The current movie's genius is not in its special effects (although they're spectacular), it's in its script—most notably the extremely clever way it parodies the 1933 original. The new version subtly shows that the original's horrendous dialog was caused by an egotistical actor clumsily adlibbing instead of following the well-written script. According to the new version it's not this vain and cowardly actor—a mere handsome face— who saves the girl but the brave and nerdy writer. Of course, the actor gets all the credit for the rescue, but the nerdy writer gets the talented, beautiful, heart-of-gold girl. The new version is full of such clever twists.

According to the movie, King Kong is a normal male gorilla scaled up by a factor of 4.4. While such a scale up factor is quite high, nature provides some examples which suggest it's at least conceivable. Great Danes, for example, are at least 4 times the scale of Chihuahuas showing that a general design can work over a range of sizes. Large Dinosaurs were far different in design but similar in size to King Kong, indicating that a Kong-sized land dweller is, at least,  possible.

On the other hand, Kong's muscle-strength to weight ratio would be about a fourth that of a gorilla, so Kong's leaping and climbing ability would be far less than depicted in the movie. If he fell down, he'd be far more likely to be injured than a normal-sized gorilla. As for his ability to fight a tyrannosaurus, he'd be in trouble. The dinosaur would be fully optimized for his size and primary function: tearing huge chunks of meat out of giant critters. At best, Kong would be larger than optimum-sized for his design: that of a peaceful plant muncher. Fight three of the dinosaur monsters at once? Even if Kong won, he'd be a chewed-up bloody mess.

The movie repeatedly overdoes action scenes. In the original, Kong shook a number of men off a gigantic log bridging a chasm. They fell, hit bottom, and, for the most part, died. In the new version most survive the impact only to fall victim to a tediously long attack of oversized worms and insects. At one point, young Jimmy (Jamie Bell) who has no previous training with firearms blasts oversized insects off writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) with bursts from a Thomson submachine gun. Chambered for .45 cal, these weapons were notoriously hard to keep on target, yet Driscoll receives not so much as a scratch from all the gunfire.

After years of living the wild life in complete freedom, Kong ends up in New York City, chained to a regular job paying bananas. He breaks his bonds, puts his boss out of business, and storms out of the establishment seeking his true love (what a guy). In one night he picks up and discards a virtual barrel full of blonds. Normally, nothing could be more fun, but Kong has had it. He wants his one true love. She alone makes him laugh. Suddenly she appears, scantily clad walking toward him on the frozen snow covered streets of New York in the dead of night. It's enough to send shivers down one's spine but apparently not enough to make the girl cold.

What follows is a tediously long cutesy scene in Central Park where the scantily clad Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) slides around on a pond with King Kong whose weight, of course, does not so much as crack the pond's ice. Yeah, yeah, this is supposed to be romantic so that we feel all sad and whiney later when Kong is mercilessly cut down. But hey, the guy's a big ape. He's at his best when he's stomping and trashing.

As for the death scene, at an estimated weight of over 16 tons it's unlikely that King Kong could leap in the air, smack an aircraft, and land back atop the Empire State Building as depicted  without doing major structural damage both to the ape and the building. The gigantic ape was repeatedly raked with .30 cal machine guns fired from biplanes. Given the size of the beast , he would most likely have died slowly from blood loss, yet little blood was shown. When he fell, Kong's gravity to air resistance force ratio would be about 3 times that of a human sky diver. A human jumper  would hit the sidewalk at a terminal velocity of around 120 mph (193kph). Kong's terminal velocity would be about 3 times higher but he would never reach it. Even without air resistance the maximum velocity of a fall from the top of the Empire State Building would only be 193 mph (311 kph). Kong would hit the sidewalk with the explosive power of between 10 and 27 lbs of TNT. Ape parts and blood would be splattered all over.

Okay, we did feel sort of sad and whiney when Kong finally fell. After all, who hasn't occasionally felt like they were paid bananas and subsequently wanted to break their bonds and go ape? Who hasn't wanted to find that special someone, even if he or she was a little on the short side? To see the great fantasy wrecked on the sidewalk was emotional. Throw in a few dozen gallons of blood and it would have been too much. Could the movie have been made with even more restraint? Yes—at least cut the centipedes, please—and it might have been even better. But it's still an awesome fantasy even with some physics faux pas.