Disc Reviews
King Kong (3 Disc Deluxe Extended Edition) | DVD Review
“Suffice it to say that the new Kong is a carefully crafted homage to a film that the director admits is what got him interested in filmmaking in the first place.“
The newly-released 3-disc “Deluxe Extended Edition” of director Peter Jackson’s King Kong provides quite a viewing experience for even the most casual fans of the film. A word of caution, though: it might be a good idea to get up and stretch every now and then while watching, so as to avoid a bout of muscle atrophy. Including the film itself, there are over nine hours of things to see in this package.
When it was announced that Jackson (the Lord of the Rings trilogy) would remake the mother of all monster movies for the digital age, the public reaction was anything but neutral, ranging from anger at the ‘sacrilegious’ attempt to remake such a classic film, to curiosity as to how an update of King Kong would look 70-plus years later. Suffice it to say that the new Kong is a carefully crafted homage to a film that the director admits is what got him interested in filmmaking in the first place. Even if you’ve seen the 1933 original, this version is a thrilling ‘popcorn movie’, especially the middle act on Skull Island.
For this extended version, Jackson has added 13 minutes of never-before-seen footage, including an underwater monster attack on the cast as they raft around the island looking for Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts, 21 Grams, The Ring), and a scene in which they are charged by a too-easily-subdued rampaging Ceratops. Now clocking in at a whopping three hours and twenty one minutes, the film is neither better or worse off with the added footage.
Jackson has a keen eye for detail and everything in King Kong is incredibly beautiful and realistic (or horribly ugly and fantastical, as the situation might warrant).
The actors do an admirable job in their roles, which are essentially a bunch of caricatures that are necessitated by the material at hand. Let’s just say that character development is almost an afterthought in these kinds of films. Jack Black (Nacho Libre) stands out, however, in his role as the conniving Carl Denham, the man who gets everyone into this mess in the first place. It’s the one dramatic role where his tendency to overact is actually a plus.
Much was said about King Kong‘s odd supposed love triangle between Ann Darrow, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody, The Pianist), and Kong himself. While the character of Jack is quite one-dimensional, Watts pulls off making you believe that she’s actually sharing the screen with a giant, moody, tantrum-prone ape instead of looking at Andy “Gollum” Serkis in a monkey suit.
In any year there are few, if any, must-see films. King Kong most definitely fits the bill, as an action-packed adventure film or as a comparison to the original classic it was based on. It holds up rather well in either regard.
Needless to say, with the four-disc extended versions of each of the “Rings” trilogy films, Peter Jackson has plenty of experience in delivering the goods to fans, although one can fault him for “double-dipping” in releasing original versions with inferior special features in advance of these extended versions.
The film itself is beautifully transferred to disc and looks and sounds amazing, and the feature commentary by Jackson and co-writer/producer Philippa Boyens is quite interesting in that they avoid the technical aspects of the film (saving these for the documentary on disc 3) and focus more on the story and character development, while also describing what we’re seeing on the screen. This is particularly interesting when they’re explaining the interaction between Darrow and Kong, which it turns out is more about their understanding of each other than it is about their being in love, as many people came away from the film believing.
The King Kong Archives (the bonus material spread out over all three discs) is a bevy of all new material…
Disc 1:
Deleted scenes: There are 16 deleted scenes totalling over 38 minutes (almost 50 minutes if you include the individual intros from Jackson explaining why they were left out). These are actually quite interesting, especially when you see unfinished scenes played out against blue screen. Quite impressive and informative compared to the deleted scenes that other DVDs throw in as tidbits.
“The Eighth Blunder of the World” is a gag reel that includes line flubs, technical issues, and a lot of horsing around from the cast and crew and serves to show us how much fun they had making the movie.
“The Missing Production Diary” is a send-up of how the male actors were obsessed with the video playbacks of their scenes to the point of forming a support group.
“A Night in Vaudeville” showcases the full acts that make up the opening montage of the film and is quite fun to watch, if only to see the guy playing the guitar between his legs again.
“King Kong Homage” highlights the many instances in the new version that are word-for-word or shot-for-shot homages to the original, including footage from both versions for comparison.
Disc 2:
“Pre-Visualization Animatics” showcases four scenes done in 3D animation before filming actually started. These are offered with or without the musical score and are quite interesting in that we can see how close to Jackson’s original vision the finished product was. The four scenes are “Arrival at Skull Island”, the “Bronto Stampede”, the “T-Rex Fight”, and the “Empire State Building Battle”.
“Trailers” – there are three trailers included in this package: the teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer, and the “CineMedia” trailer, which is actually some interview footage along with some scenes from the theatrical trailer.
“The Present” is a short film made by the cast that is quite amusing, though obviously hastily made, showing the cast members doing away with each other in an attempt to get the “present” that is intended for Peter Jackson on the occasion of his birthday.
“Weta Collectibles” is a short featurette on the Weta workshop, makers of high-end film-related collectibles.
DVD-ROM material included in this set contains two versions of the script for King Kong: the 1996 treatment and the 2005 finished product.
Disc 3:
There’s a brief introduction by Jackson explaining all the features of the three discs.
“Re-Creating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong” is a three-hour (!) documentary that is almost as good as the movie itself. At the very least, it serves to help the viewer better understand all the work that goes into making a film of this magnitude. It is seperated into eight individually-watchable parts in which we are taken through every stage of development, including the origins of this version of King Kong; the pre-production phase; the procuring of a boat and having the cast spend a few days at sea preparing for the lengthy “Venture” sequence; an in-depth look at filming on “Skull Island”; how meticulously they made a part of New Zealand into a replica of 1930s New York; right up to the piece de resistance, which is how they “brought Kong to life”. It’s a totally riveting documentary and quite deftly shows us how much love and determination everyone involved had for this project.
Conceptual Design Video Galleries is 40-plus minutes of conceptual images from pre-production. While totally engrossing and beautiful, it’s a bit long and is best watched in fast-forward.
Overall, this set is a must-have if you are a fan of Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong, and at the very least is a must-rent if you haven’t seen the film. I know that my copy will get plenty of replays, and not just for the movie itself. It’s the quintessential DVD package of the 2005 version of King Kong…at least until the 5-disc “Super-Extended Ultimate Collectors Edition” comes along.