Movie Rental Review: King Kong (2005)

So, anybody who's even remotely familiar with the history of movies knows all about King Kong. It is a movie that has been made and remade numerous times and with varying levels of success, in terms of revenues and reviews.

Since there seems to be a dearth of original ideas lately in Hollywood, and a whole bunch of remakes that, quite frankly, often do not even come close to touching the originals, I will admit that my initial reaction towards this movie was one of skepticism. How good could it really be, after all? What could they possibly add to this obviously classic tale?

But I gave it a shot, because it was $3 at the local Big Lots. What was the harm in that? It would cost me as much to rent (I don't have Netflix, although have been advised to go ahead and get it, and just might, at this point).

To be honest, it seemed quite different than the original, in many respects. Apart from being obviously much more modern, it also added some strong measure of tension, almost bordering on a horror/adventure, similar on many levels to the Jurassic Park movies of the nineties. There is far more drama than I remember in the older movies (admittedly, it's been a while), and it just seems more solidly constructed.

But it does not really start out that way. In fact, initially, this movie seems almost....well, goofy.

The movie starts off during the dark days of the Great Depression, and there are some wonderful shots of this era - I'm going to go ahead and assume that these are pictures take from real life, and no replications or outright forgeries.

As far as remakes are concerned, this movie still goes some distance to retain the feel of an older movie. In fact, perhaps the most impressive thing about this movie is the mixture of modern technology and how it is often implemented in movies, but also the extent to which it does all this while retaining an older feel to it. It is, on many levels, like a mixture of an older movie, mixed with more modern sensibilities, if you will.

King Kong himself is much more modern. Instead of just some roaring, mindless and enormously oversized beast, we see King Kong, despite his huge size, as very much an ape in look and behavior. Sure, he beats on his chest, but not as violently or mindlessly as the old movies tended to do. Here, Kong is an actual ape, and his soft spot for the girl, for beauty, illustrates this perfectly. He seems a more sensitive and sensible King Kong, more scared than pointlessly angry and aggressive. After all, he has been transported from his home, and brought to a very foreign city, which was not of his own doing. He attacks the planes towards the end, while he is on top of the Empire State Building, but he does so strictly in defense after being fired upon. Sure, he senses the threat, and puts the girl to the side, protecting her, before attacking the planes.

Modern day human beings, in the meantime, are seen as the aggressors. The planes are relentless, even after the beautiful woman has stepped forward and cried, vainly trying to ward them off. We see what is supposed to pass for a motivational speech by a man speaking to his troops, telling them that they should be fired up to hunt down the beast, in order to protect the city hat humans built. All that they saw was, indeed, the old movie version of the mindless brute beast, King Kong. They certainly did not see a living, breathing, yet trapped fellow creature.

Without going too far with this, King Kong actually reminded me a bit of another fictional ape that has been hugely influential - Ishmael! If we stop and, in effect, listen to what the gorilla has to say, we just might learn something about him, and perhaps even, about ourselves. Again, in this movie, Kong actually is an ape. We see him eating bamboo, we see him laughing and enjoying small aspects of life, such as the girl continually falling, or  towards the end of the movie, we see him playing on ice, slipping with the girl, and laughing at his own efforts. We see him playing in the snow as well.

Towards the end, when Kong famously climbs up the Empire State Building and does battle with planes intent on shooting him down, he still has that identifiable lifeness, if you will. He is scared, he is hurt, and we are meant to sympathize with him. When he is, eventually, shot down and falls to his death, we see people down below, acting like the animals, the mindless beasts, that they dismiss King Kong for being. It instantly becomes an instant photo op, people are taking credit, and fascinated by it. Soldier and police congregate by it, and it seems already they are trying to control the scene.

He is a more sophisticated King Kong than we have seen before. Also, and this is an important element to this whole movie, and what truly separates it from the others that have come before - it is a more human King Kong. Almost like a giant version of Man before the Fall. He is innocence, and as such, we feel sympathetic to his plight, even if we are powerless to change the ending. Ironically, the "beast" seems more human, and humane, than many of the human characters in the movie. As he is slowly beginning to realize that he is not likely to get out of the fight with the planes on top of the Empire State Building alive, the viewer begins to feel real sympathy towards him.

All in all, this was a very decent movie. It is long, so be warned, you will be watching it for some time. On my DVD version, apparently, there is an extended version available, so it could even be longer. But the overall effect of this movie was positive for me. It felt like I was watching a classic, even though this movie dates only from 2005, and has a modern day cast, and even feel. It is a good movie, all in all, one that is a bit more realistic and thought-provoking in it's approach than some of the other mindless, oversized creature attacks a big city movie of the past, such as Godzilla, Cloverfield, or even other versions of King Kong itself. This one is definitely worth watching, and I recommend it!