Peter Jackson's King Kong and My Popcorn Recipe

Saturday was movie night at our house. We turned off the lights and got ready to enjoy Peter Jackson's 187-minute-long remake of King Kong. When the movie was in theaters, we stayed home and watched the original, which we had never seen. We were probably the only couple to go out and by the soundtrack to the 2005 remake, and not the DVD. But, as fans of the original movie and fans of what Jackson & Co. did with the Lord of the Rings, we were pretty pumped to see the movie.

The first hour of the movie impressed us a lot. The second hour I spent chatting with my mother-in-law and making popcorn (the conversation and snack were a heck of a lot better than the movie). The third hour redeemed itself with a satisfying and engaging ending.

Here are some things Jackson & Co. did right in the opening:
1. Ann Darow's character, transforming her from a starving young woman (original) to a starving young artist (2005 version) whose passion for theater makes her love story with writer Jack Driscoll plausible and sweet.
2. Buildup to Skull Island maintained tension through the first third of the movie. Our arrival there was not disappointing- it lived up to all the spooky hype. Kudos to Jackson for set building, casting and directing the Skull Island natives, and film techniques used to make arrival on Skull Island genuinely scary.

Following this are some truly lovely shots that establish the fantastical, prehistoric island where everything, from the insects to the T-Rex, are super sized and super beautiful. But within five minutes...

Heather's Popcorn Recipe
1/4 C organic popcorn kernels
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t fine sea salt

Directions: Air pop the corn, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and toss well. Serves two bored viewers.

So what went wrong? I'm hardly the first to notice that the drawn out creature feature battles dilute the tension of the story. At this point Jackson & Co. has made the viewer really care about Ann Darow. We want to know her fate! But we have to wade through way too many brontosaurus stampedes to get a glimpse at what's going on with her and Kong. Not only that, the creature battles are not well done. Cheesy battles that don't take simple physics into account may work in short clips, but not for the length of time we're exposed to them in the 2005 remake. Up until the moment we see the first dinosaur, the actions of the heroes are gripping, because they're battling and barely surviving, using their knowledge and skills to the best of their abilities in the face of tremendous threats. This truly scary feeling drops away in the middle of the movie, and we are left with continuous near-deaths that should have been real deaths. Coincidence and highly implausible escapes (that at my kindest evaluation were lucky, and at times were ridiculous) water down the element of danger and look just plain goofy.

Jackson's portrayal of the relationship between Ann and Kong saves the movie, so by the time I got to the end, I really did care what happened to Kong, and felt that he had made a connection with Ann. I think that was the heart of the original move, and despite a lot of vine-swinging T-Rexes, Jackson managed to deliver that heart in his remake.