Part 4: A Fan's Odyssey
KING KONG
(DECEMBER 14, 2005)
The biggest character change comes with the character of Jack Driscoll. In the original he was a sailor, in this one he's a playwright who actually works with Denham, hasn't seen a lot of action and ultimately steps up and becomes the hero. He's played by Adrian Brody (-insert nose joke here-) who I gotta say is nowhere near as good or charismatic as Robert Armstrong, granted he wasn't playing that version of Driscoll and Brody did a fair job with the role.
One thing this Kong movie has over the original and the '76 remake is memorable side characters. The crew members other than the Captains were pretty much forgettable, with the possible exception of Charlie the Cook from the original, but for the wrong reasons. Here though, you have a few more characters with distinct personalities and some great character moments such as Hayes (Evan Parke) and Lumpy the Cook (Andy Serkis).
Speaking of animals, this movie remembers that Skull Island had freakin' Dinosaurs on it! Ya got Brontosaurs, giant Raptors and this movie's version of a "T-Rex", the Vastatosaurus Rex (or V-Rex). Basically, imagine the Dinosaurs never went extinct and continued to evolve into more ferocious animals. And Kong has to fight not 1, not 2, but 3 V-Rex's at once. Talk about upping the ante.
And if that wasn't enough, there's a scene in this movie that recreates an infamous deleted scene from the original, dubbed "The Spider Pit Scene". The scene was deemed too frightening for the original and the reels for it were reportedly destroyed. For a documentary looking at the making of the original, Peter Jackson and his team actually made a special re-creation of what the original scene might have looked like, I found it to be no where near as scary as some people made it. The scene in the remake on the other hand makes my nerves squirm, especially a scene with these worm-like creatures with teeth. (I still have nightmares.)
Being a massive fan of the original, Peter Jackson sprinkles his remake with a ton of homages to the original, from lines of dialogue, story beats and even sticking props from the original in certain scenes. It's very refreshing that after 2 movies of forgettable music, we can finally have a Kong movie with a great musical score. James Newton Howard's music gives this movie a mysterious and exciting adventurous feel, there's even new versions of Max Stiener's music from the original.
In another special homage to the original, Jackson plays one of the pilots who attacks Kong. And the man who plays his rear gunner? Rick Baker!
For the most part, fans seem to really like this remake of King Kong. The one major complaint seems to be that the film is too long. The film runs at 3 Hours and 8 Minutes, but there's also and extended cut that adds an extra 13 minutes to it. I personally don't mind it. After a few more watches, it goes by pretty quickly.
But regardless of thoughts regarding the movie, I'm sure fans can agree on one thing: The video game based on this movie was FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!
Peter Jackson fulfilled a dream he'd had since he was a kid. At 10 years old, he made his own stop-motion puppet of Kong and a scale model of the top of the Empire State Building, but never got around to filming. Getting to do it back in 2005 must have been an extremely emotionally cathartic moment. He made a movie that not only reintroduced the character to a new generation, but honored the original. And I will highly commend him for that, and say that this is the best remake ever made. I don't think it's better than the original, but it comes REALLY close!
Well, I'm close to ending this journey, but I've got one more stop to go. Next time, I'll be giving my first impressions on "Kong: Skull Island."
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"King Kong is my favorite movie of all time. It has a magic and a mystique to it that I think is unlike any other movie and I guess for that reason, I wanted to remake it."
-Peter Jackson
The journey of the film rights for King Kong was more crazy than a roller coaster. In 1976, the majority of rights were ruled to belong to the estate of it's original creator, the late Merian C. Cooper, which reverted to his son Richard who sold them to Universal Studios.
Nearly 10 years later, New Zealand born filmmaker Peter Jackson was offered the chance to do a remake of the original classic. Jackson, being a big fan of the original was ecstatic to do so. The film was slated for a 1998 release date, however Universal started getting cold feet with the release of 2 other films being released, Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" and the Disney remake of 'Mighty Joe Young'. Fearing King Kong would be crushed, Universal pulled the plug and the project was put on hold. Peter Jackson went on to a different project, adapting a series of books into films. You may have heard of them. I think they're called 'Lord of the Rings' or something, they were pretty successful films.
Around the time 'The Return of the King' entered Post-Production, Jackson was asked about restarting work on his remake of King Kong, filming began in September of 2004 and what would follow ended being being one of those rare remakes that is just as good if not better than the original.
Unlike the 1976 remake, this version follows the exact same story but puts adds a few differences and changes here and there.
The characters remain largely the same, while some are changed completely.
-Peter Jackson
The journey of the film rights for King Kong was more crazy than a roller coaster. In 1976, the majority of rights were ruled to belong to the estate of it's original creator, the late Merian C. Cooper, which reverted to his son Richard who sold them to Universal Studios.
