*NO SPOILERS*

Narnia seems like a half-hearted effort next to something as ambitious as Jackson's Kong, it really is in a different league to most films. There were a few scenes I thought should be cut at the time they appeared on-screen but most became important later on in the film which either means I was too hasty or else the intended effect was brought about too sloppily. Other than the film dragging a tad when the ship first reaches the island until the first attack by the natives (which isn't too big a chunk of the film's timeline), and other than the (in my opinion) underwhelming and not all that thrilling pit sequence there was very little to gripe about.

The action was fine in my eyes, the acting was great and I didn't think Black was miscast at all. No need to praise the CG, I think everyone will agree as the critics have that Kong is an amazing achievement in visual effects - and not just in appearing realistic as a giant ape, but in the capturing of Serkis' acting which is what really convinces you he's as real as any other character. Where this film deserves its credit the most is its treatment of the relationship between Kong and Anne; Jackson delivers the right scenes at the right moments, in particular in the final act in New York with a brief but stunning sequence cutting between Kong on display and Anne at the De Luxe theatre standing out for me.

The fact of the matter is, for all its minor flaws, King Kong is a success because its emotional core which drives the film is executed to perfection and because both the patient set-up of the first hour and (in particular) the final act are superb, and I don't believe that any of the things I had a problem are even worth considering when deciding to see the film because there is so much here done so much better than most filmmakers could even dream about and when it works, which is *almost* always, its brilliant. In my opinion, the overall success of the film outweighs any of its flaws.

A. Not perfect in every way, but I can't say that this doesn't belong in the top echelon of films I've seen and the 13% of critics who didn't like it can go fuck themselves.

Posted from awhile back:


I'm gonna give this a brief review since I've had lack of sleep from working last night and seeing this earlier today.. I'll get right to it: KING KONG borders between a Good movie with some average being thrown in that takes it down a notch.. The GOOD: The emotion between Naomi Watts and the title charcater himself, particularly 1 scene that YES, did bring a tear to my eye invloving the 2 in Central Park on the Ice.. It was very very touching and watching this scene, you knew the inevitable fate this animal was about to experience and that was sad.. 1 thing Peter Jackson did well in this film was bring emotion to the forefront, but also what I didn't care for was that he made KONG almost TOO soft and not enough aggression shown like in the previous 76 film and 1933 Classic.. I thought Adrian Brody did a fine job, but he could've been used alot more than the mediocre Jack Black and Naomi Watts was alright as well which brings me to:

The BAD: Jack Black.. I've said since day 1 that casting this guy in this film was a big BIG Mistake and it was.. Now I understand what Jackson meant at the beginning of shooting this movie abut telling Black to Quote: "Relax the Eyes".. They guy clearly looks wired and every time he tried to act dramatic, it always came out humerous and this movie to me shouldn't of had any humor given the subject matter.. Also, much has been made out of the Dinosaur, specifically, the Brontosaurus stampede and honestly, it wasn't that big a deal and looked like a cross between the 3rd Jurassic Park and Yes, The Land Before Time in terms of it looking too photoshopped or crisp because of the Digital Filmmaking involved.. For the record, Spielberg has nothing to worry about WETA outdoing his 1st Jurassic Park which is still hands down the BEST even after 13 years.. Also, the giant bugs, the giant lizards or gecko's they sort of looked like were Ok, but all of this went by so fast that you just didn't get ENOUGH of this action on the Island once you reached there an hor and a few minutes after the start of the movie.. The T-Rex 3 way battle was good, but again, NOT ENOUGH..

To conclude for now until I get some sleep, this was a good movie, but could've been much MUCH better and the 3 hour running time definitely felt like 3 hours and dragged on a little too much until toward the end.. The KONG FX Looked good, but then again, it seemed like Jackson went too much for the realism effect in this movie having him run on all 4's instead of how he was in the other 2 movies and perhaps, maybe it's because I grew up with it that way, but I prefer Rick Baker's KONG over this one..

Overall, for now, I will touch on more of this movie later, but my grade is: C+


UPDATED: A "C+" STILL means the movie was GOOD in case the "PJ can do no wrong" camp says otherwise and heaven forbid if someone should have a beef with aspects of this movie and not gush over it, but at LEAST this is an honest review considering I said this would SUCK months ago before it came out and the grade I gave it after I saw it.. Can't say the same for Nazgul or Raziel and their highly ptredictable "A" Reviews that I knew they'd post..

A

Best Movie of the Year. Watts deserves a Best Actress nod and the movie should win Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects and Best Editing.

MODERATORS PLEASE!

Strike this review! null and void! he has not seen it


PLEASE!

A


Having just delivered a long The Family Stne review I am simply too tired to write my full one right now, so I will leave you with my brief thoughts.

