A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

Talking about Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong at this point is just like shouting in a hurricane. All the news you’ll see about the movie is how long it is (187 minutes, roughly a little over 3 hours) and how it failed to bring in the early box-offices bucks it was expected to rake in. But focusing on these points is like insisting Catholics to stop stop saying Merry Christmas and say Happy Holidays instead - it totally misses the point.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a stylish, fast-paced, well-balanced (ya know -’something for everyone’) remake of the most famous ape to grace the cinema screens. It is entertaining and well worth the trip to the theaters.

Monkey Love

The story is about a director Carl Denham (Jack Black) trying to make a film on an uncharted island. He finds a recently out of work actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to literally fill the shoes of her female lead. With his producers threatening to pull the plug on the movie, Denham shanghais Darrow and writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) into participating in his reckless sea voyage.

Of course once on Skull Island, Denham finds out it is not uninhabited as he has heard. Oh boy is it NOT uninhabited. Darrow gets offered up by the locals to Kong, a 25-foot gorilla who lords it over the island. Of course Driscoll who have fallen for the lovely Darrow would not let her remain on the island and Denham sees an opportunity to capitalize on his recent find. Chaos ensues and ultimately leads to the (anti) climactic battle on top of the Empire State Building.

Going Ape Shit

Jackson follows the original 1933 version of the movie. Of course the attraction here is using today’s technology to update the crude stop-motion photography used in the original movie. Using the techniques he no doubt learned and used in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Jackson brings in the audience into 1933 New York. Albeit it is a romanticized version of the city during the Depression-era, it becomes a character on its own not just a setting of the events. Clearly Jackson is a director who uses special effects to tell a story and not be a slave to it. There aren’t any gratuitous, lingering CGI-ed shots. There’s just enough to let you know where you are and keep you enthralled.

Jackson moves the movie at a rapid clip without sacrificing the story. There’s enough balance of exposition and action, of mushy battling eyelashes between Brody and Watts (and Kong and Watts) and dark gallows humor. That 3 hours plus will just fly by.
By the time the movie moves back in New York in the 3rd act of the movie however, one can’t help feel there’s no way they could top the Skull Island sequences. When Kong is brought to New York, you can’t wait for him to get up the Empire State Building and begin swatting those pesky airplanes.

A Monkey’s Uncle

I have to mention Andy Serkis. Serkis not only plays a wonderful Kong a la Gollum, but he also plays a human, flesh and blood character who reminded me of Popeye. He’s even got the squint and all. As Kong, he gives the giant ape enough human qualities for the audience to emphatize with. You understand why Naomi Watt’s character bonded with him. The fight with the T-Rexes on Skull Island is savage enough to make you think that this is how animals fight in the wild. But then Serkis turns it around and adds a touch of humor and reminds you it’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s far from a man in a rubber suit in the old movies but he reminds you that he’s there.

Serkis also plays crewmate Lumpy on the ship Venture. I don’t want to give any spoilers but watch him closely. I enjoyed his character thoroughly and how he ends up. Fun.

Gone Bananas

Even if you’re not a hard core fan of monster movies, Peter Jackson’s King Kong is an entirely different animal. This is the kind of movie that’s worth making a trip to the theater and making an afternoon of it. There aren’t a lot of those being made these days but Kong is definitely King.