King Kong – 2005 (WINNER)
To say the visual effects were incredible in this film is a gross understatement. We all know the story of King Kong, and even a little bit of the history of cinema, wherein this is the third major film for the big gorilla, the first being in 1933 with Fay Wray, the second being in 1976 with Jessica Lang, and now in 2005 with Naomi Watts. And to be sure, they were all full of fantastic visuals for their times.
But the special effects in this newest version bordered on simple reality. Kong, himself, was a fully CGI character. Actor Andy Serkis played the giant ape. He had to wear a motion-capture body suit and sit in a makeup chair for two hours every day of filming, to have a total of 135 small markers put on his face. The result was an unbelievable amount of detail in the facial expressions of the gorilla. I don’t know how they could have achieved a greater level of realism. It was perfection.
But more than just the emotive qualities of the character, the realism on the rest of his body were amazing. Director Peter Jackson wanted Kong to be more gorilla than man, so Serkis studied the creatures, both in captivity and in the wild, to be able to perfectly mimic their movements and mannerisms flawlessly. And the animators were able to use their motion tracking technology to mimic Serkis. The amazing level of detail in his shape, his fur, his teeth, and his eyes were all phenomenal. And more than that, the imperfections that the animators included in the visuals added yet another layer or realism to Kong. His scars, his wounds, and even areas of gray hair in his fur made him as real as an actual gorilla.
But there was so much more to the visual effects in this movie. Skull Island, Kong’s home, was full of a wide variety of creatures. Massive dinosaurs, terrifying giant insects, horrible giant bat-like monsters, giant iguanas, and other nightmare inducing creatures made this film a true visual spectacle, and they all looked as real as the giant gorilla. I have a phobia of swarming insects, and the giant insect scene is so incredibly disturbing to watch! I especially hated the things that ate Lumpy, a human character who also happened to be played by Andy Serkis.
The epic battle between Kong and three Vastatosaurus Rex was beyond amazing. At the end of the battle, when he defeats the last of his enemies, he grabs the dinosaur’s upper and lower jaws and rips them apart! But again, to add to the realism, they didn’t, for lack of a better term, Hollywoodize the creature’s death. He didn’t rip the lower jaw off in a spray of blood. It was simply enough to kill the monster and that was that. And the visual effects artists were responsible for that realism. There were also some great digital environments, not the least of which was the fully CGI recreation of New York City in the 1930s, and the iconic airplane battle at the top of the Empire State Building. I’ll say it without reservation. Peter Jackson is a filmmaking genius.