One Remake To Rule Them All

In my opinion, Peter Jackson is the only director working today who could have brought this movie to such dazzling fruition - a magnificent retelling of the original story, with an even deeper emotional core, thanks to the writing and of course the casting of Naomi Watts, as Ann Darrow.

I don't think any other actress working today could have brought this character to life the way she does - it's her performance that makes or breaks the film, basically: if we don't believe that she has thoroughly connected with Kong on a primal level, if we question for a moment that her feelings for him - and her loyalty - aren't genuine, if we're not convinced for even one second, then the rest of the picture, with all its gargantuan special effects, goes straight into the dumper. It's this relationship that elevates the story, that makes it more than just a film about an extraordinarily huge ape and the shameless opportunists who capture him for their own greed.

The achievement here, above everything else, is how Jackson firmly kept this perspective as his priority, realizing that it indeed was the heart of the film, while still managing to brilliantly execute the rest of the elements present in the story. This is a work of genius and possibly the best remake of any film that anyone in our generation will have the pleasure of experiencing on the big screen.