Review-King Kong

[martok2112]

FILM: KING KONG
DISTRIBUTOR: UNIVERSAL
DIRECTOR: PETER JACKSON
PRINCIPAL CAST: Jack Black, Naomi Watts
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images.
RUNTIME: 3hrs., 7min.

Story: 5/5
Acting: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Visuals: 4.5/5
Endorphin Factor: 3/5
Big Screen Experience: 5/5
Scoring system:
Average: 4.5/5

MOVIES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: Classic KING KONG, GODZILLA,

DETAILS: Well, I decided to go and see this to give the vaunted "King of All Directors" Peter Jackson another chance. This film was surprisingly good. That is NOT to say that I have suddenly become a Peter Jackson convert. I ain't gonna kiss his arse about this movie, and swear total fealty to his filmmaking prowess, and mere presence as a human being, but it was damn good, and I do applaud him for making a damn good film.

The story had a nice pace to it, and thankfully (unlike Fellowship of the Ring) it did not put me to sleep in 20 minutes. There were even a few good laughs in this film, all throughout.

The actors were perfectly cast. And I have to say that Naomi Watts (much like Charlize Theron) has this '30's silver screen beauty and charisma about her. She IS glamourous, without BEING glamourous.

Kong himself looked surprisingly good for a CGI puppet, but was still very much CGI.

This film was actually three or four in one. It was Jurassic Park II, Starship Troopers, and of course King Kong.
Nothing in this movie really blew me out of my seat though....although I did go "eewww" during one Kong Kombat sequence. LOL!


BOTTOM LINE: This was a good ride. Not a wild one like I'd hoped...but it was fun. Still have to say, my favorite film thus far this Holiday season is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
(Disclaimer: No monkeys were spanked during the production of this film...unless it was over Naomi Watts. )

[spcglider]

We saw it. I'm going to refer to it from now on as "King Corn".

My personal opinion is that it needs to be edited down to about 2h 15m.

Jackson spends SO much time lingering in shots that don't need to be lingered on. The film suffers greatly from his absolute adoration of the King Kong property.

And I hear there's going to be a super extended cut on DVD? Ugh. That must include footage of every cast member sleeping, eating and going to the bathroom because that's almost the only stuff he left out.

-G

[Eric Paddon]

I sat through it on the heels of seeing "Narnia" the same afternoon, and I think anyone who sees this movie should get an "I Survived" t-shirt for their trouble. I know I felt like one.

I don't dislike this movie the way I dislike Cameron's "Titanic" but it is ultimately nothing special and indeed has a seriously bloated running time. From my standpoint, the 1976 Kong is a better movie than this one (which means in short, don't even think of trying to make any comparison with the original 33 version).

The FX scenes go on and on and on and on and on and on, and solely so FX artists can pat themselves on the back and say, "Look what we did!" The bit with the dinosaurs is so long that it got to a point where I didn't think they should call the movie "King Kong" any longer.

And even as the film has a bloated length it has a much more muddled plotline compared to the original. I didn't like the changes that were made such as (1) Denham not knowing about Kong or searching for Kong at the beginning (2) Skull Island's lack of a beach and there zombie like natives (3) or Denham being alive at the end to implausibly utter a line that in the context of this script "Beauty killed the beast" makes no sense unlike the original.

The whole Ann-Driscoll romance was underdeveloped so that at the end when they're embracing on top of the ESB it rings false. Jack Black was awful as Denham. I really wasn't impressed by Naomi Watts either or the way the whole Kong-Ann thing was done, which ulitmately seemed more like buddy type bonding of the kind that you do in movie like "MIghty Joe Young" and not in Kong. And finally, I didn't care for the look of Kong, who slouched over and smaller in size looked more like a Mighty Joe Young than the Kong I'm familiar with.

This movie is the kind that bloats to a three hour running time for all the wrong reasons. If you're a movie like "Ben Hur" where there is outstanding acting, script etc. in addition to a few scenes of great FX then the three hour time is justified. But when endless FX makes the film three hours then you're engaging in bad filmmaking by my definition.

[Dawg]

Mrs. Dawg, her sister, and I went yesterday afternoon. It did not feel like a three hour movie until we tried to stand up afterwards.

It gets a provisional three thumbs up.

It was not the wild ride we'd hoped for, either. The early pacing lagged (although I enjoyed the little in-joke, "Faye's doing a picture for RKO"), but it started to get interesting once they were on the ship - but even those scenes felt extended.

It wasn't until the end, and we discovered that we'd been sitting in the theater for more than three hours, that I realized that the movie had held my attention the whole time. This sets a little bell off in my head that suggests that this really was a better movie than my impression of the first hour promised.

I liked the dinosaur scenes. There was a lot of humor built into them, and they shifted just at the point they started to bore me.

Another plus: you really got into most of the characters - Driscoll and Ann particularly. They didn't need a lot of dialogue - or even scenes opposite each other - to get the point across.

Downside - the dinosaur scenes really were too long. It became painfully obvious that it was CGI no matter how much you were into the story, or how funny you found the action. They could have cut it in half and made it more compelling. Yes, I liked them, but...

Another downside: Jack Black. There were maybe two moments in the whole movie where I believed him as the character. Based on this film, I don't know what people see in the guy.

One last downside: far, far too accurate with a Thompson submachine gun.

Saving Grace: Naomi Watts. You knew she really was crying over Kong at the end. Martok's dead-on right about her performance. She won't get the Oscar, but she deserves a nomination, I think, even if the movie doesn't.

Another Saving Grace: Kong. Yes, there were moments it was obvious he was CGI, but he was never the cartoon the Hulk was. Just as they nailed Gollum in the LOTR movies, they nailed Kong.

And no wonder - they used the same motion-capture techniques. I saw an interview with an expert on gorillas (and Kong was a silverback gorilla) and he said that they had the minutiae of gorilla behavior dead-on. That makes Kong believable, unlike the earlier versions of the great ape. Kudos to the actor (whose name escapes me, but he was Gollum, too), as he spent a few months in deep study of gorilla behavior in preparation for this movie.

My overall rating: 4 of 5 stars. Worth seeing once in the theater. DVD - only if you have one of those great big panel TVs.

I am
Dawg

[BST]

Originally Posted by Dawg

"Kudos to the actor (whose name escapes me, but he was Gollum, too),...."

Andy Serkis

[Dawg]

Originally Posted by BST

Andy Serkis

That would be him.

Thanks, BST.



I am
Dawg

[Redeyes]

I went to see Kong only because my wife wanted to go. I have to say that I enjoyed it, maybe a 3 out of 5. My wife though really loves the story (something I don't share with her) and thought the movie was a 5 of 5. I thought they had the dinosaurs down pat, Kong was great, being a gorilla fan I think they did a great job of making him as realistic as a 25 foot gorilla could be.

- I agree with the 2:15 length it should have been, it was obvious that Jackson made the movie for my wife, not me. Someone who always wanted to see the movie come alive the way they always imagined it. (Sort of like the first trek movie for me, if they had stopped to pan the Enterprise another time I would have been in heaven, my wife would have fallen asleep.)
- The casting was great, except for Black. His lack of depth was never more apparent than the last line of the movie.

The day after I saw it they showed the Jessica Lange version on TV. I'm glad Jackson made this movie, just so that waste of film isn't the last version of the movie.