5 reasons to watch King Kong (Peter Jackson's version, obviously)

Yes it feels like it's been overhyped and yes it's long but with hardly a bump in the road, this is a new classic.

1. A giant monkey (well d'uh)
2. All the stuff with dinosaurs and the other inhabitants of Skull Island
   
3. A decent amount of time dedicated to getting the characters right and sympathetic
4. Great design and general film-making craft
   
5. Jack Black, Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody

For some reason I didn't rush to see this when it came out, the marketing all seemed a bit shlockbuster, the reviews were half-hearted and I wasn't really sure what could be done with a film I've seen the original of enough times to know reasonably well.

I should've put my trust in Pete.

Now this maybe some kind of heresy but towards the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it was starting to lose it for me a little - obviously still entirely speccy and a big grand sweeping story in a big grand sweeping world but I thought there was a bit of heart, a bit of soul missing. (Though I should go back for a revisit now that the dust has settled I guess).

Kong has heart - very occasionally Naomi Watts seems a little bit closer to the big guy than I was entirely right with - though to his credit, he worked for it in battles to save the fair maiden. This is very much a labour of love by Peter Jackson, who has said that he's wanted to remake this since he was a kid.

Dive in and enjoy this one, leave your disbelief at the door and come out after 3 hours having had a ball.