[Cory S.]

Quick, show of hands; which is the minority bunch with regards to this film because I'd like to join?

In all seriousness, I'm not even going to rain on anyone's parade who loved this film. I wanted to love what Jackson put on the screen but I had major problems with it. And maybe one of my problems with the films stands with the story itself. I just never really got KONG. I don't understand the love for the story and character.

Be that as it may, I went into the film hoping to gain some appreciatation for KONG the character and KONG the story and Jackson's execution didn't win me over one bit. Maybe moments, but definitely not the whole.

Because this is Jackson's passion project, I'd give it 2.5 stars but if I'm honest with myself, I'd really give this one star.

KONG the character might be the best Visual Effect in this year but KONG the film does not have the best Visual Effects this year. Not even remotely close.

Again, just my impression on the film Jackson delivered.

[Paul_Scott]

as much as i disliked many parts of the film, i would not talk anyone out of seeing this on as big a screen as possible.
just the opposite. i've loved the same material that jackson has, and i would love to discuss it pro and con with as many people as possible. i'm disappointed that this thread isn't already on a seventh or eight page already...what's the hold up people?

looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it Chris when you finally get to see it.

[Chris Atkins]

Quote:

looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it Chris when you finally get to see it.

Looking forward to sharing them. I have to see POTTER and NARNIA first though. Probably seeing NARNIA on Saturday night.

KONG will probably get a viewing in between Christmas and New Years.

[Kyle_D]

Quote:

i'm disappointed that this thread isn't already on a seventh or eight page already...what's the hold up people?

College finals...

Hopefully I'll get to this tonight.

[Cory S.]

Is it more or did Jack Black look like a short Orson Welles in the film?

[Paul_Scott]

i think the Welles implications are either non existent or else entirely superficial(phyisically, yeah there is a slight resemblence of Welles i guess). But i never once got the impression, as other reviewers had apparently, that Black & Jacksons Denham was an artistic rebel or genius (which is what a Wells reference would imply to me).
he was a hustler, whose filmmaking compulsion/values were more in line with Ed Wood than Orson Welles.

more problems for me-

apart from Kong, the animal behaviour in this movie is really pretty poorly thought out or just flat out contrived.
why would a V-Rex, with his mouth full of fresh kill he hasn't even fully consumed yet, be motivated to chase after an insignificant little speck like Ann? why would the bats who have evidently co-existed so long with Kong suddenly attack him for no other reason than the script needs Kong to be diverted at that point?
why does Ann feel more sympathy for Kong than for the ships crew who she was dancing and partying with just days before?

also, i saw a comment from someone elsewhere that i wholeheartedly agree with- this film is Kong in structure and Mighty Joe Young in character.

[Cory S.]

The animal behavior did bother me alot in the film. As much as Jurassic Park and Kong are two totally different films in technically two different genres, from my perspective, it would've been nice to see the animal behavior be more like it was in Jurassic. That film went along way to correct the mistakes of how dinosaurs were represented. And considering that Jurassic is probably "THE DINOSAUR FILM", it just seems that you can't go back to having dinosaurs being represented as monsters.

Now, Kong is a monster, fantasy film and I'm probably nitpicking way, way too much. I should look at it as such, but once you see Spielberg's take on dinosaurs, you can't come back from that.

Rambling. I'm sorry.

The Welles/Black comparison I made was only about appearance.

[Tim Glover]

Took in a late viewing last night. I just read Jeff Meyers review and thought most of his remarks were spot on.

I liked alot of it. Kong himself was incredible. The way he breathed and the expressions in his eyes were hypnotic.

I loved EVERY moment Kong was on screen. In fact, Kong was so good that the other moments just couldn't match them. Maybe that explains the film's uneven feel to it at times?

Like Jeff said, the CGI stuff on the stampede was not good. In fact, my buddy and I leaned over to each other at the same time and said, "the dinos looked better on Jurassic Park". It was too much at that moment too.

The T-Rex battle with Kong was stunning though. Almost felt like an Indiana Jones moment from Temple of Doom when the situation just kept getting worse and worse. The audience gasped and even laughed some...not because it was bad...they laughed a bit to get some kind of escape from that moment of hell for Kong and Naomi. True greatness and and will be a great dvd demo.

The Empire State Building stuff was tragically beautiful. Those moments put Peter Jackson at his best. It's those moments that he lives for and he pulls that moment off in spades.

Other misses is the films length. Like many here have said, not sure where to cut...but it was too long. A tighter movie would have made Kong a great film instead of a very good one for me.

Black was very good. I did think his last line of dialouge (also the film's last) fell a bit flat for me.

Anyone notice Howard Shore conducting the orchestra in the film? Cool.

This one is hard to score because the beauty of Kong himself nearly forgives all.

My gut feeling is that the box office expectations will fall short for Kong. I think it will be big but don't think it will have the box office power it could have.

[Haggai]

Yeah, if they had cut that first hour or so into a more manageable length, the box office numbers would be better. Some movie journalists have made that observation as well, Tim.

[Kami]

Quote:

I wonder if Peter Jackson shot that scene
specifically for the trailer as if not to
give too much else away.

I read about that scene on the beach. It wasn't filmed for the trailer, it was just cut. The original cut of the film was about 4 hours but it was trimmed down to 3 hours. I think he just wanted to keep his options open...I don't know if that would make it into an extended DVD or not.

There should be more action and battles that were cut though...PJ mentioned some big ones were cut involving Kong.

I'd expect the extended DVD to be like FOTR and add about 30 minutes, but mostly on Skull Island.


BTW guys, this is a fantasy film. You can't really complain about how the Dinosaurs behaved then ignore the fact that there's a 25 foot gorilla leaping across giant chasms Skull Island is a mean place with 500 pound bugs and T-Rexes (actually they are V-Rexes, maybe PJs way of saying I'm not trying to show actual, boring animal behavior here) that kill for sport. Sure a real T-Rex would probably run away after getting slugged in the face a few times by Kong, but how does that make a fun Action/Adventure movie? This isn't "Walking with Dinosaurs"

[Cory S.]

And that's why I let that go, Kami. It is a fantasy film. I should look at it that way. So with that aside, there are still problems with the film.