Nearly 10 years later, New Zealand born filmmaker Peter Jackson was offered the chance to do a remake of the original classic. Jackson, being a big fan of the original was ecstatic to do so. The film was slated for a 1998 release date, however Universal started getting cold feet with the release of 2 other films being released, Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" and the Disney remake of 'Mighty Joe Young'. Fearing King Kong would be crushed, Universal pulled the plug and the project was put on hold. Peter Jackson went on to a different project, adapting a series of books into films. You may have heard of them. I think they're called 'Lord of the Rings' or something, they were pretty successful films.
Around the time 'The Return of the King' entered Post-Production, Jackson was asked about restarting work on his remake of King Kong, filming began in September of 2004 and what would follow ended being being one of those rare remakes that is just as good if not better than the original.
Unlike the 1976 remake, this version follows the exact same story but puts adds a few differences and changes here and there.
The characters remain largely the same, while some are changed completely.
Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), is an out of work Vaudeville actress who becomes the target of Kong's affections. While Naomi does her fair share of screaming at Kong, she also actually tries to fight for life and even stands up to Kong. I really think Naomi did a good job, she gives a performance that even Fay Wray herself would be proud of. In fact, Fay Wray was meant to have a cameo in the movie as an onlooker who delivers the famous line: "It wasn't the airplanes, it was Beauty killed the Beast". Sadly though, she passed away months before filming began.
Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a daring filmmaker who will get his movie, by any means necessary. This portrayal can best be described as taking Carl Denham from the original, mixing him with Orson Welles and having him played by Jack Black. A lot of people seem to be critical of Black's performance, but I rather like it. The original Denham was partially based of Merian C. Cooper and given the kinda stuff he did when making movies I feel Black did a good job, even if he is a little more extreme in getting what he wants.
The biggest character change comes with the character of Jack Driscoll. In the original he was a sailor, in this one he's a playwright who actually works with Denham, hasn't seen a lot of action and ultimately steps up and becomes the hero. He's played by Adrian Brody (-insert nose joke here-) who I gotta say is nowhere near as good or charismatic as Robert Armstrong, granted he wasn't playing that version of Driscoll and Brody did a fair job with the role.
One thing this Kong movie has over the original and the '76 remake is memorable side characters. The crew members other than the Captains were pretty much forgettable, with the possible exception of Charlie the Cook from the original, but for the wrong reasons. Here though, you have a few more characters with distinct personalities and some great character moments such as Hayes (Evan Parke) and Lumpy the Cook (Andy Serkis).
Andy Serkis, the man who also played Gollum in the 'Lord of the Rings' films, lends the talents he brought to that role to bring Kong to life using Motion-Capture CGI. The results are stunningly brilliant, Kong's movements and expressions are all spot on and the CGI looks amazing. As with the original, every time I see Kong I can't help but look at him as a real animal and not an effect. The guys at Weta Digital know their stuff.
Speaking of animals, this movie remembers that Skull Island had freakin' Dinosaurs on it! Ya got Brontosaurs, giant Raptors and this movie's version of a "T-Rex", the Vastatosaurus Rex (or V-Rex). Basically, imagine the Dinosaurs never went extinct and continued to evolve into more ferocious animals. And Kong has to fight not 1, not 2, but 3 V-Rex's at once. Talk about upping the ante.
And if that wasn't enough, there's a scene in this movie that recreates an infamous deleted scene from the original, dubbed "The Spider Pit Scene". The scene was deemed too frightening for the original and the reels for it were reportedly destroyed. For a documentary looking at the making of the original, Peter Jackson and his team actually made a special re-creation of what the original scene might have looked like, I found it to be no where near as scary as some people made it. The scene in the remake on the other hand makes my nerves squirm, especially a scene with these worm-like creatures with teeth. (I still have nightmares.)
Being a massive fan of the original, Peter Jackson sprinkles his remake with a ton of homages to the original, from lines of dialogue, story beats and even sticking props from the original in certain scenes. It's very refreshing that after 2 movies of forgettable music, we can finally have a Kong movie with a great musical score. James Newton Howard's music gives this movie a mysterious and exciting adventurous feel, there's even new versions of Max Stiener's music from the original.
In another special homage to the original, Jackson plays one of the pilots who attacks Kong. And the man who plays his rear gunner? Rick Baker!
For the most part, fans seem to really like this remake of King Kong. The one major complaint seems to be that the film is too long. The film runs at 3 Hours and 8 Minutes, but there's also and extended cut that adds an extra 13 minutes to it. I personally don't mind it. After a few more watches, it goes by pretty quickly.
But regardless of thoughts regarding the movie, I'm sure fans can agree on one thing: The video game based on this movie was FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!
Peter Jackson fulfilled a dream he'd had since he was a kid. At 10 years old, he made his own stop-motion puppet of Kong and a scale model of the top of the Empire State Building, but never got around to filming. Getting to do it back in 2005 must have been an extremely emotionally cathartic moment. He made a movie that not only reintroduced the character to a new generation, but honored the original. And I will highly commend him for that, and say that this is the best remake ever made. I don't think it's better than the original, but it comes REALLY close!
Well, I'm close to ending this journey, but I've got one more stop to go. Next time, I'll be giving my first impressions on "Kong: Skull Island."
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.
So long...
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