So far in this blog I haven't written much about individual films, but having started the New Year very enjoyably with Peter Jackson's "King Kong" - I thought that it was worthy of its own post (oh and apologies for the plot spoiler in the title by the way).
Thanks to the BBC I was also able to refresh my memory of the original film over the holiday period, thereby allowing me to clearly see how Peter Jackson has taken over the story and presented it for current audiences. Much of the original remains, though sometimes cleverly switched around for example when some scenes from the original are imagined on film by Jack Black's character in the new version.
Obviously the 'biggest' difference is Kong himself amazingly brought to life by Andy Serkis and a huge amount of computing power. The dinosaurs too are much more credible - if that's the right word!
After these 'special effects' the real difference is the extent to which Jackson fills in the backstory, and indeed makes clearer and more credible events and responses that seem to 'just happen' in the original. This of course also explains why this version is twice as long as the original! But despite the length it never flags and indeed felt shorter to me than Gus Van Sant's Last Days (retitled by me as Lost Days!).
Naomi Watts fills Fay Wray's part with great skill and the right balance of vulnerability and the responses of a 'modern' woman - but I think Wray gets the vote on sexiness. There's also a nice in-joke that Fay Wray can't go on the voyage because she's shooting a film!
So whilst this is a 2005 film release, it certainly becomes my best film of 2006 - a title that it should hold onto for a good part of the year.
