It is not surprising, of course, but actor Andy Serkis is among those who think that Peter Jackson's version of King Kong is grossly underrated and undervalued.
"I thought so," Serkis tells the Sun this week by telephone from Los Angeles, where he is attending to extracurricular Kong duties to promote tomorrow's release of the ape extravaganza in a two-disc Special Edition. "I know I'm probably feeling incredibly biased but ..."
Serkis is the Englishman who helped pioneer a new level of motion capture acting as Gollum in Jackson's Lord Of The Rings. He also worked as Kong to bring life to that creature in Jackson's re-make. When Kong craftsmen won their three Oscars recently, there was a shout-out to Serkis for helping them get over the Kong hurdle and make the mythical "Megaprimatus kong" into a cinematic reality.
Yet, despite huge worldwide box-office receipts, despite mostly great reviews, but because of its $200-million budget and a perception that it fell behind expectations overall, the film has been perceived negatively, Serkis grouses.
An anti-Kong Internet story circulated during the Christmas period that set the tone, Serkis says. "And suddenly it's considered a failure. It's really bizarre!"
Yet Serkis has nothing but praise, again to be expected but sincere nevertheless: "In terms of achievement, it's immense. It's very satisfying. It's like going to a great meal and you come out of it fully satisfied."
All of Jackson's films, Serkis says, are like medicine for the soul. "I'm not just blowing Peter's trumpet and I shouldn't, really. But I think Peter Jackson's films are like that: They make you feel really good even if you're feeling really crap."
The widescreen Special Edition DVD will only enhance that, Serkis promises. "Well, Pete always produces a great DVD. He wants to share. King Kong is obviously a huge passion for him and he wants to share that.
"Pete's films kind of bulge at the seams, really. There's so much extra that's gone on, the work that's gone on to create New York in 1933, the work that's gone on to create Skull Island. The film, it's kind of the tip of the iceberg. If you could peel back the cinema screen and look behind it, there are another thousand creatures around the corner.
"For those who are interested, it's that detail that gets shown on the DVD and it allows you further into that world, really. Even in a three-hour (and eight-minute) movie, he couldn't show it all."
KONG'S ROAR: We think that Andy Serkis has it right, that Peter Jackson is one of the kings of the DVD extras. You lack for nothing in the new King Kong Special Edition DVD.
Critically, you get the film in a gorgeous widescreen transfer that reinforces the visual excellence that earned King Kong its three craft Oscars. And you get extensive, high quality extras that -- if you find King Kong as exhilarating as I do despite needing a few judicious trims -- are a treat to watch.
Among them is a well-organized, two hours and 40 minutes of post-production diaries, continuing the process that fans enjoyed on the Production Diaries DVD which was released along with the film last year. Each aspect of the filmmaking process is exhaustively explored. Jackson pulls back the curtain and Oz is revealed as a place of joyous, if exacting toil.
Just as interesting are the two documentaries. In 28 minutes, Kong's New York, 1933, tells the true story of New York in the early part of the 20th Century, including chapters on Vaudeville, the Great Depression (including the Hooverville shantytown in Central Park) and the building of the Empire State Building at the height of the economic collapse.
In contrast, the 17-minute Skull Island: A Natural History is a wonderfully inventive, mock scientific doc which purports to tell how this remote island, aided by thermal vents opened by earthquakes, harboured the planet's last remaining dinosaurs until it was swallowed by the sea during the 1940s. Using a methodical, scientific approach you would find in a National Geographic special, the filmmakers never deviate from their ruse -- so warn the children not to believe everything they see. Especially when it's the smiling face of Peter Jackson delivering the news.
