If The Lovely Bones was the first example of something overly faithful with depthless visuals, then King Kong is the film where Jackson showed his ability to bloat a source material for no conceivable narrative point. The original, 1933 King Kong was a very of its time creature feature, building a simple narrative around a technical showcase. In a way Jacksons was an unintentional 21st version of that, highlighting the overblown nature of blockbusters with unnecessary characters and plot points built around a showcase of the current state of special effects. Unfortunately, whereas the 1933 version moved briskly and kept you interested between action sequences, Jacksons remake was a drag, taking the entire run time of the original to get to the titular ape. Theres reference aplenty for film fans to uncover, but the fight scenes fail to wow as intended. What the film shows is how a love of the source can have a harmful effect; Kong was a childhood favourite of Jacksons and its likely he found himself unable to cut anything from his homage, prioritising love of the source material over a sensible narrative. It marks the moment in his career that he became a director who is unstable under his own reputation; as with Lucas, Cameron and Burton, he was now too large for those below him to question his decisions.