King Kong - Silver Screen's brilliance brought out - Movie Review

Hey, am thumping my hands on my chest with the body swaying left and right… I’ve seen the motion-picture marvel, “King Kong”.

First things first…

• I’ve not seen the 1933 starter or the modified versions that came out in later years. I just got lured by Peter Jackson, who heralded the grand work of Tolkien to me, and a few other initial pointers…
• To watch this movie, you should go in with a sense of appreciating the medium. You will find loads of things to appreciate and chew on. Else, you can straight-away get tossed away into boredom and later start offering bananas to the monster monkey.
• Do watch the movie, if you do, in a big screen. The visual narrative can get lost in smaller ones.. Big screen is the least that the big beast deserves…

The story is about a street-smart, foolhardy movie director wanting to take a movie in an island undiscovered by mankind with a struggler actress as heroine and a theatre loving screenplay writer in his crew and in the process hitting upon the one and only King of its world, the King Kong. The depression, the struggling theatre workers, the movie industry, NewYork in 1930s unravel in a steady, lucid pace for the first one hour or so before the hero thunders on the screen.. The crew takes off in a ship, travels to the fictitiously named ‘Skull island’, the ship hits some razor-edge rocks, the crew meets weirdo cavemen, escapes in a battle with them, the cavemen abduct the heroine, the crew goes back to the island to rescue - meanwhile the heroine has been offered to the monkey hero by the caveman.. If the viewers thought the cavemen looked scary enough, the major part of the thrills were yet to be released. The beast takes the heroine, plays around with the captive like we, humans, sometimes do with pets, insects etc. In the process the heroine captures the wild and whoppy hero’s heart.. The rescue party goes through an adventure and finally the left-over crew manages to capture the heroine along with hero as a captive and sail back to their show-city. The king is there reduced to a mere object of spectacle tied by chains projected as the eighth wonder of the world. However, the show doesn’t last long… The monster let looses, takes the city by storm, the heroine by arm, has a ball, climbs the empire building, which is tall, fights the city police by the building’s wall, later gives up the strike, not before capturing the hearts of the heroine and viewers alike, has a big fall, leaving the viewers, enthralled..

Sometime back, I had quoted Adoor Gopalakrishnan on the power of cinema to meditate. Here Peter Jackson proves it in a completely contrasting style to what Adoor might have imagined. The monster, the forest, the Jurassic park inhabitants, and unknown unseen creatures are all unleashed on the big screen in a beautifully painted canvas. The human characters aren’t far-behind.. The artful, crafty, Jack Black, the melancholic beauty, Naomi Watts, the love-smitten, brave, Adrien Brody, the brave lad, Jamie Bell and the masked monster, Andy Serkis – all have one word against them - Perfect! Jackson is supported by an able and highly competant crew, right from casting, chosing locations, CGI, the sets, cinematography, apt background score and name anything else.. The energy of the crew and the captain of the ship shows on screen as beautifully in serene moments to as frenzied in action-packed moments. Hats off to the 'king kong'ish crew..

The only place where the graphics showed off slightly pale was the scene when the rescue party runs from Dinosaurs and the edge of cliff falling apart. But you tend to ignore the pale painting in the vase which serves a delicious pudding, when you have a sumptuous dinner overall, don’t you?

The tender moments stay with you after the movie so do some memorable lines. The immortal “it is the beauty that killed the beast” to what the price of an entry ticket could bring to you.. It is obvious that the success of the movie lies in making you empathize with the brutish Big B(east). But the way in which Peter Jackson has brought it on screen just shows how passionate one can get towards certain things… I am sure, decades later, there would be many more versions of KingKong, which would be purely inspired by Jackson’s work That is the best tribute that I can think of. Afterall, am no imaginer like Peter Jackson…