King Kong (english version)
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États-Unis, 2005
De Peter Jackson
Scénario : Peter Jackson, Edgar Wallace, Fran Walsh
Avec : Jamie Bell, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks, Thomas Kretschmann, Evan Park, Andy Serkis, Naomi Watts
Durée : 3h00
Sortie : 14/12/2005
After getting dropped by his producers, filmmaker Carl Denham finds a map to an uncharted island where he plans to shoot his picture in a set void of all civilization. But he still needs to find an actress.
SCREAM QUEEN AND KING KONG
Unlike James Cameron, Peter Jackson didn’t wait to get back to directing after the humongous success of his Lord of the Rings trilogy. He simply chose to go back to the project he was working on before it got canned by the studio and went on to do Tolkien instead. More experienced now in the field of huge movie-making, Jackson could easily go and take on a myth of cinema and give us his updated vision of it. He dropped the previous 1996 script and teamed up with Philippa Boyens again (who helped write LOTR) and aimed for a more serious and realistic tone. Gone is the Indiana Jones-like opening scene where we discovered Jack Driscoll as a fighter pilot in the first World War. Here, the Driscoll character becomes an athletic playwright, but with no serious taste for adventure, whose presence is almost secondary. Everything now is more centered on Beauty Ann Darrow and the Beast, King Kong, whose potential is fully explored via the magic of new technology.
LISTEN TO THE BEAT, THE BEAT OF THE KING KONG
Jackson sticks closely to the time and the structure of the original 1933 movie, but each scene and character goes through a 21st century filter, making room for more character-development. The first few reels are marvellous in the way they introduce each character and their narrative arc and make them all interesting and engaging. The scenes on the Venture thus become captivating, even though the real adventure hasn’t started. Peter Jackson take his time to install an atmosphere, so when the story finally takes off, you’re fully involved in the characters’ plight when they face off against a mythical and terrifying collection of monsters, the king of which is Kong, a brutal force of nature whose heart beats for the luminous Miss Darrow. The second third of the story is again more reminiscent of Indiana Jones in the way it blends laughs, fantasy and adventure extravaganza.
KONG STORY
King Kong is the centerpiece of the whole show and Jackson knows he has to deliver on it. No more puppet like in 1933, and no more "guy-in-a-suite" like in the 1976 remake. The Gollum experiment on LOTR paved the way for a digital Kong "motion-captured" by Andy Serkis once again (who also plays the cook Lumpy) and brought to life by the artistry of the team of Weta Digital. Serkis found his inspiration by going to study gorillas directly in Rwanda. And Jackson makes him a real touching character whereas in the Cooper and Schoedsack version he was basically no more than a monster. The way Kong is brought to life is absolutely incredible and gives him a real screen presence. The brutal monster is now a sensitive yet rough creature who goes all the way to squaring off against three tyrannosauruses in an attempt to save Ann’s life.
DEATH GULF
King Kong isn’t without a few minor problems. The music is basically a rather flat accompaniment of the image. The late replacement of Howard Shore (who still has a cameo in the movie) by James Newton Howard is certainly part of the problem. The tone of the music sometimes reminds us (once again!) of what John Williams did in the Indiana Jones movies. The spider scene (which Cooper cut out of the 1933 original after a test screening) is the only one that seems to benefit from the score. Some of the special effects don’t exactly seem finished and give from time to time the feel of a film that was abandoned and not entirely finished. Some of the characters often get dropped along the way: first the indigenous people of Skull Island, then the crew of the Venture, both disappear rather abruptly as the movie centers more and more on Kong. And some of Jackson’s early fans may regret he had to dilute his style in the Hollywood soup, like when he prefers not to show an exploded head, whereas in Bad Taste he would have given us our share of cerebral matter splattered over the rocks.
YOU CAN’T SAY NO TO THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
One cannot pause and wonder if Kong’s initial 1996 canceling by Universal wasn’t a sign of destiny. Peter Jackson and his team, thanks to LOTR, now have more money and experience to bring to the screen the legendary gorilla. Going way further than the wildest expectations, Jackson gives us a unique vision of an impossible love story. Jackson wants to go back to a more innocent and simple time when the world was not fully explored and this gives King Kong a soul of its own which should help the movie endure. The story of Kong finds in Carl Denham’s arc a perfect echo since he’s like an evil alter-ego of the director: the man who’s devoted to his art, oblivious to all costs and human suffering. But when those sacrifices bring Denham’s downfall, Jackson keeps his honor and his pride intact. And Kong is now ready to rush to the commercial success he deserves, while fans still busy picking up their jaws from the floor crown Peter Jackson the new king of entertainment. Hollywood is in crisis, and who’s gonna save it ? None other but the remake of one of its own classics.
