Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, Dead Alive) must have known that remaking "King Kong" (1933), one of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies of all time, was a huge risk. A 1976 attempt proved to be downright laughable. But the Academy-Award-winning director was apparently undaunted and approached the project with the all the reverence of a true fan who credits "King Kong" with his decision to become a film maker. The results is a respectful and entertaining movie that shows the love Jackson has for the original, while at the same time indicates he was not able to resist the urge to try and top it in every way he could. That urge to embellish works most of the time, but at other times it makes the film seem significantly padded.

If the comic strip Penny Arcade is to be believed, there is a statute of limitations on spoiling a seventy-year-old-movie story. Therefore I’m going to rundown the whole story with their new actors. Carl Denhem (Jack Black) is a desperate film maker. Desperate because the studio is about to pull funding for his latest film epic and he is manic to finish it. To thwart the studio brass he has to get his whole production out to sea on the tramp steamer Venture before the studio suits have him arrested for stealing the unfinished picture. His only problem is he has no leading lady and needs one who will fit all the costumes already made. Enter Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), a down-on-her-luck vaudeville performer. The fast-talking Denhem convinces her to join the production and the whole crew makes its escape just ahead of the cops. Denhem also all but shanghais the movie’s scriptwriter, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). The reason Denhem has to get out to sea is because he has come into procession of a map that shows the location of Skull Island, a place that all think only exists in legend. Legend also holds that it is the home of something monstrous. Denhem wants to get it on film.

Arriving at the island the crew finds it inhabited by a savage tribe that worships one of the island’s less cuddly inhabitants as a god: the 25-foot gorilla known as Kong. As a matter of fact they periodically sacrifice maidens from the tribe to appease him. The locals get one look at the beautiful Ann and immediately know she is the one that will please Kong. They abduct her from the ship and stake her out for Kong. Jack, who has fallen in love with Ann on the voyage, discovers her missing and immediately sets off after her with the film production company and sailors from the Venture in tow. What follows is a number of set-piece action scenes that show the trials of the crew as they pursue Kong and the dangers Ann faces as the captive of Kong.

Since this is a retelling of the classic “beauty and the beast” tale, the fierce Kong can’t help but actually fall in love with the lovely Ann Darrow, a bond that makes him almost foolhardy in his defense of this delectable little snack that the whole island seems to want for lunch. His devotion wins Ann over and a tentative friendship blossoms. But when Driscoll catches up and rescues Ann from the sleeping Kong, he is enraged and follows them back to the native village. Waiting there is a prepared Denhem who, after losing all his movie footage in the pursuit of Kong, is desperate to capture the big ape and financially save his own ass. Kong is successfully captured and put on display in a Broadway show. But mere chains cannot hold a god, and Kong escapes, goes on a rampage and is ultimately killed in a climactic scene on the Empire State building.

Anyone who has seen the 1933 original "“King Kong" will tell you, the characters that made up that movie were all paper-thin. The most developed character had to be the stop-motion animated puppet that was Kong. Jackson spent a chunk of his extra running time (just over three hours versus the original’s hour and 40 minutes) making the characters people we could actually understand. Jack Black as Carl Denhem is despicable. He is a flim-flam snake oil salesman who does not particularly care who he hurts as long as he gets to make his film and reap the rewards. Adrien Brody’s Jack Driscoll is a rather mild-mannered playwright who finds it within himself to rise to the status of adventure hero when the woman he has fallen in love with is put in peril. But the real star of the film is Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow.

If Jackson had gotten nothing else right, he definitely got the Ann Darrow character right. While in the original film Fey Wrey got top billing, her character never rose above being simply a lovely, screaming damsel in distress. Jackson has transformed the character into a smart, resourceful woman who is perfectly capable of ensuring her own survival. Ms. Watts takes this character and makes it her own with a style, courage, beauty and vulnerability that you just know any Kong would fall for. And while the film may take the Stockholm Syndrome to new heights, it is perfectly believable the way Jackson unfolds the story. The honest and believable bond between Ann Darrow and Kong is the true driver behind Peter Jackson’s "King Kong."

Of course such a bond would not be possible if the title character was not equally believable. Kong is a fully realized character in Jackson’s movie. He is a savage fighter and battle-scarred survivor of the island’s brutal environment. Through scene elements we realize that he is the last of a race of giant apes that once inhabited Skull Island. He is now the only one left, a lost and alone figure with no one to share anything with. He finds in Ann Darrow a kind spirit that can empathize with him at last and devotes himself to her. The man behind the ape is Andy Sirkus, the actor that brought Gollem to life in “The Lord of the Rings.” Mr. Sirkus performed the part of Kong and then the personae of the giant ape was mapped over the resulting scenes. The result is a performance that is nothing short of amazing. I think the Academy is going to have to create a new award category if Mr. Sirkus keeps this up. Perhaps something like Best Performance By A Digital Character or maybe Best Performance By An Actor In A Digital Costume? Whichever it is, Mr. Sirkus will probably be the first recipient.

Of course the final star of the movie is the special effects. Many say the only reason the original "King Kong" did not win an Oscar was that at the time there was no award for special effects. If we look at the three "King Kong" movies, it is interesting to see how film-making technology has changed. For the main effect of Kong, the 1933 original employed stop-motion animation of an 18”, steel-framed puppet. The 1976 remake (May it burn in hell!) opted for a guy in a gorilla suit. In 2005 Peter Jackson wields the considerable power of computer generated imagery to give us the most fully-detailed and believable giant ape ever. What is equally amazing is what has not changed. The use of giant hands attached to movie cranes to lift actresses around seems to still be alive and well 70 years later.

But with the power of CGI at his command, Jackson did manage to involve the audience like never before, and it is here he really went overboard to top the original. I’m sure he said something like, “If the original has Kong fighting a tyrannosaur to rescue Ann, let’s have three.” This sets up one of the most visceral moments in the movie as the realism and terror generated punches the audience in the gut with the dangers that inhabit Skull Island. But everywhere Jackson went out of his way to show the audience things that the makers of the original could only dream of in their wildest film-making fantasies.

Which brings me to what in my opinion is the film’s only weakness: it is too long. The original is a tight, fast-paced adventure story. Jackson’s "King Kong" takes 45 minutes before we even see the island from the boat. Once there, far too many of the scenes seem to go on for just a few minutes longer than you feel they should have. The time in New York seems especially padded. I honestly think the movie could have been 30 to 45 minutes shorter and still have the same impact.