King Kong

I remember going to see "The Neverending Story" in the theater at the age of eight, and I was so swept away by everything about it that I instantly fell in love with the movies. For many years, I thought I wanted to be a filmmaker, my goal being so I could tell stories and visit places like the ones that existed in the movie that captured me like none had at that time (it wasn't until I was about ten that "Star Wars" became a similar obsession). As I grew older, I realized that I was more of a writer than a director, so my dreams changed. It's not that the kid in me died; he just decided to show his appreciation for the movies in a different way.

I bring this up because I can identify with why Peter Jackson had to remake "King Kong." He claims it to be his favorite movie, and I have heard him talk about how crucial it was to him as a child. Making this picture has, I think, shaped who he is as a filmmaker, as if his whole career has led up to the moment when he could finally give the world his own interpretation of his most influential cinematic experience. Sadly, I doubt anyone took his early works as any indication he could pull off "King Kong." No, it took successfully bringing to the screen three beloved novels and winning multiple Oscars on their behalf.

I knew when Jackson finally got to make his dream come true, it was going to be bigger than anything he had ever made before. The result is on screen. "King Kong" is a three-hour opus that covers most of the genres in the filmmaking book, while also paying proper tribute to the very picture that inspired it. Despite having a knack for battle sequences and special effects, what Jackson proved to me most through "Lord of the Rings" is that he is an excellent storyteller. Case and point with "King Kong," since he spends the first hour setting up the action.

The movie opens in depression era New York, a place where people will do anything to put a piece of bread in their mouths. Ann Darrow (the amazing Naomi Watts) is a struggling vaudeville performer whose theater has been closed and may be forced to join a burlesque if worst comes to worst. Thank god she is rescued by Carl Denham (Jack Black), an overly ambitious film director who makes jungle adventures the studios don't want to see. However, he has acquired a map to a place called Skull Island, but the crew of the ship he's chartered think they're going to Singapore. Ann gets on board because she has nothing else to lose, plus the writer of Denham's movie is Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), her favorite playwright.

So there's the basic setup to the piece. Jackson makes sure we know enough about them to get us ready for the second act. It turns out to be a bit of a double edged sword though, because he builds things up so much the first hour begins to feel too long once the ship finally reaches Skull Island. We mainly get acquainted with the important human characters, while the supporting ones are brought around just enough for us to know who they are when they get killed. This is not a complaint, since this picture is not about them. It's about the relationship between a woman and a twenty-five foot gorilla. I'll get to that soon enough.

The second hour on Skull Island features some of the most exciting stuff I've ever seen in a movie. Jackson shows chops building suspense that reminds of what Spielberg did in the 1970s and '80s. Just when we think it will be safe to catch our breath after a thoroughly busy action sequence, Jackson throws something our way that is even more thrilling than what we just witnessed. Despite the non-stop action, the second hour is especially important because it sets up the key bond in the movie between Ann and Kong.

In the previous versions of "King Kong," Ann was frightened of her captor throughout the entire picture. Jackson has taken the opposite approach and made it work when it certainly doesn't seem like it should. Ann realizes early on that Kong does not want to kill her, but sees her as something he must protect. She tests him by doing part of her old act, and finally amuses him when he discovers how funny it is to knock her over with his finger. Ultimately, we can sense that Ann fears being found since the ship's crew will automatically see Kong as a threat.

The early scenes between Kong and Ann have an unforced beauty to them, which makes it possible for us to feel for the gorilla when he is finally captured and dragged to New York City to be put on display. One of the ship's mates (Jamie Bell) is reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness, at first believing it is an adventure story but eventually seeing it is a complex journey into the human heart. He compares the book to the voyage he's on, not knowing how right he really is until Carl becomes obsessed with capturing Kong to make his fortune.

The third hour of the picture takes place in a gorgeous rendition of New York City in the winter. Every shot is splendid, but they are unable to add up to an early moment when the ship is first leaving the harbor for Skull Island, and the camera pans around to show New York in the background. Freeze the image and it looks like something out of a decadent pop up book. We know that sooner or later Kong will end up with Ann on the top of the Empire State Building, but I never imagined it like Jackson captures it here. The last half hour of the movie has more passion and sadness than anyone would have ever expected to find in a movie called "King Kong."

Peter Jackson's movie is an epic in every sense of the word, but what truly makes the movie special is the fact it's been made by a man who has a clear love for cinema. Even in his early pictures, which were all splatterfests, it was obvious that Jackson was serious about his quest to entertain his audience (if you don't believe me, check out "Dead Alive"-that is, if you think you have the stomach for it). In "King Kong," he gets performances out of certain actors that I never knew were there, especially when applied to Jack Black, who is usually in manic overdrive.

I have seen "King Kong" twice and I am ready to see it again. It's not often you can say that about a three hour picture, but that just gets back to the fact that Jackson knows how to get his audience into a movie and keep them there. At first, I was hesitant about giving it five stars due to the fact that it could lose about ten minutes during the first hour and there are a few scenes of suspense that are slightly crippled by Jackson's decision to shoot them in slow motion. I was going to dock it down to four for the above reasons, but then I remembered that there's no such thing as a perfect movie. Many of my favorites have flaws. "King Kong" has helped restore my faith in movies to such a large degree I cannot deny it what it has rightfully earned.