The story focuses on the making of a film on a remote location unknown to the civilized world.  A film director Carl Denham (Jack Black) is adamant about making a film even as the film company attempts to withdraw their funding, as his previous cinematic escapades have lost the film studio an abundance of money.  Despite the producer’s attempt to pull the money out of the project, Carl persuades his assistant Preston (Colin Hanks) to help him get the ship away before the producers can stop them.  At the same time they must find a new starlet, as Carl’s fiascos have driven people away from him.  Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Carl stumbles across Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts).  Ann suffers the brutal aftermath of the Great Depression, as she has just lost her job and has not been paid for weeks.  Carl finds her in a moment when she is considering exploiting her beauty on the stage for food, and Carl offers her the main part in his film.  She takes the part, as her favorite stage writer has written the piece they are about to shoot.  The deceptive plan of Carl succeeds, as he gets everyone he needs out to sea including the writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) that Ann admires.

Under the command of Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) they set sail towards their own unforeseen doom, as Carl’s obsession has lured them away from the safety of civilization.  Onboard the ship rumors begin to spread after one of the sailors eavesdrops on a conversation.  The rumors begin to enhance the tense atmosphere on the ship, as the superstitious seamen fear the worst in their destined goal.  Meanwhile, Ann discovers her infatuation with Jack, which begins to develop.  It is here Jackson truly begins to develop the story after the character introduction in New York before they set their course for Skull Island.  The story builds heavily on emotions with a strong emphasis on love, obsession, and fear.  The borders between these emotions slowly begin to diffuse, as they soon turn into a madman’s dream.

The ship’s arrival to Skull Island soon makes it clear that the cinematic expedition was poorly planned for what they are about to encounter on the island, which is hidden in a dense and mischievous fog.  The most basic emotion emerges within them all – fear – as they discover the secret dangers that have been lurking on the island for the last million years.  Out of fear other emotions begin to brew such as rage, anger, and vengeance, as Ann is kidnapped and brought to the heart of the darkness within the island.  The men on the ship set out on a rescue expedition to discover that some secrets are best unknown, as the most primal of instincts emerges within them all – survival of the fittest.

King Kong displays an extraordinary adventure with remarkable visuals that effectively applies computer-generated animation.  These visuals are only the icing on the cake, as the audience begins to cut into the cake they will expose multiple layers that provide a genuine depiction of the primal origin of emotions.  However, Jackson is not content with this notion, as he pushes the audience to investigate the prehistoric emotions that swell up in our civilized society through greed and vanity among other feelings.  Eventually, the film converges on the unifying emotion of love, but where rage and fear exist this tender feeling will rapidly vanish if the individual does not surrender himself or herself to love.  Thus, within this highly engaging epic adventure, the viewer will find himself or herself stumbling into a poignantly expressive tale of unconditional and fearless love resting within all creatures hiding beneath the primal rage protecting the being.

DIRECTED BY

COUNTRY

New Zealand / USA

Filmography links and data courtesy of