Remakes are a risky territory in cinema; for every Ocean’s 11 (2001) there is a Get Carter (2000). What these two specific examples also illustrate is that when the original is a pretty patchy movie in the first place things are made a whole lot easier than when someone turns their hand to a classic.

That the Dino De Laurentiis-produced version of King Kong (1976) previously failed so miserably to do what Peter Jackson has achieved here underlines the triumph of this remake. Its success is based mainly upon a solid understanding of the original and what made it such a success. The 1930s film was first and foremost a spectacular adventure movie, but it was the story of Kong’s doomed love for Ann Darrow (Faye Wray) which gave it a heart and made its popularity last long after its special effects had lost their wow factor. Jackson sticks to these elements, making his film both the biggest, boldest, most successful action movie for quite some time, as well as giving much more focus and sensitivity to Kong and Ann’s relationship.

Kong is quite simply the best CGI character ever created. Built upon the acting of Andy Serkis, who studied gorillas to prepare for the role, he is convincing not only in his movement and interaction with his surroundings but in the emotion seen in his eyes and face. Kong is one of Hollywood’s most tragic heroes, a creature of incredible power brought down by his love for a beautiful girl. What strikes a particular chord in this version is the playful innocence of Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), she is neither a screaming damsel in distress like Faye Wray in the original nor is she a brassy Seventies woman like Jessica Lange in the first remake. While Naomi Watts is certainly beautiful, it is as much her sense of fun, and gentle nature that appeals to him and breaks through his aggressive exterior to the loving nature within. The scene in which Ann performs her vaudeville act for Kong, softening his features to a laugh for the first time, is unforgettable. Her thrill at his physical strength is also captured perfectly, firstly when he lets her ride upon his back rather than clasped possessively in his fist, and secondly when - caught between Kong and his dinosaur foes - she puts her fate in his hands and walks to him. It is testament to the handling of their relationship that when Kong desperately tries to prevent the humans taking Ann away from him and his island the emotion is already so strong it is a moment as tragic as his final demise.

Part of the power of the relationship is that it is made central even when Kong is off screen. We know how the movie will end so the film keeps us mindful of it through smaller doomed relationships that heighten our anticipation of the movie’s conclusion. The most prominent is that between ship’s boy Jimmy (Jamie Bell) and first mate Hayes (Evan Parke) who has become a father and protector to the boy. In a touching addition to the original movie we see another two people who have formed a close bond and dependency upon one another being parted through death. In another scene a previously unseen close relationship between the ship’s cook Lumpy and the Chinese animal handler is hinted at and, as the latter dies and loses his grip of the former’s hand, it foreshadows what will happen to Kong and Ann on the top of the Empire State Building.

There are similarities between Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) and Kong too. Both are in love with Ann and early in the movie Driscoll states his desire to put Ann on a stage to make people laugh. Kong too shares this wish, only for him that stage is the mountain ledge that he calls home, and the audience is himself. While Jack features prominently in the film and does eventually get his girl he is overshadowed by Kong and thus seems less heroic, as his rescue of Ann from the island pales in comparison to Kong’s battle to save her from three Tyrannosaurus Rex. In any other movie this might have been a serious flaw but here it is certainly not. The film is aware of who its real star is; there are relatively few close ups of Brody, instead Kong’s vast face frequently dominates the screen as if to say that no human star could ever be a bigger attraction than Kong, he is and always was cinema’s biggest star and, like so many of Hollywood’s greatest, his legacy was secured through his tragic end.

Thus the film, as much as being born out of the Hollywood tradition, becomes a comment upon it. The counterpoint to Kong is the character who comes closest to upstaging him, film director Carl Denham (Jack Black). Denham captures the ambition and greed of Hollywood that creates both the events within the film and Hollywood itself. Kong is sacrificed, like several of Denham’s crew, to Denham’s desire to create wonder in an audience and to make money from it. In keeping the original Depression-era setting, Jackson keeps a backdrop which contrasts the poverty of the people with the excess of the skyscrapers and of the growing cinema industry. Denham displays the spirit that built those skyscrapers and which made the original King Kong. The very power of the story of King Kong is that it is the story of Hollywood: ambition, greed, spectacle, wonder and size but ultimately about emotion, epitomised by its tragic heroes and heroines who, like Kong, may die onscreen but are made immortal to those who watch them die.