston, cameraman Herb (John Summer), soundman Mike (Craig Hall), and lead actor Bruce Baxter. At the last minute, Denham hires struggling vaudeville performer Ann Darrow to be lead actress but she only goes upon hearing her favorite playwright Jack Driscoll is writing the script. Driscoll joins the voyage when missing his chance to get off the boat, which gives him an excuse to complete the script as Carl hoped. Besides the film crew, the Venture is led by the likes of Captain Englehorn, first mate Benjamin Hayes, orphaned mentor Jimmy and the cook Lumpy. During the voyage where production would occur, Darrow would have the chance to meet Driscoll himself and the two would fall for each other. As Jack would also complete the script, he would be the first Carl would tell that they’re heading towards the uncharted Skull Island. Jimmy would overhear this and would tell Hayes. He would be visibly upset to where the two and Lumpy would confront him about it as he told Englehorn to chart Singapore. Denham would confess his intentions, but Hayes & Lumpy would further express dissatisfaction because years prior, they encountered a castaway who claimed to have seen a beast from an island hidden in a fog. Denham ignores this warning however due to his determination of completing his vision. Ironically, Englehorn would be contacted by authorities that there is an arrest warrant on the filmmaker by the studio for going rogue. Just when he is ordered to turn around and hand him over, they would reach the island as he hoped. When the Venture gets trapped aground by rocks, Denham would take advantage by taking his film crew to shoot like he wanted. However, they find dangerous natives who kill Mike for trespassing. When Ann screams in terror, it gets a responsive roar from the island’s god known to the natives as Kong. The natives try to kill the others before Englehorn rescues them. Just when the Venture breaks apart from the rocks, Ann would be captured by the natives and offer her as a sacrifice to Kong. Just when Jack deduces what happened to her, he warns Englehorn and the crew marches into the village to rescue her. It would appear too late as she would be quickly taken into the jungle by Kong himself who happens to be a gigantic gorilla. Englehorn tasks the crew to find her within 24 hours to find her before leaving the island. Carl joins the rescue party with Jack mostly for the sake of filming Kong when getting a glimpse of him before everyone else. During the journey, Jack’s group would not avoid casualties as Herb would be one of many to have been killed in a stampede of dinosaurs, either being trampled by a Brontosaurus herd or killed by a pack of raptors. (In the extended cut, the group would cross a swamp and be attacked by a piranhadon.) When Englehorn is less than 9 hours away from departing, Baxter considers getting a headstart in returning to the ship while the others continue their search for the damsel. As for Ann, she would survive Kong’s wrath when trying to entertain him comedically with her juggling and dancing skills. Through that alone, she is able to grasp his intelligence and capacity for emotion. When he chooses to leave her, she chooses to make a break for it and find her way back to the ship. On his own, Kong would encounter Jack’s party and kill Hayes as he would push them off a log bridge where they fall into a ravine. The king of the island would return to Ann when encountering a group of Tyrannosaurus Rexes which he defeats one by one. In the ravine, Denham would be devastated that his camera would be destroyed upon the fall. He would use this to motivate him to survive when he and the crew get surrounded by giant insects before Baxter returns with Englehorn to rescue them. They help the others back up from the ravine, but Driscoll would still choose to go alone in rescuing Ann. Carl would convince Englehorn to stay with the intent to capture Kong, believing it can be done due to the captain’s previous work of live animal capture and has an exponential amount of chloroform they can use against the ape. Jack would reach Kong’s cave and rescue Ann, but it wouldn’t be a smooth transition as the gorilla would wake up in the midst of it. He would chase them back to the village and despite killing many sailors of Englehorn’s crew, the captain would still succeed in not only incapacitating him with said chloroform, but also injuring him by shooting his leg with a harpoon. This would all shock Ann as they know they don’t have to do this. By the season of winter, Denham would exploit Kong to Broadway as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. It would go past his control as the creature would break free of his chains out of annoyance of camera flash by the reporters in awe of him. As Kong would search for Ann, he would end up chasing Jack out of anger of him taking Ann from him. He would reunite with her as he hoped and would have a moment of peace walking around the city of New York before being pursued by the US military. Feeling safer above, the gorilla climbs to the Empire State Building with Ann by his hand. Safety would only be temporary when six biplanes surround the tower intending to shoot him down. He would defeat half of them, but all the ammunition would severely wound him and cause him to fall to his death. Although Ann would reunite with Jack, she would be devastated by the creature’s death. With the public gathering over the street to see his corpse, bystanders accept that the airplanes stopped him, but the film would end with Denhan declaring ‘It wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the beast’.
