On the way back from King Kong tonight, amid our discussion of such matters as how the unique ecosystem of Skull Island came to be and what destroyed the seemingly advanced culture of the original inhabitants, the question was raised whether or not King Kong needed to be remade at all.

The answer, of course, is plainly no. The first movie is legendary, and enough of it is in the cultural zeitgeist that we've all seen it, even if we've never actually seen it (which I don't think I have, certainly not the whole thing in one sitting). The sense of rewatching is palpable, particularly during the iconic Empire State Building sequence at the movie's close. And a quick search on the Internet confirms just how much of the original film Peter Jackson kept word-for-word and shot-for-shot

But putting aside the remaking question, King Kong proves why Peter Jackson is the greatest nerd director of all time. (As if Lord of the Rings didn't settle that.) Besides simply being incredible fun, the movie accomplishes what it needs to to work as art: it makes us sympathize with Kong. It makes us root for him; tell me you aren't cheering for him, clinging to the side of the Empire State Building, trying to take out those planes. Kong is perfectly achieved. His facial expressions, his every move, the hairs on his arm, even the never-mentioned but telling scars on his body and face are exactly right, flawless. Kong out-acts everyone else in the movie by a long stretch.

Other people, smarter than me, have already said what needs to be said about the way all versions of King Kong sublimate our cultural anxiety about imperalism and racism. So instead I'll talk about Peter Jackson.

Peter Jackson is a great director, almost like the Platonic form of George Lucas. He loves his B-movies, but he doesn't allow that love to cheese up and ruin his films. He loves special effects, but he knows they're not the point. He knows what sort of movie his audience is there to see, but he never talks down to them or insults their intelligence. Two pictures in a row now he has taken projects I didn't think could ever live up to the hype and blown my doubts out of the water.

He isn't perfect: he's way too in love with the Skull Island idea, which takes way too long and overshadows the rest of the film. A small but significant number of the special effects fall flat because he makes CGI human bodies do things real human bodies can't possibly. There are more than a few obvious homages to Lord of the Rings itself, including one particular bit which so strongly echoes the Mines of Moria it becomes distracting. Jack Black is really funny as always and pretty good, but probably miscast simply because of his notoriety. Jackson doesn't get an especially good performance out of Naomi Watts, either, who is often doing things I don't understand the motivation for.

So Jackson isn't perfect. I mean, he cut out the Scouring of the Shire. But he is a hell of a lot of fun. He's that rare director who can really raise the stock of a film. Everything nerdy he touches turns to gold. If anyone else had done Kong, I probably would have rated for the rental. But he did do Kong, and so you shouldn't wait.