King Kong (2005)

Peter Jackson cited the original King kong (1933) to be his highest influence in his film making and his reason for getting into the business. Jackson started by making low budjet horrors, then his career sky rocketed when he was given difficult task to direct the Lord of Rings trillogy. After huge sucess of these 3 films, he was given the remake of King Kong. This film was one of those that i heard about ages before it was released, rumours and all that. so i was looking forward to seeing it

First thing that hit me, was how visually the film looks great, loved the sets and the look they re-created for the 1930s. The action scenes are pretty thrilling. The cliffside chase one i think i enjoyed the most. Also, this lead to them falling down into that swamp type area, and thats something else i liked. By that i mean, the depth of this place, they discovered many different areas, and gave this place a huge feel, with layers. Adrian Brody as Jack Driscoll is great, and even though seems like he shouldn't, really works as the lead. Jack black, who i'm a great fan of, does seem a little out of place here. Not in any serious way, just little things. Like the way he says certain words, i couldn't help but laugh and any moment it looked like he could just go "Lets rock!" while rising one of his eyebrows. I think that aspect got less and less as they got further into the jungle where he was able to pull of the selfish side of the charatcer very well. Th scene where he tries to offer the chocolate bar to girl they meet, was bit odd and many jack black'isms crept in like him saying "its gooooood" but, hell, i'm fan of jack black, so i was both happy to see his fun outlook but at same time couldn't help thinking, hmmm, bit out of place? but as i say, i did think he pulled off the more evil sides of his character very well. Naomi Watts i thought was good, more so in the earlier scenes as in later ones it's mostly Kong.

Kong himself is quite a presence. looks towering and VERY well animated, great work by the CGI team and Andy Serkis for prioviding fantastic emotional range from the facial expressions. I have no compliants for kong himself. In fact i have few issues with the film. Though i do have one issue with one scene, and its the pretty infamous..ice scene. This involves Ann Darrow & kong, in midst of running away from the police and army trying to kill kong, they stumble across a frozen lake. then proceed to do a fancy ice skating thing. nothing too wrong with it, but it did make me laugh, with his huge gorilla, wouldn't the ice brake? i guess it wouldn't of been that thin, i just felt the scene to be more funny than its intended emotional effect, maybe i'm to cynical.

All in all, bar some of jack black's stuff and the ice thing, it was a fun, well made movie with great action scenes, pretty good drama, one of the better remakes. I finished watching it and just felt happy, the visuals make for a joy to watch and it sort of uplifts you, a great remake, and one of best blockbusters of recent years