Jenny took me to see King Kong for my birthday.  While we both want to see Brokeback Mountain, we decided to wait as Rick also wants to see it but was out of town this weekend.

Let me begin with this: I grew up on King Kong and Godzilla movies (as well as all the other giant monsters, especially of the Japanese variety).  Seeing the latest installment of the Kong genre was a given for me.  Like the remake of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick, even if it sucks I must still see it at least once.  This is simply my nature.

Jenny, on the other hand, doesn’t carry the historical investment in these kinds of movies, but she was impressed by all of the critical acclaim and wanted to see it as well.

To put it succinctly: the only reason to see this movie in the theater is to get the full impact of the special effects.  I can’t honestly say that there is any other reason to do so.  Yes, it’s a good movie, but it’s not excellent.  It’s entertaining and fun, but not overly so.  It’s about one hour too long, someone went crazy with the special effects and chase scenes, and suspension of disbelief gets thrown out the window when giant bugs make an appearance (come on already with the giant bug thing; we all saw Starship Troopers and let it slide that it’s biologically and physically impossible for bugs to be much larger than the average computer monitor; think exoskeleton…).  Putting the insects into King Kong was a gratuitous use of digital animation that served no purpose other than to make you realize that much of that scene is impossible and unnecessary, not to mention laughable — and I don’t mean intentionally so.

Add to that the homage to Jurassic Park with far too many dinosaur scenes.  Yes, I saw the original movie (which is still the absolute best) and realize dinosaurs play a part in the story, but it was and should have remained minimal.  What Peter Jackson did with them was nothing short of insulting.

The special effects are amazing, however, and the realistically gorilla-like movements and behavior of Kong are truly memorable, fantastically produced and directed to make it believable that this is simply a very large ape.  That being said, the movie could have used less special effects.  Like Star Wars before it, Peter Jackson falls into the same trap that snared George Lucas — a sudden an unquenchable thirst to utilize digital graphics and animation whenever possible.  The approach should be to use them when necessary instead of the “just because we can” approach.

Nothing in this remake is alien from the original.  It’s the same story: man’s greed pushes him to take nature out of its element and try to tame it for financial gain, an endeavor which ultimately fails miserably at the expense of nature.  I do not understand all the positive critical reviews that infer this movie is more than it is.  Jackson did nothing to make the story his own; he simply copies the original and wraps it in different packaging.  If someone thinks he’s told a great story, credit the original movie for every bit of it.

Neither Jenny nor I are sorry that we saw it.  Nevertheless, we’re very disappointed in the product which has been billed as much more than it turned out to be.  Other than the special effects and experiencing a giant ape movie on a giant screen, there is nothing about this film which would compel you to see it in the theater.  If you can, I’d suggest waiting for it on video or cable.

Shame on Peter Jackson for squandering a fantastic story and smothering it with excessive special effects and laughably inappropriate additions (like too many dinosaur scenes and the oversized bugs).  He’s certainly capable of much more thought and consideration than what he put into this remake.  While it doesn’t offend the original movie, it certainly doesn’t pay homage to it in a respectable manner.  This one gets lumped in with the Godzilla remake as a poorly executed attempt to improve on what is already a fantastic product.

In the future, Peter, if you can’t make it better, leave it alone.