King Kong Revisited
"The original King Kong is a highly respected and highly misunderstood film. Some think of it as adventure, some think of it as a monster movie and some think of it as a love story. All are correct. Add on what at the time were groundbreaking special effects and you have an enduring classic. The movie was actually a loose remake of The Lost World, with a more cohesive plot and bigger budget to soup up the previous film's amazing effects. King Kong was later remade in 1976, again with improved special effects. Despite that you don't find many people who remember it better than the original. And don't forget such classics as King Kong Lives and King Kong vs. Godzilla or the thinly veiled remake(s) Mighty Joe Young. So a classic film with a history of remakes. You don't suppose that Universal might be considering pulling Kong out of mothballs do you? Recent reports would indicate yes.
Why not? Certainly the studio has had great success recently in dusting off and repackaging its classic monster movies with its remake of The Mummy. It did well at the box office, spawning a sequel and prequel, both of which did fairly well for themselves money-wise. But still, we're talking about King Kong here. This is an iconic figure that won't be re-used lightly. Universal is going to need something special to make it worth it. What if I told you they had a script for a remake of King Kong that was penned by gore master turned epic Hollywood filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh? Do you think that would be enough to make Universal stand up and take notice? Me too.
Jackson made a sudden move into an elite class of directors with Lord of the Rings. He talked New Line Cinema into a $300 million gamble on making Tolkien's trilogy into three movies filmed simultaneously. The gamble payed off handsomely as the first of the three movies, Fellowship of the Ring has pulled in north of $800 million worldwide since its release and that doesn't even count its impending video release. By the time all three are released, New Line should be looking at an impressive return on their investment and Jackson should be able to get virtually any movie made that he wants.
So now that we've gotten the money talk and name dropping out of the way, is the script any good and is it material worthy of such a remake? The answer is yes and maybe. Jackson takes the King Kong story and gives it a healthy dose of what he knows best, action and gore. Do you recall the scene in the original movie where Kong does battle with a dinosaur? Magnify that scene by a hundred and you get an idea of what Jackson has in mind. This makes for an action packed script that should translate into a movie that will have people flocking to theaters. Will critics treat it as warmly as the original? Probably not if there are no rewrites but the potential is there.
Let me back up and give you an idea of how the story unwinds this time around. The script opens over France in World War I. A squadron of Sopwith Camel fighters are on the hunt for German planes to attack. They find them and more so, causing an aerial battle of epic proportions. In the midst of it is a young hotshot American pilot called Jack. He's clearly talented but doesn't take any of this seriously. That changes quickly in the aftermath of the battle. We then fast-forward about fifteen years. Jack is now running a logging company in Sumatra. Also in the area is a British archeological expedition lead by Lord Darrow and his daughter Ann. Both are suddenly interrupted in their work by the rude intrusion of Hollywood filmmaker Carl Denham. His approach to wildlife film making is to make a camera crew follow him around and bait animals into doing something interesting, making Denham look like some big adventurer.
The intersection of these three groups leads to an accidental discovery of an ancient pagan tribe that worshiped the ape god Kong. Even more interesting is the discovery of a map that points to a hidden island where that tribe might still exist. Pretty soon the whole bunch are on their way to this island in an uneasy alliance. The island does exist, does have that pagan tribe and does contain a giant 25 foot tall silverback gorilla that rules the island with an iron fist. The island also contains dinosaurs long thought extinct, plus a variety of other nasty creatures previously unknown to man.
The sequences on the island are pretty similar to the Jurassic Park movies. Deposit a few main characters and a larger number of nameless characters on an island with hostile creatures and watch them get rapidly picked off. The difference is that Kong captures and falls for Ann, leaving him to battle monsters bent on eating her and playing keep away with her would be rescuers. Plus there are angry natives looking to take out as many invaders as possible. Needless to say this will be violent. But not too violent according to the script. One amusing passage reads:
The SURVIVING NATIVES scatter! KONG rampages after them, STOMPING ON THEM and BITING THEIR HEADS OFF ... in a scene that not only gets a PG 13, but is PRAISED by the MPAA for it's sensitivity!
While the script leans heavily on action and special effects to find its thrills, it also laces it with some great characters. Not the main characters Jack or Ann mind you, but the supporting cast. Denham and his camera crew are hysterical. The cameraman Herb takes his job so seriously that he'll let Denham put him into any number of bad situations just to get the job done well. The sound man Peek is a sniveling little worm that will have audiences practically begging to see him die in a horrible fashion. Denham himself is a charicature Hollywood producer, so enthralled with his own self-importance that he rarely clues into the reality of a situation.
Jack is the hero and gets the bulk of the screen time but I never really found any connection with him. That hampers the inevitable romantic element with Ann impotent as we know they are supposed to be attracted to one another but never really believe it. Ann herself is a bit more developed as a character but doesn't exactly leap off the page either. Oddly enough, the attraction and quasi-romance between Ann and Kong is far more believable and effective. This pays off in a surprisingly touching climax to the film.
The story doesn't deviate excessively from the original Kong which should please purists. Of course at the same time it will probably bother critics who want to see a fresher approach to the material to justify the remake. You can see that the man who made Dead Alive is at work behind this potential film. It carries that same sense of humor and over the top violence. In general I enjoyed the script but feel that it needs a bit more work before it can be a truly worthy blueprint for a remake of a classic. Even if that doesn't happen, this film would likely be a monstrous hit at the box office."
(Review submitted by John Shea)
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DeadPool
