Nevertheless, Peter Jackson, director of the new King Kong, is a different story. The original film is what inspired him to make movies in the first place. This big ape is his childhood hero, and making a new version of Kong is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. And, after just finishing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson has never been more ready to accomplish this goal, as he has earned the ability to do anything he wants.

     This can be both good and bad. It is good because he cares about the source material so much that he does not want to mess it up, and he can now do everything Willis O'Brien wished he could do back in the 30s. He can create all the monsters he wants, tweak the story and realize Kong to the fullest. But the ability to do anything can also cloud one's judgement, thus the reason this movie ended up being over three hours long.

     Now, I'm not saying that I think a long movie is bad. I loved Jackson's Rings movies, which were all at least three hours (or longer with the Extended Edition DVDs). But in that case, I felt that each and every minute of those films was needed to do the books justice. With Kong, at least a half hour could have been cut and the movie wouldn't have suffered one bit. After all, the original was only a little over an hour and a half. Depending on the individual viewing this new version, this might turn people away. I can already hear people saying "A three-hour movie about a giant ape? Huh?"

     But despite the fact that my butt was getting numb, I actually did enjoy practically every minute of the film, even though some parts weren't needed. And I do feel that most of the first act was necessary, despite it being slow-moving. Jackson decided to take his time with developing the story and the characters here, as it takes somewhere around a full hour before we even see the hairy beast. This is something not done very often in film anymore, as modern audiences tend to not have much patience. (But they have no need to worry, since the rest of the film consists of two more hours of monsters and action, which is sure to wake up the masses.)

     In the first act, we are introduced to Ann Darrow (played by Naomi Watts from I Heart Huckabees), the main character of this tale, who is a struggling stage performer in New York City trying to make her way in the heart of the 1930s depression. Also struggling is Carl Denham (Jack Black from The School of Rock), a weasel of a film director who will go to great lengths to get his picture - even if it means lying to everyone he works with and risking their lives. In this case, Denham wants to film a new picture on an undiscovered island, but tells everyone he's shooting in Singapore. He also is desperate to find a leading lady for the film, and with a stroke of luck he runs into Ann. Telling her the same lie, she agrees to star in his movie.

     We also have Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody from The Pianist and The Village), a playwright Denham hired to write the screenplay for his film. Denham ultimately gets Driscoll to tag along with him on the trip, despite Driscoll's desire not to go. While on board the ship to "Singapore" (or in Denham's mind - "Skull Island"), a romance develops between Driscoll and Darrow - a romance that gets interrupted until the very end of the film. They never get to really persue it, as the rest of the crew eventually finds out they're not really going to Singapore, and that the place they're going to is said to host a great beast that is separated by a great wall around the island - a fact that not even Carl Denham knew. There will be no time for romance - well, at least not between Driscoll and Darrow - since the island is inhabited by nothing but a savage aboriginal tribe, dinosaurs, giant creepy crawlers, and certain death for members of the crew. Ultimately, Ann gets kidnapped by the tribe, where they offer her as a sacrifice to the mighty "Kong" - the great beast (who is probably over 25 feet tall). But what they didn't count on was that Kong actually has a heart.

     This is where the story takes off. What I felt the original Kong film was missing was a connection between Kong and Darrow. In the original, while we do get a sense of empathy for the ape, Ann Darrow does not. She screams the entire time, and never really understands that Kong doesn't mean to hurt her and that he cares for her deeply. This time around, Darrow comes to realize that Kong has nothing but a genuine love for her, and ultimately she ends up feeling the same way. I don't think the audience would care for Darrow by the time the film ended if she did not side with Kong. She'd be nothing but a nuisance, appearing no different than all the other idiots in the film who don't understand him. Kong is so real in this film, conveying emotion so vividly, that we can't help but gain total empathy for him. We'd end up being angry at Darrow. It was easier to still care for Ann in the '33 version, since Kong could only express a limited amount of emotion then. But now, with digital technology, he is just as real as you and I.

     Kong is rendered amazingly in this film. As a puppet in the original, O'Brien was extremely limited in what he could do. Thankfully he pulled it off enough, as we somehow gain a little empathy for the creature in that version. But in this new film, we can stare deeply into the abyss of Kong's eyes and feel exactly what he is feeling, and his movements are exactly like an ape's. Whether he's amused by Darrow performing stage tricks for him, saddened by losing her, or angry because dinos want to eat his one and only love - we as audience members cannot help but relate completely to Kong. The people who created him (Weta Digital) are the same people who did the effects for The Lord of the Rings films. Since they were able to render a fully CGI character so realistically with the character "Gollum" in those films, the character of King Kong shows nothing less than perfection here. And to top it all off, Andy Serkis once again provides his movements and acting to the character, just as he did with Gollum, which is sure to please the fans.

     The second act is chock full of visually appealing chase scenes involving dinosaurs and other creatures varying from extremely brutish to hideously creepy. Peter Jackson has decided to include a sequence where the people searching for Ann are hunted by giant insects - a scene which was in the original film, but ended up getting cut and ultimately lost, save for a few photo stills. This scene is here simply to please the fans of the original, since most every fan wants "the lost spider pit sequence" to be found and put back in someday. And what a scary sequence it is!

     This film has references to the original everywhere. For instance, the opening titles have the same backdrop as the original, except it's in color. Also, when Denham is trying to find an actress, he asks if they can get "Fay," which is an homage to "Fay Wray" - the original actress who played Ann Darrow in the 1933 version. Of course, they throw in that "Cooper," the real life director of the original, has already booked her for another film with "R.K.O. Pictures" - which was the studio that distributed the original Kong. Other things are sure to make fans giddy, like bits of dialogue from the original film being spoofed, the fake aboriginal tribes on stage in New York looking and acting like the actual aboriginies from the 1933 version, or Peter Jackson playing a gunner on board an airplane (just like Cooper did in his film).

     Despite occasional goofs or the film's overindulgence with itself at times (especially with its length), fans will definitely be able to tell that Jackson loves the original deeply, with all the fanboy references and a great re-telling of the love story between Kong and Ann Darrow. All the actors give it their very best shot, and so does the production team. Jackson also makes sure to give us epic landscapes of an accurate 1930s New York City (especially when we make it to the top of the Empire State Building in the third act) and a creepy Skull Island that will scare the pants off anyone. And most of all, the monsters kick major butt, with Kong being the master of them all. He fights a "V-Rex" (actually, three of them) to defend Ann, and ends up snapping the jaw of the remaining dino (again, just like the original film).

     Kong is definitely King, and I'm sure Peter Jackson was giggling like a little boy throughout the entire production of this film. In my opinion, this film exceeds the original in many ways. However, it doesn't eliminate it either. The 1933 version still holds up quite well as a veteran of film history. But I don't think Kong fans could have asked for a better re-envisioning of an old classic, as this is a true marvel to behold.