3. King Kong
Peter Jackson's remake of the Thirties' fantasy epic was further testament, after
The Lord of the Rings, to the unlimited potential that CGI had to create from the ground up, or merely augment, a given environment€”in this case, New York of the era, and the mysterious Skull Island, located somewhere in the vicinity of Indonesia. Astonishingly, every shot was composed on the Land of the Long White Cloud, mostly around the city of Wellington. While
Lord of the Rings proudly showcased the dramatic New Zealand landscape as a stand-in for Middle Earth,
Kong concealed it entirely, convincingly contorting time and space to create the hyper-real metropolis and tropical island evolution forgot. The real-world exteriors used, such as Wellington's Opera House, show once again how likely we are to be influenced by the information we're given on-screen; to conclude that a distinct piece of architecture, or landscaping, or public art is characteristic of a certain place, as opposed to belonging to the collection of things a filmmaker has accumulated to
create the sense of place. More than just a quality fantasy epic in its own right,
King Kong represents the state of the art in visual effects, and adds to Jackson's reputation as a visionary special effects pioneer. Given that his fascination with the potential of film to transport us to other locations developed in early childhood, it seems especially fitting that he was able to fashion such an epic in his own backyard.