The Deluxe Extended Edition of the 2005 version of King Kong is
the DVD that should have been released in the first place. Not only does it
include additional scenes--plus extended scenes--that are added to the film, but
it also has a plethora of special features that are spread out on three discs.
The most enjoyable of the special features is the commentary by director Peter
Jackson and Philippa Boyens. Insightful, witty and downright funny at times,
Jackson and Boyens are not above making fun of themselves, as the section of the
commentary heard over the credits proves. When Boyens asks how did Carl Denham
and crew get Kong back to New York, Jackson goes on a long, half-joking tangent
where he explains how Kong would have fit into the cargo hold of the ship, and
that the story of bringing him back to New York was so lengthy that, to tell it,
almost would warrant its own film.
The added scenes include a Ceratops attack which invokes the stegosaurus attack
sequence in the original Kong--right down to the death rattle of its tail. The
other added scene is an attack on the crew by a swamp monster who rises up from
beneath the waters to overturn one of their rafts. This creature--which looks
like a cross between a shark and a monstrous eel--is very effectively done,
particularly in the underwater scenes where it stalks Adrian Brody’s character.
Another added Skull Island scene is where Lumpy the cook accidentally shoots
what appears to be a large flightless version of the extinct Dodo Bird. The
final added scene is a silly moment where an army commander is giving his
troops a pep talk in the back of a truck that’s delivering them through the
streets of New York to fight Kong.
In his commentary, Jackson explains that the men playing the soldiers were all
members of the film’s special effects team--and while it’s a fun scene, it
feels out of place in a film which had by this time already lost its way,
thanks to the sappy love story that developed between Ann and Kong. Despite
these added scenes, there’s still a lengthy deleted scene section, as well as a
funny section containing outtakes from the movie. The DVD also includes a
marvelous ‘making of’ documentary which looks at the development of the film
from its origins in 1996. And if you put the DVD in your computer, you’ll get
the complete screenplays for both the 1996 and 2005 versions of the film. If
you’ve held off on buying the 2005 version of King Kong on DVD, then you’re in
luck. But even if you already own the earlier DVD release, the Extended Edition
is still a must have.
--SF
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