KING KONG (2005).

KING KONG (2005). Director: Peter Jackson.

Although better by far than the first remake that starred Jessica Lange, this isn't as good as the 1933 original, despite some exciting sequences and outstanding visual effects work. The movie has a slow and tedious opening that borders on the campy approach of the Lange version. The leads are all miscast as well. Jack Black might be fine for a Saturday Night Live parody of the movie, but as a leading man in a serious motion picture he's completely ludicrous and even amateurish. Adrien Brody is a better actor but really adds nothing to the movie. Lead actress Naomi Watts , who plays Ann, is a bit of a lightweight. The movie picks up a bit once our voyagers arrive at Kong's island, although the first appearance of Kong is muffed, much less dramatic than in the original picture. Once the action starts, however, it rarely stops, and some of the sequences are astounding: a harrowing stampede of brontosauri (or apatosauri); Ann and a Tyrannosaurus Rex swinging past one another on vines as the dinosaur repeatedly attempts to snatch her into its jaws; the nightmarish scenes in the pit where the sailors are gruesomely dispatched by monstrous prehistoric insects. 

As in the Lange version, more of a rapport is developed between Ann and the Big Ape, which leads to a lot of nonsense that was not in the original. Kong may not have asked to have been shanghaied to New York but it's hard to feel sorry for him when so many innocent people have been killed during his rampage (including not one but three helpless blonds that he tosses aside to their presumed deaths). This dopey “animal rights” undertone gives the movie a pretentious and airy ambiance in its final moments. Fay Wray was just glad to get away from the monster; she didn't get all upset when it died! The musical scoring is bland and inept, only reminding one of the masterful work of Max Steiner for the original.

Verdict: Watch the 1933 version instead. **1/2.