King Kong (2005)

Peter Jackson's remake of the classic 1933 monster movie is quite a thrill ride and the best movie spectacle since, well, The Lord of the Rings. Once again he manages to create another world that is part 1930's New York and part prehistoric terror. Naomi Watts successfully fills the role made famous by Fay Wray, as an out of work, Depression-era vaudvillian whose path intersects with an ambitious and somewhat unethical movie director played for all it worth by Jack Black. His Carl Denham is somewhat more insanely driven than the Robert Armstrong version. The first hour is spent introducing characters and building up to Skull Island. Kong himself is an utterly convincing CGI creation. If I didn't know any better, I'd be writing Jackson and asking where he found a 25'' gorilla that could act. These sequences he fills with eye popping visuals and the kind of imagination that Andrew Adamson sorely lacked with his Chronicles of Narnia. Besides the Kong vs. 3 T-rex fight, one of my favorites scenes was watching Watts perform a vaudville routine for Kong, her captive audience. The most developed relationship in the film is between the two of them. Watts is more sympathetic to Kong's plight than was Wray. The third hour, of course, is a rampage through New York City leading up the Empire State Building. My complaint with the film is that it's too long. There are a few too many extended glances between Watts and Kong and there are a number of moments that go on a bit longer than they need to. But honestly, I didn't mind. I was captivated. It still doesn't quite equal the original (the ending still makes me cry every time I see it), and it certainly isn't as efficient a piece of filmmaking, but Peter Jackson proves to be the cinematic imagination of our generation.