trapped in the paperless, wireless, timeless and spaceless office

King size movie King Kong won’t disappoint the popcorn eater nor the intellectual in you.

Peter Jackson has been so faithful to the original 1933 King Kong that he’s even set an intermission to the 3 hour long movie. The main titles and the credits have a special art déco flavor and so does the recreation of a 1930s Broadway. Everything is so well recreated that you wouldn’t be surprised if a Vaudeville act came on stage during the intermission.

In the credits (yes I’m one of those annoying people who read them) after the army of CG designers and animators I spotted two more details that make me realize how true to the original the remake was: the Kong chant by the Skull Island natives was the same used in the original 1933 movie and one of the credits read “dialects specialist”.

I assume the dialects specialist had a key part not only in the various English dialects spoken by the sailors (Australian, Newzealander, Chinese) but on the language spoken by the American characters in a 1930s New York. This is especially visible (or audible) at the beginning of the film in the slumps of New York and when the movie producers argue with the director of the movie within the movie.

CG graphics are stunning particularly in the recreation of New York (although too much lit for the 1930s) and in Kong himself. The CG hair, dirt and scratches and the superb facial animation and gestures by Andy Serkis (The Gollum) make the character so believable that it conveys human emotions to the audience, to the point that half of the movie you feel sad for the impossible love and for the sad end to come. Gone are the days of lifeless CG characters.

At some points though, the overuse of CG makes you think you’re watching a full-feature animation movie and the overpopulation of dinosaurs in Skull Island makes you think you’re watching Jurassic Park I, II and III all at the same time.

Adrien Brody’s strong facial features, the 30s dress style and the fact that he plays an intellectual playwright are too strong arguments not to bring “The Pianist” into mind.  Also in both movies, Brody’s characters spend most of the time playing hide and seek, and are saved in the last minute from certain death.

But after all and in spite of all the CG, or thanks to them, the story is still about love, about differences and about how bad things turn if we mess with nature. A lesson that after 3 remakes we haven’t quite learnt.

As I said, sad.

THE END