THOUGHTS
There was so much going into this film that guaranteed I would see however it would turn out for me. Seeing the previous films from ‘33 & ‘76 in advance had me intrigued as this iteration is what introduced me to remakes, and it was Jackson’s success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy that had me all the more excited. Like the said Oscar winning films, Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh & Phillipa Boyens strike gold once again when making a classic adventure feel 10 times more grand than what was done before. The visions of past adaptations were fused with their best elements which maintained all the interest and left me hooked for another 3 hours. With Grant Major returning to do production design like he did for Lord of the Rings, every landscape took my breath away from not just the fictional Skull Island but taking a trip to the past whenever we saw 30s era NY. In a post Jurassic Park era, the visual effects done for all the dinosaurs were bound to look greatly realistic which they all were from start to finish. Going from the Bronto herd, to the T Rex trio to the unexpected orgy of giant insects, I was enthralled to see such creatures. Even seeing those giant bats in Kong’s cave were intriguing to see. Of course, the work done with computer technology was at their finest when bringing Kong to life, which was done via motion capture acting from Andy Serkis who would also play the temperamental yet assertive Lumpy. Every chance we get to bask in the ape’s presence, you’re intimated yet still in awe of what he brings to the scene. He is a dangerous figure yet when he doesn’t act such outside fighting dinosaurs as badass as he could, you pick up on how he is still one who seeks connection. Noticing how he’s the only one of his kind on the island, it’s visible how alone he feels and sparks this unlikely sympathy to ever feel. I have to paraphrase actor Jack Black when saying this doesn’t have us look at Kong as a monster. Getting to know where he’s coming from, you start attaching to him more than expected. That’s where the slave allegory kicks in as it did for the past since he’s taken against his will to be exploited and he’s killed for seeking love. Whether or not you see his death coming, it’s still sad of a fallout because it all could’ve been avoided had he been left alone. This tragedy was of course possible due to one who had a brilliant mind but thought with the wrong actions. Black gives an incredible dramatic performance as Denham because you relate to how bad he wants to succeed. He proved his determination when choosing to shoot in the island instead of being in a typical studio backlot. He was going for authenticity, but his decision to not go back empty handed only led to a much worse decision that is exploiting Kong. It was already irritating to see him shoot his film in the midst of rescuing Ann, while people die around him and he is un-phased throughout, so the lack of hesitance he has in smacking the beast with a bottle of chloroform would just solidify he was always the villain of the story for doing the unnecessary. And for that, he pays for it when his last resort of a plan blows up when he least expected it. Basically everyone that wasn’t Denham would not have thought of what he would do, so it is a relief there were people that were openly against him. Colin Hanks definitely had me respect Preston a lot for playing him as one who had a fair amount of self awareness compared to his own employer. He does get out of his comfort zone as anyone should, but instead using it to get more comfortable in how unpredictable the world can be, but he uses his newfound confidence to a more reasonable decision where he paves the way for Ann & Driscoll to cross whereas Denham chose to wait for Kong to get closer. Add that with escorting the audience out of the arena seconds before Kong’s escape, the respect for him as high. The respect would always be there for one another, but it was indeed for the best with them to part ways after this because there’s no way you can maintain any kind of relationship after the adventure they’ve had. I also dug Thomas Kretschmann as Englehorn because he is a world-weary individual who put way more thought upon action compared to Denham. He gave Denham a deadline to do what he wanted before leaving without regret, tired of the empty promises he was already putting up with but the idea of capturing Kong was too big of an opportunity to pass up on. So for this last shot of glory, you can’t blame him in being vicious as he had to be to do what he did best, but I’m sure the ape’s demise made him regret what he did. Seeing the sub plot of Evan Park’s Hayes and Jamie Bell’s Jimmy was so interesting to see at the time because their dynamic was about wanting to be a better version of yourself and find an appropriate purpose for yourself. When Hayes gets killed by Kong, we know this hurts for Jimmy because he’s the only one that took a chance on him, took the time in telling him what he had to hear. So when he died, his mind was becoming clear just to be strong no matter what comes your way. Jimmy definitely learned this the hard way because his attempt at seeking revenge almost got him killed again. With the creature being shot down, you can bet he had just enough satisfaction to move on. To get this out of the way, I thought Kyle Chandler's take