Page 1 of King Kong (my review)

Although I expect to receive legal representations from both Rik Booth and 555 ;) , this is my review.

I went into King Kong on the back of watching the 1933 original with very high hopes of seeing a brilliant updating of the classic story by one of the best film makers around. What I found amounted to a Jackson ego trip as he now has the power and finances to make a film as long as he wants it to be and with as many 'creatures' as he wants in it; if this means a running time of over 3 hours and a film that goes way over budget, so be it as Jackson paid the excess budget and no studio can now 'boss' him around when it comes to running times. All this is a shame as KK starts off brightly enough with a wonderful set of scenes establishing the depression-era setting but, once the film moves to Skull Island and Jackson's Weta computers begin their work, the film largely grinds to a halt as the story takes a back seat to about an hour of FX laden baggage.

The best parts of the film are those between Naomi Watts and Andy Serkis' Kong, with the weakest being the huge dinosaur scenes which are even less visually impressive than 1993's Jurassic Park.

When the film was good, it was very good but, when Jackson's ego took over, it was very stodgy and needed a firm editor to tell him when to stop and remove the best part of an hour from the running time. The 1933 KK is a masterpiece but this version undoubtedly suffers because it is nearly twice the length, taking three hours to do what Cooper and Schroedstack did in 100 minutes.

Overall, a big let-down but an amazing visual experience. 3/5



My Top 20 Horror Movies ---- My DVD Collection
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th December 2005, 17:44

Saw it today as well...pretty much agree with the above. I did like the middle part of the movie on the island but there are a few bits in particular that just scream of CGI for CGI`s sake.

Overall, a great movie that is a must see at the cinema film.

Wossname, I missed the first few mins of the film (as the cashier gave me the wrong time) and came in as Jack Black was running to the Taxi.....how much did I miss? What happened up to that point?

Thanks in advance.


why take life so seriously..its not like you are going to make it out alive

He was running for the taxi because (using the `glass to the wall` trick) he found out that the studio execs had a very low opinion of him, were about to tell him that they wouldn`t fund his project any longer and that all existing footage (the reels that Colin Hanks had) would be sold to Universal for use as stock footage. It followed a piece where Denham was trying to justify his huge budget and was asking for more money and then yelled at one of the execs when he asked for `boobies` because that`s what the audience wants to see.

It wasn`t a lot but did explain why Denham was in such a rush to leave dry land.


My Top 20 Horror Movies ---- My DVD Collection
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Cool - so only about 5 minutes then??? Thought I may have missed 15 minutes as running time is supposed to be 3hrs 8mins and I saw from 11.25am to 2.15pm!
Maybe that includes the full credits etc.

Cheers



why take life so seriously..its not like you are going to make it out alive

I just remembered there were a few scenes of background characterisation of Ann Darrow: she is seen performing in Vaudeville (an act she would later reprise for Kong), the theatre being closed and her being taken to dinner (the soup kitchen) by the owner. I think this happened before you came in, but I can`t be sure as it happened a long time ago!


My Top 20 Horror Movies ---- My DVD Collection
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th December 2005, 20:45

Just seen it myself and it was brilliant. Defiantly should be seen at the cinema by all. I know what you mean about very cgi bits, there were a few made me cringe but over all it was awesome, especially the V-rex fight.

I thought the film was meant to be 3h8m aswell but i think it clocked in at around 2h50-55. Could this be because of the whole PAL/NTSC thing?

Regards
Bryan

From what I`ve seen with regards to trailers and snippets here and there I think the CGI in this film looks really really awful! Some of the bits look like `Toy Story`! Stuff that!!!! >:(

i will say that i did have to watch this with a locusts' swarm of the most nauseating posh-toff adolescents in the history of the universe. word of warning, if you ever get thursday off, on the 15th of december, never, i repeat, never, go to hammersmith cineworld to see `king kong` or any derivation thereof. i suspect my greatest disappointment of this film is that kong himself did not reach into the audience, grab a few of them by their loosely draped ties, stylishly dishevelled hair or well-fed throats and peel their ribs from their chests as his teeth gradually scraped their smug, caviar, roast-suckled partridge eggs and lime-grass soaked bone-marrow into his rumbling stomach-lining. pricks.

anyway, it`s a pretty pitiful show all round really: we sternly endure an eternity of getting-to-know-you-s*** as the Venture casually circumnavigates the globe (presumably in real time). when the beasties are finally unleashed, the film has the relentless bravura of a spielberg/zemeckis/cameron and, i don`t think i`m alone here, kong ripping open a dinosaur`s faces and stamping on the ruined carcass never, ever gets old. ever.

sadly, the grimly gratuitous, beast on beast action doesn`t last, and we`re forced to endure yet another strained james newton howard romantic sting, and the 4-hundredth longing glance of naomi watts who, i swear to god, must have been having a stroke throughout the shooting, given how many times she turns her head to give her peripheral vision a scant view of an incoming, slathering, toothsome monster gob.

it should also be said that this is the crappest screenplay ever conceived: not only does it contain at least half a dozen ludicrously clumsy plot developments, purely in order to string out another action scene, it features quite the most sinfully awful dialogue i`ve ever heard in a wannabe blockbuster. every time jamie bell opened his mouth i wanted to strangle myself with a scart lead and throw myself into a chasm.

and so it rattles unconvincingly to its conclusion. incidentally, we can only assume watts sustained a severe head injury, concussed within kong`s knuckles as he bumbles along, as she otherwise inexplicably exudes startling empathy for the sociopathic hair-ball whose lightest expressions of levity still look like a fist wrapped in guts. but anyway, she and he go darting up the empire state in a futile bid to escape bi-plane-induced fate, but kong still meets the same grisly, predetermined end. i`m sorry, but i didn`t buy this when i was 7, and i definitely don`t now: he`s a giant ape for f***`s sake, p***ing bullets at him is like firing bat-s*** at a radiator.

but still he falls, in the film`s only truly virtuoso shot: a slow-mo, god`s-eye-view twirl so awesomely fake and hallucinogenic that it makes your head spin. we never get to see him go splat, but what we do get is at least seventeen times worse: jack black, in a take so terrible, I can only think of mr. burns in el spielbergo`s version of his life story, the one of him falling of the horse and being dragged around was the best one: "it was beauty that killed the beast", he flatly offers us, without the faintest trace of irony. in an age of mindless pixel-preening and digital f***ery-foo it`s meant to sound like a nostalgic hark to simpler, preachier emotional resolutions. the kind that said, "hey it's the depression, but we still need to teach you proles a lesson or too… you drab, poor, sewer-water lapping little s***s." sadly it just makes you so embarrassed you want to stab yourself in the eye with a shard of broken popcorn.

horribly, stupidly inept. intermittently maniacally amusing (seriously, ripping open a t-rex's mouth… still not old) but mostly just self-indulgent, empty destructo-decadence. for a film that claims to have a weeping heart of empathic gold, it`s as empty as a cave on the moon.

--Mike

You liked it, then? :B

J Mark Oates

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Bit harsh for my liking that Mike, but each to their own an all that :)

At first the "Beauty killed the beast" because i assumed he meant Ann Darrow. Kong Grabs her and takes her up the Empire State to sit and view the sunset/sunrise as they had done together on Skull Island, putting himself in the firing line of the planes. Effectivly beauty does kill the beast.

Regards
Bryan