King Kong DVD Review:

Even before the release of Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong in theaters, the production diaries were released on DVD, so people could watch special features for a film before they could even see it. Now that last year’s biggest blockbuster is coming to DVD it is no surprise that it is available crammed with all kinds of special features. King Kong is available in a one disc, or a two-disc special edition, with twice as many features to watch.

This remake adds a great deal of sub-plots and characters to the mix, making a film that was barely 90 minutes into a three hour ordeal. It is an action packed film, which often gets trapped in its own grandeur and loses sight of what the film is actually about. A filmmaker is deep in debt, so he flees on a boat with a new actress and a screenwriter he is employing to write on the way. They are in search of a hidden island that is supposed to be a perfect location to finish the film. Unfortunately this is the island that has a giant ape. The lead actress (Naomi Watts) is stolen by the giant ape and the boat crew must go in after her. What they find is a prehistoric land where dinosaurs still live and there are giant bugs everywhere. It is an adventure, and it is where some of the best sequences in the film happen, as well as some horrible special effects involving obvious overuse of a green screen.

This is obviously a film made by a huge fan of the original film, but some things have changed a great deal since the original King Kong was made, and some of the nuances are just laughable. The last line of the film was kept the same for historic purposes, but it is archaic and strange sounding, causing more laughs than were meant. Then there are the additional characters having their own storylines. Although it may have seemed important that a boat hand be reading Joseph Conrad on the way to the island, giving each of these characters their own stories and then killing them off on the journey just felt far too much like Lord of the Rings to be comfortable. I understand that Peter Jackson obviously has a hang-up with unity, but the epic quality of King Kong has got me wondering if Peter Jackson will ever just make a film without making it such a production again. One would be surprised to hear how independent he used to be.

The DVDs have a number of features, but many of them can only be seen in the Two-Disc Collector’s Edition. The Production Diaries have already been released, so now having them on the DVD is strange. If any true fans bought the package, they would also be the most likely candidates for purchasing the special edition DVD, and they already have the features. There is also a feature on the recreation of a depression era New York, which is the setting for the beginning and final conclusion of the three hour film. Much of this feature has to do with CGI and the special effects, but there are some historians commenting on how New York used to be, and it is quite interesting. There is also a fake documentary about the history of Skull Island, the fake island created for the film. It is a humorous feature considering the other special features are all about the special effects in the film, but I think that Jackson thinks we all care as much about King Kong as he does. I do applaud him for bringing a classic story to the screen for a new generation, but that is all I can applaud him for.

With his movie about to be taken out of his hands, director Carl Denham (Black) steals filmmaking equipment from the studio and charters Captain Englehorn’s (Kretschmann) ship the Venture. This is because he has procured a map to an undiscovered island that is filled with mystery, an ideal place to shoot his picture. All he needs is a leading lady to bring writer Jack Driscoll’s (Brody) script to life but as the Great Depression grips New York and no one wants to work with him, Carl sees a vision of beauty in Ann Darrow (Watts). When they finally arrive at the island, they discover a place that is completely out of time, filled with creatures that were thought to be extinct or shouldn’t even exist and natives that worship strongest of them all, Kong.

Hollywood’s obsession with looking to the past for ideas continues but when Peter Jackson announced he was going to remake the 1933 original you know that was going to be a special update of ‘King Kong’.

When it comes to remaking a movie that is rightly defined as a classic of its era you need to find someone who will pay homage to the original but be able to update it for a modern cinema audience and in Peter Jackson you have that filmmaker. When someone confesses that the original is his favourite film that made him want to be a filmmaker in the first place and that he has been wanting to remake it since he was twelve years-old, you know that you have someone who will treat the material with the respect it deserves.

The best thing about this new version of ‘King Kong’ is the decision that the filmmakers took to set the film in the original time frame. The 1933 setting allows Jackson and his team to utilise the skills they learnt on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy to recreate New York at that time and then really go to town on Skull Island. A modern Kong didn’t work in the ill-conceived 1976 remake and it wouldn’t especially have worked now, so a period setting was the best option and the ultimate homage to the original.

The production design on the movie is extraordinary with the boffins at WETA throwing all of their creative skills into the frame. The film combines the brilliant set design, astoundingly realistic miniatures and CGI effects that raise the bar again. From the recreation of New York during the Great Depression in the 1930s to the jungles and ruins of Skull Island, the film looks simply stunning throughout and shows again that anything a filmmaker can imagine is now possible on film.

The creatures of Skull Island also pay homage to era. The dinosaurs have the traditional look of how palaeontologists and filmmakers envisioned these creatures in 1933 and they have even included a giant iguana. The T-Rexs, brontosaurus and raptors look like their stop-motion brethren but with much more animation and realism that comes with the modern technology used to bring them to life. They also go to town on the insect inhabitants of the island to create a sequence that is not for the squeamish. This is the film at its most frightening and the reason for the 12A (PG-13) certificate.

The King of the creatures however is Kong himself. WETA digital and motion capture performer and star Andy Serkis set the standard with Gollum in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy but with Kong they have raised the bar to an unprecedented level. The huge gorilla looks real and is again brought to life via the brilliance of Andy Serkis. Peter Jackson’s virtual performer of choice dons the motion capture suit again to create the movement for Kong but it is the facial capture technology that really brings the character to life. This gives Kong a personality as he reacts to situations and creates a bond with Ann. These attributes make Kong the star and the battle hardened, lonely gorilla now has an even more emotional bond with the audience. 

