King Kong (2005)

***King Kong***, (often called ***Peter Jackson's King Kong*** to separate it from the previous *King Kong* films), is a 2005 epic monster adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. It's a second remake of the 1933 film of the same name and is often considered to be either the best or the second-best *King Kong* movie ever made. It was directed by Peter Jackson, written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, filmed by Andrew Lesnie, edited by Jamie Selkirk, distributed by Universal Pictures, produced by Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, and WingNut Films, and starred Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Jamie Bell, Evan Parke, Andy Serkis, and Kyle Chandler.

## Plot

Filmmaker Carl Denham and his crew encounter a giant ape in Skull Island and imprison it to bring it to New York. However, they land in trouble when the giant ape is set free in the city.

## Why King Kong Can Climb Again

1. The movie shows love and affection for staying true to the classic 1933 *King Kong* film and thus set in the same timeline, from respecting the character of Kong to doing many homages to the most famous scenes from the movie.
	* This is due to Peter Jackson being a huge fan of the film, and in fact, it's one of the things that inspired him to become a filmmaker.
2. Incredible CGI for all of the creatures, including Kong.
3. Decent miniature sets.
4. The film contains Peter Jackson's signature directing style that's made him so famous.
5. Andy Serkis, who previously did the motion capture for Gollum in Peter Jackson's *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy, does an excellent job with the motion capture of Kong.
6. Amazing cinematography.
7. The action scenes between Kong and the different creatures are so intense, fast-paced, and enjoyable, especially the fight between Kong and the *Vastatosaurus rexes*. This is an instance where the CG actually aided the movie because without it these fights would be nearly as breathtaking or versatile.
8. There's also a lot of subtle humor in the film. There's the scene where the *V. rex* is tangled in vines but it wants to eat Ann so badly.
9. Kong is able to convey a lot of emotion with his body language.
10. It got an awesome game tie-in, except for the Nintendo DS version.
11. Fantastic score composed by the legendary James Newton Howard, especially "Tooth and Claw".
12. King Kong's death at the end is even sadder if not better.
13. It saved the *King Kong* franchise, following the disappointing box office performance of *mh:awfulmovies:King Kong Lives*.
14. It introduced Millennials and Get Z's *King Kong*, and was their generations movie.

## Bad Qualities

1. There's way too many filler scenes and some extra details to the point that they made the movie over 3 hours, while they're not boring but they weren't absolutely necessary and they make King Kong appears **after 1 hour**.
	* The official game adaptation of the movie even skips the first hour of the movie and starts right on the Island.
2. Sometimes, the CGI may become fake looking (ex: the infamous stampede scene).
3. Some characters don't have a lot of background stories.
4. There are some creatures in the film, such as large insects and bats, that people may suffer from their phobias (Entomophobia and Chiroptophobia).

## Reception

*King Kong* received positive reviews from critics. On aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 267 reviews, with an average rating of 7.68/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, terrific performances, and a majestic sense of spectacle, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is a potent epic that's faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

In the later years, *Peter Jackson's King Kong* has been widely popular among the fans of the series, as it was considered to be the greatest remake ever and it was considered better than John Guillermin's 1976 remake.

## Trivia

* On the DVD and Blu-ray bonus features, there's a documentary where Peter Jackson, having experience with stop motion, attempts to recreate one of the lost scenes from the original film, where Kong throws people into a pit and a giant spider comes out and attacks them.
* According to Peter Jackson, the theropod dinosaurs that Kong fights are called *Vastatosaurus rex*, a fictional evolved descendant of the *Tyrannosaurus rex*. The name *Vastatosaurus rex* means "ravager lizard king" and "Vastato" is a conjugation of the Latin word "Vasto", which means to "devastate, ravage or lay waste".
	+ The *V. rexes* had bumpy crocodilian scales and three fingers while their *Tyrannosaurus* ancestors had only two, as a reference to the *T. rex* from the original 1933 film. The *V. rexes* that Kong fights in the movie are a family group of a male, a female and a juvenile. Unlike *Tyrannosaurus*, the *Vastatosaurus* had a waist and a more oval-shaped skull.
* The raptors that appeared during the *Brontosaurus* stampede scene are called *Venatosaurus*, a fictional evolved descendant of the *Velociraptor*. The name *Venatosaurus* means "hunter lizard".
* In a pseudo-documentary about Skull Island, the scientific name for Kong's species is revealed to be *Megaprimatus kong* (meaning "big primate") and states that his species likely descended from *Gigantopithecus*, which was a genus of giant prehistoric ape that is closely related to orangutans rather than gorillas.

## Videos

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