Peter Jackson’s King Kong, based on the 1933 original movie, is pretty much a remake of that film. It tells the same story of a filmmaker who takes his crew to a mysterious island, only to discover that it is an island full of danger just waiting for them. However, the worst of them is not, in fact, King Kong, but really other creatures that are inhabitants, and even themselves to a degree.

And I thought that this version of the King Kong story was a much better one than the original. Don’t get me wrong, the original was revolutionary, iconic, and a classic, but the technology that was available in the early 2000s simply allowed the film to tell a much better and compelling story than anything from the 1930s. It also has all of the same kind of beats that the original had, but changes things up to make for a more emotionally moving story, as well as vastly expanding it in interesting ways, which obviously comes with the three-hour runtime. This is also much more of a pure adventure film, rather than a horror one.

Speaking of revolutionary, Peter Jackson and his visual effects crew certainly changed the game with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I would say the same thing can be said for King Kong, at least for the most part. The visual effects are dated in some places, but what they were able to do in terms of building this world and vastly expanding it was really fun and exciting to watch. It obviously feels a lot bigger, but the creatures and the look of everything itself are also greatly built upon. I think the creature designs still mostly hold up, with a few exceptions here and there, but King Kong himself certainly holds up to this day. He might not look as realistic as, say, the modern Monsterverse movies, but the way he was able to emote so much more than he could with practical effects in the 1933 film made for a much better depiction of the character, in my opinion.

I also have to say that I was surprised by the action here. I guess I shouldn’t have been, because this is the same guy who made The Lord of the Rings after all, but in addition to this being three hours long, I had also heard that this was a very slow film. Yes, while it does take its time setting up everything, once our main group of characters arrives on Skull Island, the movie really doesn’t ever let up. The action, mainly with the creatures, and especially with Kong, is absolutely fantastic and without a doubt holds up, with the exception of one scene where the main crew is running away from dinosaurs. Funny enough, it seems like there is always like one, and really only one visual effect that aged poorly in Peter Jackson’s first four epics. Anyway, there are several jaw-dropping sequences here that are not only great visually but also enthralling, the main standout being Kong and a certain group of dinosaurs I won’t give away.

The main improvement I would say with Peter Jackson’s King Kong, compared to the 1933 film, is definitely the characters and character depth, not only with Kong, but with the humans as well. I mentioned in my review of the original movie that I couldn’t have cared less about the humans, and that really isn’t the case with this film, at least not most of them. Despite there being several more characters focused on here, they all get little moments that got me to actually care about them and their survival. Yes, there certainly are characters you are meant not to root for, but the ones that you do, you really do, especially with the two love interests, Ann and Jack. While I think their romance could have been expanded upon more, the characters themselves were very compelling. Ann starts off as this low and broke actress who just wants to find success, and happens to get captured by this giant ape that she grows an attachment for, while Jack is a scriptwriter whose main motivation is just love, but the way he grows into more than just someone compelled by love was kind of moving to be honest.

Then there is, of course, Kong himself. I already mentioned how the CGI was able to make him a lot more compelling and deeper, rather than just being a monster with pretty much no depth at all, but there is even more to him than that. His obsession, or rather, fascination with Ann, is a lot more believable here because there is an actual reason given for it, and, while he still causes plenty of chaos and destruction over the course of the runtime, even to humans, he is played as much more of the victim rather than the one who is causing all of it, because he really is just a confused wild animal at the end of the day.

The last thing I’ll talk about in this portion of the review is the pacing. I was excited to check this movie out, both because it was a remake of an old movie as well as a film directed by Peter Jackson, but I was also somewhat worried because it definitely has a reputation for being really boring. I have to say that I disagree with that because this movie moved pretty fast for me. The three-act structure is really kind of interesting, because each act kind of goes for something completely different, which might sound obvious and dumb, but hear me out. The first act really immerses you in this early 1900s world, similar to the original film, and then sets you on this really fun adventure as they go to the island. The second act is really just pure adventure and spectacle all the way through, with lots of action, but also slower character moments. The third act, on the other hand, is an emotional rollercoaster ride as it goes from slow and calm to complete chaos. Yes, this is all similar to the original movie, but, and I’ve said this word multiple times by now, everything is expanded upon much more than it sounds, especially the middle act. Each act of this movie gives you such a unique and different experience from the other, which is why it all flew by for me.

For the mixed, I only have one, and it’s something that I have also briefly touched upon. While this is a revolutionary movie when it comes to its CGI, a lot of it hasn’t aged as well as Peter Jackson’s other big films from the time, obviously being The Lord of the Rings movies. I know I just said that I already talked about it, so I won’t really go any more in depth here, but it is definitely something worth mentioning that might not hold up for everyone nowadays. For me, though, it’s always been cool to see the sort of evolution of visual effects, so I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

Oddly enough, my main criticism for King Kong is that I think that it just doesn’t quite earn its emotional moments. We get a lot more of a character out of Kong, yes, but I think that there could have been even more. It’s a three hour film and surprisingly, there isn’t as much character work as you’d think there would be, so the big moments with him didn’t quite hit as hard for me like I could tell the film was going for. I think a way to improve this would be shaving off a little bit of the first act, and saving that time for more screentime with Kong.

This, despite coming out a few years after, doesn’t quite reach the levels of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, both from Peter Jackson, but I liked it a decent bit more than I expected.