The human actors are much more fleshed out than in the original. Now with more than an hour worth of development time in the act, taking place in New York and on the Venture we become more invested in the characters. Jack Black’s Carl Denham is a man obsessed with his film and is willing to sacrifice anything to get footage that will make his name. It could have been so easy to make Denham the over the top villain of the piece but Jack Black makes him a character might be the most reprehensible person on the screen but he is one that you can’t take your eyes off. In a change from the original Jack Driscoll character, Adrien Brody now plays the character as a screenwriter and not as the Venture’s First Mate. This is a real leading man role for the Oscar winning actors and he does an excellent job in creating a 30s style screen hero with a heart. Kyle Chandler is excellent as 30s film star Bruce Baxter, who is obsessed more with saving his own skin than recreating his onscreen persona. Colin Hanks as Driscoll’s assistant Preston and Thomas Kretschmann’s Captain Englehorn are not as developed however. There is also a strange subplot about the relationship between Jamie Bell’s Jimmy and Evan Parke’s Hayes, which serves nothing to the main story and is completely forgotten about as soon as they leave Skull Island.

The star of the show however is Naomi Watts. Taking on one of the most famous female roles in screen history was always going to be an arduous task for any actress but she proves again that she is one of the best actresses working in Hollywood at the moment. Ann Darrow’s interaction with Kong has to be the heartbeat of the film and if it didn’t work, neither would the movie but Watts makes the relationship believable and plausible. She sees the giant gorilla for what he is, a lonely animal who just wants some company and it is the actress’s skill to portray emotions to nothing (because the CG Kong wasn’t there during filming of course) that makes the character so understandable.

The film isn’t without its problems however. The three hours plus running time might be far too long for some people to watch in one sitting at the cinema. The New York/Venture character development of the first act doesn’t all seem necessary and makes the film quite slow at first. The Skull Island sequence is slightly overlong with one too many set pieces. Also you can tell that the film needed a little more postproduction time, as some of the CGI isn’t as good in some scenes as it is in others, especially when it comes to hiding the fact that most of the scenes were shot against green screens. The film’s main failing is inherent of all remakes of classic movies, you know what is coming. The shortcomings of the original story also come to bear, with the lack of backstory about the history of the island been the most obvious failing.

‘King Kong’ is a labour of love for Peter Jackson and his team. While it might be slightly over indulgent in parts and in length, this still proves that the director is on his way to becoming a cinematic genius that he has already been labelled by some. Kong is as big a movie as the gorilla himself and shows again how big budget event movies should be made. The film is worth seeing for the final act alone as Kong rampages through New York and driven to scaling the Empire State Building. The visual effects for this sequence are quite simply stunning and some of the best ever put to film. This is a monster movie on every scale and one that shouldn’t be missed.

Star Rating = * * * * *

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented extremely well, highlighting the fantastic visual effects and sound design.

BONUS FEATURES    

Disc 1

The Volkswagen Touareg and King Kong (2.03 mins)
Go behind the scenes of the VW advert that was recorded to promote the vehicle used by the crew during the production.

See more of NYC in ‘Wish you were here’ (1.43 mins)
Watch an advert for the New York City website

Disc 2

Introduction by Peter Jackson (3.30 mins)
The co-writer/director introduces the bonus features on the DVD release of ‘King Kong’ and how to navigate the menus.
Post Production Dairies (2hrs 32.37 mins)
Originally posted on the ‘Kong is King’ website this collection of thirty-five mini featurettes cover all aspects of the postproduction of Peter Jackson’s monster movie. Just like ‘Production Diaries’ that were released on DVD before films release, the diaries are introduced and presented by the director himself and as well as the stars of the film, he is accompanied by the many teams and individuals that were involved in putting the finishing touches to the film. The diaries look at pickups, miniatures, visual effects, sound, music and premieres over a thirty-three week period. These can be either viewed in week order or you can watch them by department and category. Like no other movie before it, this offers the fan unprecedented access to the postproduction of a major Hollywood production.

Skull Island: A Natural History (16.55 mins)
Director Peter Jackson, writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens, production designer Grant Major, conceptual artist Alan Lee, WETA chief designer Richard Taylor, supervising art director Dan Hennah, conceptual designer Jeremy Bennett, senior designer – creatures Ben Wootten, special makeup effects supervisor Gino Acevedo and creature designers Christian Pearce, Greg Broadmore and Daniel Falconer talk about the real Skull Island in this mockumentary. Here we look at the history of the island, looking at its animals, dinosaurs, insects, flying rodents and the civilisation that inhabited the island. It also looks at the king of beasts, Kong himself.

Kong’s New York, 1933 (7.10 mins)
Director Peter Jackson and writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens are joined by historians to talk about America and New York in 1933, the time that the film was set. The featurette look at the impact of the Great Depression when over 1.5 million people were unemployed and many of them lived in ‘Homerville’s’ around the city, with the biggest in New York. This is an interesting featurette but it doesn’t offer you enough information about the other aspects of the era, such as the buildings, fashions and vehicles of the time.

OVERALL

The two-disc collectors edition of ‘King Kong’ is filled with some good bonus features but you can’t help thinking that a bigger, director’s cut or special edition will be released later. The lack of a commentary track and a documentary about the history of the character etc, makes you think that another release is coming. This aside, the release is still very good just because of the quality of the postproduction diaries and fans should be pleased with this DVD, especially if another edition doesn’t come along.

DVD Star Rating = * * *  

Jamie Kelwick