KING KONG by Peter Jackson: Film Review
December 30th, 2005 by Andre Soares
King Kong (2005) 
Director: Peter Jackson. Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson; from Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace’s story for the 1933 film. Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann
The biggest disappointment about Peter Jackson’s King Kong is that, despite all the p.r. regarding Jackson’s fascination with the Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack 1933 horror classic, this latest remake is considerably closer in spirit — or lack thereof — to the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis production, with (heavy) touches of Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark thrown in. In other words, the new King Kong is very much the sort of adventure-cum-horror film someone like Steven Spielberg would make: a technically proficient, unscary, highly sentimental, and utterly soulless thrill ride.
Desperate to keep things moving during the film’s three-hour-plus running time, Jackson stuffs the screen with giant centipedes, food-addicted dinosaurs, and mean savages with discolored pupils, but the sheer — and considerably less elaborate — atmosphere of true horror that made the 1933 version a classic is nowhere to be found in the new version.
Naomi Watts, however, is as much a star — and an actress — as any, past or present. In fact, she’s the most effective special effect King Kong has to offer. (Though the recreation of 1930s New York City is also mighty impressive.) In any case, Watts alone is definitely worth the price of admission.
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