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King Kong - Extended Cut

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

Since its original 1933 release, King Kong set the standard for classic Hollywood spectacle filmmaking. However, the spectacle threatened to turn into a downright embarrassing mess after director John Guillermin’s infamous remake of the film in 1976. But he wasn’t the only filmmaker who wanted a shot at resurrecting Hollywood’s ‘eighth wonder’.

New Zealand director Peter Jackson had long wanted to do his own version of the film from his earliest days as a filmmaker. After the undeniable success of his Lord Of The Rings trilogy, he was given the opportunity to work on King Kong as his next film, which is now available on DVD in a deluxe extended edition.

The film is set, cleverly enough, in the classic original’s then-present day period of 1933, as struggling vaudeville actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is offered a role by filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black). Denham is desperate to come up with a spectacular film as the Hollywood brass threatens to pull the financial plug on him.

He manages to lure Ann on a shoddy ship made up of a ragtag crew by hijacking the film’s writer and the actress’ idol Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) against his will. They soon end up on the mysterious Skull Island on a mission for Denham to capture it on film as a desperate means of salvaging his career.

However, the expedition turns into a fight for survival as Carl and his group must face the perils of the island. These include bloodthirsty natives, as well as dinosaurs that survived the prehistoric age, and most importantly of all, a giant ape named Kong (Andy Serkis) who the natives worship as the island’s king.

As the natives sacrifice Ann to Kong and the beast takes her away, Denham and his party set out to rescue her. As they struggle to reach Ann, she begins to form a fragile bond with the creature. Once they rescue Ann, Denham brings the creature back to New York to use him as his star attraction. However, what ensues soon after is chaos.

Peter Jackson has shown once again that he has an immense talent for filmmaking on an epic scale and King Kong manages to live up to the thrilling spectacle of its almost completely unsurpassable 1933 original. However, the problem of this remake lies from a completely self-indulgent lack of structure.

The film’s introductory first-third tries hard to deeply develop the many characters in the film, which by the time they reach the island, their camaraderie is reminiscent of the fellowship in Jackson’ s Lord Of The Rings trilogy. However, by the time many of them are involved in the perilous middle section, you find that a lot of the characters aren’t strong enough to really resonate with as they get ...