Movie big on effects, character

The first hour is spent allowing us to get to know the main players.
By CHRIS HEWITT
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
Peter Jackson's new movie is the king of Kongs.
The third big-screen "King Kong" is the best for several reasons: Its special effects are stunning and soul-stirring -- instead of cold, hollow tricks, the marvels in "King Kong" seem designed to spur our imagination, not cancel it out. Director/co-writer Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) also gives the story room to breathe and the characters time to affect us. And, improbably, he makes "King Kong" the year's most deeply satisfying movie romance.
Jackson had the wit to recognize that even a damn dirty ape needs love, but it is Naomi Watts -- playing an actress named Ann Darrow (the same name as Fay Wray in the original "Kong") -- who sells the love story. Jackson could have hired a bimbette like the Jessicas Biel or Alba, but Watts rewards his decision to pick a real actress. Her performance is genuinely fearful as Ann meets the ape when she and a film crew invade his Skull Island, affectionate when the two become primate pals and heartsick when Kong, transported to New York to become a vaudeville freak show, is targeted for destruction.
In fact, the one flaw in the movie is that the romantic triangle at its core isn't as effective as it should be because the third side of the triangle, the Oscar-winning side -- Adrien Brody -- is so wan and indistinct that we can't think of any reason Ann would pick him over her hunka hunka burnin' ape.
Director's approach
You could accuse Jackson of going overboard with a 187-minute movie in which the title character doesn't show up for 70 minutes (detail-oriented Jackson could probably turn "Goodnight Moon" into a three-hour epic). But the movie's slow-and-steady first hour makes the final two seem to fly by, and it establishes the characters: Ann, the hungry actress, struggling to survive the Depression; Carl (an irony-free Jack Black), a director who'll do anything to make a hit, even if it means traveling to the uncharted island where Kong lives; and Jack, the film's writer (Brody). Before these people reach Skull Island, we understand who they are and, as a result, the paths they take there make sense.
Ann, for instance, is no fan of Kong at first, but when she runs into some actress-hungry dinosaurs and Kong has her back, she realizes the enemy of my enemy is my big hairy friend. That scene is a doozy, and it comes right after Jackson unleashes the film's most spectacular sequence: a dinosaur stampede that ranks with the sinking of the Titanic and the "Matrix: Reloaded" freeway chase as one of the best effects scenes ever filmed.
Ode to original
Jackson respects the 1933 "King Kong" -- he dedicates his film to the original creators and lets Black briefly consider Fay Wray before settling on Ann -- but he takes the story further by treating Kong as a character, not an effect. Jackson is interested in the idea of '30s New York as a glamorous, golden world that is lost to us forever, but he's even more interested in what Kong and Ann might be thinking as they stare into the horizon together.
Their relationship is as doomed as Paris Hilton's and, well, anybody. But, while it lasts, Jackson offers us an escape into a world that is romantic, funny and thrilling -- a world you want to believe in even though you know it never existed. Jackson is a moviemaker who loves the movies and who knows why we love the movies. Which is why this "Kong" is going to be huge.
At one point, Jackson's script has somebody saying, "The whole world will pay to see this." He's talking about King Kong, but he could just as easily be talking about this "King Kong."