This review is spoiler free except a brief hint of the ending in the last paragraph. If you happen to not know the ending of the original King Kong then quit reading when you come to the line I put to separate the first part of the review from the last paragraph.

Ever since I heard that Peter Jackson was making King Kong I have been excited about seeing it. It is not that I am a big King Kong fan…I’ve seen the originals several times as a child and enjoyed them for what they were…but the Lord of the Rings trilogy has made me a big fan of Peter Jackson. Not only did he manage to pull together a team that created the most amazing looking film ever , but the passion for film making that he showed in every frame of the DVD extras of all three films made a believer out of me. The King Kong trailers did nothing but increase my expectations for this film…and it rocked!

The only 2 complaints I read on internet sites prior to seeing the film were that it was a) too long, and b) that Peter Jackson should not have made this film. As to B, I personally think people are ridiculous. If a director has a passion for something and can find a studio to back it then why not make it. As to the length…well there is no denying it is a long film. Three hours and change. But too long? Not by a long shot. Yes, it takes awhile to get you to the monkey but by the time its over you don’t remember the wait at all.

The Special Effects: They are HUGE! WETA’s work with Kong makes Aslan in Narnia look like I drew it with crayons. It is that good. Before you get a good look at Kong you get to see some dinosaurs and they look very good and then you get that first close up face shot of Kong and your are blown away. What makes the Kong so impressive as a digital character is the way that WETA is able to convey emotion through the character. WETA has a track record of course with the Golem character but Golem was also able to talk and the voice tone and inflection go a long way towards giving the character emotion. There are numerous moments in Kong where the emotion is conveyed with only a look and how they were able to get depth and feeling and emotion out of those big brown digital eyes is way beyond my comprehension. I sat in awe! The digital King Kong character gave a better performance than 90% of the human actors/actresses I’ve seen in films this year.

The other effects are very good as well. The early century New York sets and they jungle settings are no doubt filled with visual effects shots and they are amazing as well. Peter Jackson and the WETA crew did a wonderful job of recreating depression era New York City as well as a lush Frank Frazetta-ish jungle setting on Skull Island. The entire movie was a visual feast, especially if you love classic swashbuckling monster movies. It is apparent with every frame that Peter Jackson truly loves the subject matter and this is an amazing tribute to the legacy of King Kong.

The Actors/Actresses: Great choices all around. Naomi Watts was a perfect choice to fill the role of Ann Darrow immortalized by Fay Wray in the original 1933 production. She is attractive enough to play the starlet role and yet not so glamorous as to be distracting…and she does an amazing job. The scenes between Ann Darrow and King Kong are wonderful and the emotional connection she is able to convey with a character who was not physically there during filming is powerful and amazing. Adrien Brody plays the unassuming playwright turned hero Jack Driscoll very convincingly and Jack Black was fantastic. There was a great deal of speculation as to whether or not he would be able to reign in his crazy energy enough to play the role of Carl Denham without making it over-the-top…and he nailed it. He is just greedy and self-serving enough to be the kind of character who looks to make a profit off of everyone but not so one-dimensionally bad that you hate him. You dislike him, but you can also understand him because he represents the worst in all of us and the excesses we see all around us in society today. Andy Serkis not only has a really fun role in the film but does a phenomenal job as Kong. I cannot wait to see the behind-the-scenes stuff with him. The rest of the cast was terrific. Keep an ear open early for a fun reference to Fay Wray and the original King Kong and look closely at the conductor of the orchestra towards the end of the film. Is that Howard Shore? Shore was the original person working on the film score but was replaced by James Newton Howard 7 weeks before the film was to be completed. It sure does look like Howard Shore but they never show him close enough to be entirely sure. There are also cameos by Peter Jackson and other LOTR/WETA producers, etc, mostly as gunners in the airplanes but I did not notice them and only read about it in my research for this review.

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Overall this is a great film. It looks absolutely stunning and the performances by real and digital characters are outstanding. Keep in mind that this is not an epic story like Lord of the Rings. At its heart it is still essentially a monster movie but Jackson takes a good deal of time to give the characters life and backstories in the first third of the movie and to me this adds extra dimension to the scale of this film. The bonding scene between Ann Darrow and Kong is amazing as are there other emotionally charged scenes throughout the film. Being essentially a tragedy I left the theatre feeling the same way I did when Frodo turned back and decided to keep the ring…I felt like someone had punched me in the gut…hard. Tori did not know how the original King Kong ended and she was affected by how sad it was. The end scene is so incredibly powerful and makes the time invested completely worthwhile. I am so thrilled with the end result of Peter Jackson’s latest film and look forward to hearing your thoughts, positive or negative. In the end this is a must-see film. See it on the biggest screen possible as it is overwhelming! Great, great job and well worth the wait!