King Kong

Here's a question, if dogs are man's best friend, are Kongs woman's best friends? I fear we will never know the answer, this is because there is a distinct shortage of 25 foot gorillas throughout the world with which to work. We can hypothesize though, and although this is not the primary purpose of Peter Jackson's latest big screen extravaganza, it is one opportunity presented by this movie. Watching a movie requires something of viewers, something commonly called "willing suspension of disbelief" the only problem with this is that after so many duds of movies, and assaults on our intelligence we the viewers are not ready to suspend disbelief as easily as we once were. King Kong is no different, in fact it requires a huge suspension, but it is worth every bit of it, because once you can accept that it is a movie, made to thrill and excite the senses, you will let yourself be taken on one of the most grippingly tense, visually dazzling, and emotionally surprising cinematic adventures of recent years. The story is the same as that of the 1933 original, but with Jackson at the helm it is expanded into something much better. I'm not just talking about the special effects, but I could if I wanted; sure fifteen minutes is a lengthly stretch to watch King Kong juggle the brave heroine Ann Darrow whilst he wrestles three ferocious T-Rexes through the jungle down a cliff and across the swamps, but it looks so real, and it's so engaging that I loved every minute of it... four times in a row. More important to the story than the CGI however is the way in which Jackson makes you care about the characters, understand their motivations, feel their loses, and cringe at their continual peril. We cannot help being proud of Ann as she walks away from the sleazy burlesque cabaret, choosing rather to starve than compromise her morals, (Olivia Newton John take note!) and anyone with a caring bone in their body is heart broken at the end when once again something she loved is taken away from her. Andy Serkis, who also plays Lumpy the ship's cook, works his magic with the motion capture again, this time giving us a fantastically tree and mood swinging Kong who at first is curious, later inclined to show off, but finally totally protective of his prize, our heroine Ann. The supporting cast works just as hard as the two leads to bring this movie to life, especially noteworthy are Jack Black as the obsessive but thoughtless film maker with an agenda, and Adrian Brody as the writer smitten with Ann but to nervous to do more than write a play for her. I cannot completely express my love for this movie, because I love so many things about it, the bottom line is that it does what a movie ought to do, completely and gloriously. It's almost worth all the disappointments to be able to ever so rarely be thrilled and astounded by a movie so adventurous and sensational as King Kong. I loved Star Wars Episode III, Narnia, Pride and Prejudice, and so forth. 2005 was a great year at the movies, but I can seriously say that none of them gave me so immensely entertaining, and marvelously fulfilling a time at the theater as this one here, all that to say and my point really is that in my opinion the best movie of 2005 was none other than King Kong

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