I finally got to see Peter Jackson’s King Kong. I’ve been reading his production diary and I also saw the trailer but nothing can prepare me for “the eight wonder of the world.”
Although the new King Kong is identical in size to the original (20 feet = 6-7 meters), it’s still a lot larger than life. As such it calls for a director that’s larger than life. Although Peter Jackson lost some 80 pounds during the production and post-production of King Kong, he remains a larger than life director.
Re-making King Kong has been Jackson’s childhood dream. As far as Chinese proverbs go, making your dream come true is a misfortune on a gigantic scale. Fortunately, the Chinese are not always right. Although King Kong is probably not on par with the LotR trilogy, it’s still an excellent movie. It takes the best from King Kong’s 1933 and 1976 versions and adds a ton of special effects.
Most of you are familiar with the story - the one that beauty killed the Beast. The scenes between Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and King Kong definitely stand out. Jackson has poured enormous resources into making King Kong look alive … more so than any of the previous versions. Compared to Kong, some of the other actors seem a bit lacking.
The filmmaker, Carl Denham (Jack Black), hires a ship to Skull Island. He manages to get his stars - Ann Darrow and Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) on board. His screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) joins them too although he gets to share his quarters with the exotic animals that the captain (Thomas Kretschmann) transports to the new world.
When they finally reach Skull Island and we get to meet King Kong, it’s been a record 70 minutes of setting up characters. King Kong’s first act could have been a feature-long piece by itself, if it had any kind of development. Unfortunately, it stays at the introduction level.
Speaking of unnecessary sequences, there were three other sequences that I had problems with - the Brontosaurus chase, the T-rex fight, and the insect fight. All of you 3D fans will probably kill me now as these are ALL the CGI sequences in the movie. You forgot one thing - Kong was superb and he’s 3D but totally believable. As are some of the “scapes” - I loved them.
Back to the 3 sequences though (SPOILERS). The brontosaurus chase was totally wrong - there’s no redeming factor here. Suspense of disbelief or not, you cannot have a party of 10 run under the Brontosauruses’ bellies and not get stomped.
The insect sequence had the same credibility issue although only for a moment - when Jamie Bell saved Jack from the insects by shooting at him with a Tommy gun. Compared to the previous two, the T-rex fight had the right balance of CGI vs. credibility. The only wince that I had was when they were all falling down and got stuck in some vines.
All things considered, King Kong is a movie extravaganza and I don’t see a lot of people who would be disappointed leaving the theater. It’s a must see on the big screen. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of action fans go for the King Kong DVD (extended edition) to see more of the CGI stuff. Not me though. I’ll be waiting for a shorter version.
I left this KING KONG remake very disappointed. It was a bloated mess.
Also, the ending of Jackson’s KING KONG is a big stinking lie. It wasn’t “Beauty killed the Beast” in this version. It’s the director Carl Denham - a metaphor for the director of KING KONG if there ever was one - who, against the forceful protests of the heroine, captured Kong and brought him to New York. And yet he says “It was Beauty killed the Beast” and we’re supposed to believe it. I didn’t.
Hi A.R.Yngve,
Yours is an interesting take … It was the director and the ship captain who tried to profit from King Kong but I think it was beauty who killed him. Two reasons:
1) They lured him by using Ann as bait and then captured him
2) He climbed on the Empire State building and challenged the “civilized” world at least in part because of Ann
The second one is open to interpretation but the first one seems pretty solid to me. It was Ann’s beauty that called him and answering the call resulted in his loss of innocence and ultimately in his death.
I had heard rave reviews about this movie before seeing it. However I was slightly untrusting as these were the same people who had raved about the most recent Star Wars Trilogy…
Thank goodness they were right about this one.
Unlike other blockbusters (which I almost always find disappointing), this one delivered on all counts.
The CGI was tasteful and not over the top, the characters were excellently cast (i.e. they could have selected a younger girl like Keira Knightley to play the role of Anne, but opted for someone older and more elegant), and the script was well written - except the final line (see my comments below).
But the character who stole the show was definitely King Kong himself.. I don’t think I’ve shed a tear for an animated character since I saw E.T. ! Whether he was roaring and beating his chest, or looking down on Anne with emotionally charged eyes, I had no problem suspending my disbelief and imagining that this was the gorilla of my dreams…
My take on the final line “Beauty killed the beast” is that it sucked. I don’t think either of reasons the administrator warrant making this line the closing line of the movie…
But overall, 2 thumbs up.
Thanks for the comment, rollergirl!
I think it’s important to note that “Beauty killed the Beast” comes from Carl Denham (Jack Black) character who’s the villain. I don’t expect him to say: “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, it was I who killed him, dragging him here and profiting off him…”
That line didn’t bother me at all compared to all the mindless self-indulgence in the CGI department. Overall, the dialog was OK.