Until I have rewatched Batman Begins at least this will remain my favorite movie of the year. I can't believe that Prter Jackson pulled it off again, but it was obvious during the movie that it was exactly his love and his passion for the project that made it so good. I remember thinking that making this movie 3+ hours long was pretentious, but I was wrong. The running time fit the story just well and it really never drags. It could have been done a bit shorter, I suppose, but I am happy about the way it ended up. The great editing obviously helped too.

Naomi Watts is the only real stand-out of the cast and deserves an Oscar nomination for her role. She brings a lot of emotion into the movie and conveys and good-heartedness and naivety of Ann Darrow very well. It is not one of her best performances ever, but she is really good.

The movie itself is probably the most perfect combination of a heartfelt drama and an adventure creature-feature I have ever seen. It succeeds on both levels. Emotionally, it is not quite Titanic and I didn't really tear up towards the end, but it did get to me and I did feel somewhat sad. Naomi Watts and Serkis' work on Kong made it happen. As an adventure action flick it is simply pitch-perfect. I have rarely ever been so stunned at a theatre and two particular scenes had me whsipering "wow". One of them is the brontosaurus stampede and the other one is King Kong taking on three T-Rex's. The scenss are simply...awe-inspiring. The special effects work on the movie is not entirely flawless. You notice the CGI at some background shots and sometimes you notice the green screen seams, but for the movie as a whole, these are just very minor scenes and overall the visual effects are by far and away the best of all year. King Kong himself is flawlessly animated and his rampage through NYC is amazing.

The art direction is equally great as Skull Island is an impressive piece of work and above that Jackson re-created the entire NYC of the Depression Era. Cinematography is amazing for the most part, but I was not a bio fan of certain flashy, slo-mo shots in the first hour of the movie. You'll notice what I mean.

Those are pretty much my only complaints. The movie never drags, has a great prtion of heart, some nice humor, amazing action and splendid visuals. Go, see, rejoice!

Why?? Why should they remove it?? Because I had negative aspects of the movie in my review I didn't care for and this thread should be nothing more than Gushing Fanboy Praise for this movie like your review will be as well as Raziel and Nazgul's were??? I've seen it, YOU HAVEN'T DOPE!!! I look forward to your "A+" Review when you've seen it..

Watts is good, but let's be honest here for a moment: You could take any actress with Blond hair and big breasts, give her a script to this to read, tell her to look terrified and scream ALOT and they'd pull it off as successfully as Watts did and because of that, I don't feel she should be nominated for BEST ACTRESS because of this aspect.. The Visuals of this movie(even mediocre at times and improvable) were the stars of this movie, KONG included, not the Cast..

Because you're an idiot.


.

Well Jessica Lange couldnt do it, so your argument holds no weight.

Amazing stuff. Kong deserves a bloody oscar for this. This movie was teh shit.

A/A+

I forgot to mention the Spider Pit scene. So much great creature design there!

*Gasp* Baba loved it too!! Man, this has got to be a great film. I can't wait. I can't even see it until the weekend because of exams.

PEACE, Mike.

Great stuff. Probably better than LotR for me.

Jessica Lange was nominated for a GOLDEN GLOBE for that movie, so your argument holds no weight..

For FX?? Yeah, maybe even if some of it was rushed and looked to animated like the Brontosaurus stampede for as much as what was made out of it and looked no better than a retread of Jurassic Park III.. BEST PICTURE?? Forget it.. That goes to WALK THE LINE..

nope .. best actor .. find acting from a CGI character ... much better than half the shit i see from real ones. anyone who thought kong, the character itself was shit in any way deserves a slap.

Sure, there's plenty of name-calling at WOKJ, but I think the line should be drawn at the point of physical violence for not having the "correct" opinion...

deserves bradley ... nothing more

but sigh ... okay fine ... a tickle. you prefer that?

Oh great! Now it's sexual assault...

a big HMPH?

best scene in the movie.

Central Park.

Did Kong go to the roof of the MET too?

got hammered. they didn't let him bring any luggage either.

What an utterly dissapointing, useless, worthless film. Absolute tripe from beginning to end. Sure, the CGI was fantastic, but it was so overused it was just an exercise in patience. The story moved far to slow and the film desperately needed a better editor. Jackson tried to adapt a darker, more serious King Kong, but it just doesn't work. As an audence we are asked to believe the emotional content he instills in Kong, while at the same time ignoring the utter implausabilities of the plot. Sadly, Jackson just asks too much and the film simply is mediocre.

A decent film, great CGI and fantastic peformances by Watts and Brody can't save the film from being a pointless, useless remake. It will go down as ambitious, but misguided, just like Jackson.

C

(full review coming soon...