Genre Adventure

King Kong (2005)

Item: King Kong
Rating: 2.5
Author: Ross McLaren

★★½ — King Kong (2005)

The story of King Kong has been part of popular culture since Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's original 1933 film first sent audiences reaching for the armrests. That film was itself remade in 1976, so by the time Peter Jackson announced his version in the early 2000s, the premise of a giant ape dragged from a mysterious island to face the indignities of New York City was already carrying a fair amount of cultural baggage. Jackson's take, released in December 2005 through Universal Pictures and his own WingNut Films, sets the action firmly in the Depression-era New York of the original, leaning into period detail with clear affection. The result is a big-budget studio production, co-financed with Big Primate Pictures, that arrives with the weight of both nostalgia and expectation pressing down on it from every direction.

Jackson came to this project on the back of enormous success with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, and if you want a sense of how he handles large-scale, effects-heavy storytelling across an extended runtime, my reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (both directed by Jackson) are worth a read alongside this one. His reputation for ambitious world-building and pushing the capabilities of digital effects was, by 2005, thoroughly established, and King Kong gave him the opportunity to revisit a film he had loved since childhood. The screenplay was developed by Jackson alongside Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, his regular collaborators, and the production was shot largely in New Zealand and on elaborate studio sets. The film runs to 188 minutes, a runtime that invites both admiration and a certain amount of nervous shifting in your seat.

The cast assembled here is a polished but unremarkable ensemble in some respects, though there are genuine standouts. Naomi Watts leads as Ann Darrow, a vaudeville actress swept up in the expedition to the island. Adrien Brody plays Jack Driscoll, the writer reluctantly dragged along for the ride, while Jack Black takes on Carl Denham, the driven and morally questionable filmmaker behind the whole venture. Colin Hanks appears in support, and Andy Serkis contributes both a smaller on-screen role and the motion-capture performance at the heart of the production, continuing the work he had already pioneered as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films. The film is, at its core, a creature feature and a period adventure, but it leans hard into the emotional relationship between Ann and Kong as its central concern, a choice that shapes everything from the pacing to the finale.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) is a film of staggering ambition and overwhelming detail, but overall nearly twice as long as the original, and it shows. A loving, three-hour love letter to classic cinema that dazzles the eyes but, at times, tests the patience. The technical achievements are undeniable: the 1930s New York feels alive, Skull Island is a breathtaking nightmare of bioluminescent jungles and prehistoric horrors, and Andy Serkis’ motion-capture performance as Kong is nothing short of revolutionary. For sheer spectacle and creature artistry, it’s a landmark achievement. Jackson clearly adores the original, and his passion bleeds into every frame, from the vintage camera filters to Max Steiner’s reimagined score. Naomi Watts brings grace and empathy to Ann Darrow, forming a bond with Kong that’s surprisingly tender and central to the film’s emotional core. And when the big moments hit (Kong swatting biplanes, battling T-Rexes, cradling Watts in the mist) they’re pure cinematic magic. But for all its grandeur, the film drags under its own weight. At nearly three hours, the pacing sags badly in the middle, especially during an endless Tyrannosaurus chase that trades tension for repetition. The human characters beyond Watts feel underdeveloped, and Jack Black’s take on Carl Denham veers from passionate filmmaker to unhinged caricature. What should feel epic starts to feel indulgent. Beautiful, bold, and technically brilliant, but too long and emotionally uneven to fully work. A flawed tribute that loves its monster a little too much. Worth watching for the visuals and heart but way too long.

For me, that tension between spectacle and self-indulgence is what I keep coming back to when I think about this one. Jackson's passion for the material is never in question, and there are sequences here that genuinely belong in any conversation about what blockbuster filmmaking can achieve at its best. But passion and discipline are not always the same thing, and this film makes that gap very visible across its three hours. If you are curious how Jackson fared when he returned to similarly expansive territory later in his career, my review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug covers some of the same ground. A film that reminds you, not altogether comfortably, that loving something very much is not always enough to stop you from smothering it.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2005 | Watched: 2025-10-28

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Trailer

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Where to watch

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