2. King Kong (2005)
If there was ever a director destined to recapture the grandeur of the original King Kong in the modern day, Peter Jackson was the man for the job. The Lord of the Rings filmmaker stepped up to bring Kong back to the big screen in a cinematic spectacle with the best special effects the king of Skull Island had ever seen, and it was nothing short of stunning.
With a star-studded cast featuring Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, and Jack Black, the 2005 King Kong essentially retold the original story (with Jackson also choosing to keep the story set in the 1930s) but made use of the technology available today to make that happen. Instead of changing the iconic story, it gave us an idea of what the original could have looked like if it had been made in a modern era. And the result is amazing.
The score is beautiful, the visuals are jaw-dropping, and the technology used to bring Kong to life (via motion capture provided by Andy Serkis) puts the film in a league of its own in the CGI department. It’s a mind-blowing adventure that makes full use of its expensive budget, complementing an already perfect story.
As the years have went on, there have been some criticisms of the movie, such as how Kong was essentially just a giant silverback gorilla and its incredibly long runtime of three hours, but there is no denying that this was the larger-than-life return to screen Kong deserved, made with love by a fan of the original film. And that’s what makes it surprisingly timeless for a modern movie.