on Baxter to be the realistic case of an actor confronting reality, which can also make the case hilarious to see. I'm not trying to bash on actors as a whole because I respect what they do to entertain us, but the character to be afraid of an environment he would normally pretend to be a part of is very ironic. He acts very reasonable with the case to leave early because he and no one else were prepared for what came their way so he has the right to be scared. Having said that, you gotta respect him to overcome his fears in order to have his own rescue mission. Then again, you relate to him leaving the theater as soon Kong got hostile because he rightfully ain't willing to go through the trauma once more. Again, Kong does not get slain had he fallen for the most unlikely of soulmates. Naomi Watts made a whole new damsel of Ann since she was willing to do anything to get by as long as she maintained her moral to not act low for it. Like in the original, she had nothing to lose which motivated her in joining the expedition. She is of course afraid of Kong at first glance, yet she uses what she knows to survive and for her, it was the ability to make others laugh which worked in her predicament. Kong becomes attached to her from there and the moment she stands up to him because he respects her for having ferocity and bravery deep down. From there, she started to pity him like we all did when noticing how alone he feels inside and out. And when he protected her, she respected it and didn't really imagine anyone else to do so until reality returned for her in the form of Jack. Even though she was grateful to be rescued, she still felt bad for Kong and kept choosing to go back to him because she understands what he wants. She intentionally put herself in danger when doing so because she was the only one willing to defend him. Knowing that it wasn't enough only makes the tragedy all the more saddening. The only other character who had common sense was for sure Driscoll because Adrien Brody plays him as one who has visible compassion for his line of work but would avoid stooping so low for success compared to Denham. And I think that is where he & Ann hit it off so well because they know their limits when it comes to morality. That connection alone was enough for him to try protecting her as much as he could, to the point where he went up to the top of Empire State Building for her when no one else would. Although she still has him in the aftermath, it won't change the pain she felt. Hearing Denham's final line "It was beauty killed the beast" always breaks my heart here because it has the perfect execution of deducing the double theme where love can get one killed like it did for Kong and the character's realization where you shouldn't do something just because you know you can. For that, Denham will live with this regret for the rest of his life. There is no kidding when saying I’ll always hold this film dearly to my heart, but the immortal joy I have over it won’t excuse some issues I picked up on thanks to my many re-watches. Going from the top, we had to call if fate for Denham to recruit Ann as the last minute because would he really get a good performance out of a showgirl? I know the guy was desperate to succeed as she shows from the start, but I’m sure he would regret any woman he’d cast no matter what would happen next. Denham definitely takes a lot of risks enough as is when being determined to shoot his movie at Skull Island, but how has he missed seeing Kong’s picture on the map? That is way more confusing than not knowing where he got it from in the first place and ever found out about the island. It even gets wild on how he convinced Driscoll to join him on the island when they should’ve focused on getting the ship unstuck. The easy answer would be wanting to protect Ann, but I feel like there has to be more to it. And it’s very obvious it was Driscoll’s fault for choosing to wait for Denham, when he could’ve dropped off the script and left immediately if he wanted to rehearse his play so bad. He was pretty lucky to have his typewriter, but it’s even wild how he had enough paper to use. It wouldn’t hurt knowing Carl was prepared to make him stay. It’s already crazy for the native to sneak aboard to abduct Ann, but how did he know which room to find her? That’s way too much luck on his side since he only had to kill at least two people to get to her during a rainstorm. I really hate continuity errors, so expect weirded out on how in the beginning of the stampede, it takes so long for the herd to catch up to Denham when they should’ve caught up to him sooner if not crush him. It is one thing to wonder how Kong was taken off the island because we don’t see if her fits the ship or not. The real question that makes you think though is wondering how did the theater get him in without the public noticing? If there’s a big garage door made in advance, it would’ve been cool for Denham to mention upon his introduction. Ignore this, then you’ll still appreciate this film as much as I have. In conclusion, 2005’s King Kong fits the elite list of remakes for feeling just as grand of a story that was done before, while giving the right enhancements that make it stand the test of time. If adventure films and/or monster flicks are up your alley, enjoy the best of both worlds here.
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