King Kong (2005) (2 Viewers)

[Paul_Scott]

loved the subtle music cue when Denham and Preston are trying to think of who to get to fill the female lead in the car.

even though i honestly did come away disappointed and disengaged with it more than i ever expected, there were elements that were a lot of fun.
there isn't one instance that sticks out in my mind, where the inside jokes ever went over badly for me (going in, i was dreading all the wink wink nudge nudges).
most of the time i thought they were really inspired (the exhibition revue, the scene on the ship with Baxter and Ann recitiing verbatim dialogue).

was curiuosly underwhelmed by the dino mayhem though.
Chuck was spot on in his criticism over in the review thread re: the Bronto chase. the fact that it was so over the top (in that so many were able to stay alive underfoot for so long) seriously diminished my investment in all the characters at that point. and the addition of the raptor like creatures was just more than enough.
it was all just way way too much (and that is the kind of thing that strikes me as MTV generation overkill).
and then we get a rambunctious , dizzying t-rex fight that never really impressed me until the end when it came down to a simple, straight-forward one on one.

i would be very interested to see a Directors cut that shaves off about 40 minutes...including about 20 minutes of special effects footage. in fact i would probably be more interested in that than in an exteneded edition because this story just does not contain enough seperate, compelling threads to support an 'epic' length as it is.

 

[Vickie_M]

Johnny Angell, yes. Did anyone else catch the reference to Braindead? My husband and I seemed to be the only ones. At least, we were the only ones who laughed.

We got to the theater about 11pm and were worried that the line would be too long. There was no line. They were already letting people go into the theater, so we assumed there would already be lots of people in there. We were shocked to find only 4 people there. We fretted for another half-hour, but then people started to show up, and by the time the movie started, the place was full, with the front row occupied even! The reaction was great, everyone seemed to love it (though one guy behind us snored a couple of times), and it got big applause at the end.

Naturally, I loved it! There are so many details that I know I'll be seeing it a few more times in the theater. It really must be seen on a big screen. This is what the movies were made for. Just as with The Great Raid and Duma earlier this year, "they" DO still make "them" like "that."

Could it have been shorter? Maybe a theatrical version could have been shorter and this one have been the Extended version. Either way, I savored just about every minute of the movie. I would have made a couple of minor changes/suggestions had anyone been crazy enough to ask my insignificant opinion, but I'm glad I have the capacity to enjoy all the (looks around for a word...makes one up) cinematical gifts Peter Jackson has given to me.

 

[MikeRS]

Unjudging and endlessly faithful to Ann, yes. That's definitely the hook. That this primal masculine force of nature is opening himself to that kind of emotional expression and vulnerability due to his attraction to a very charismatic human female. I think alot of human males can relate to this scenario.

All masculine forces of nature have the capacity to get in touch with their feminine side

 

[Kami]

I left my short review in the review thread. In short I am in love with the movie.

One thing I forgot to mention in my review is the score. It wasn't very memorable. It serviced the movie just fine, and some of the Kong/Ann cues were very nice, but overall a bit disappointing. Can't lay too much blame on James Newton Howard, he was rushed.

It wasn't a BAD score, it just wasn't up to the same level as the rest of it. His work on Batman Begins was more memorable to me.

Anyone else think the sequence in the pit was kind of surreal? It was just a weird experience to me...must be because you are expecting a pounding score during a sequence like that, but it's not. It was very, very well done I thought. And WOW...what a death Serkis got!!

 

[Chuck Mayer]

The pit sequence is extremely creepy, icky, and flat out awesome. One of the highlights of the film.

Mike, I know. I think a lot of women will be attracted to this film for that very reason. Going further, to be wholeheartedly accepted for who you are is such a powerful, powerful motivation and desire. That's the crux of the relationship they share. When she ran away with Jack back to the boat, that was an emotional moment for me; when they finally capture Kong and he puts his hand out, I almost ached for her to get in. I was trying to will her to join in for the catharsis it would have brought *me* after that scene. Kong has such a deep well of loneliness and sorrow, it's literally impossible not to feel for him. And for Ann, to be able to trust and count on someone is the equivalent human (or beyond human) need.

I can't wait to see this film again,
Chuck

 

[Johnny Angell]

 

[Larry Sutliff]

One sequence that I just can't shake is the first encounter with the people of the island. Holy crap, that had to be one of the most chilling sequences ever filmed. The way the female witch doctor says exactly the words Noble Johnson uttered in the original, but with such wickedness and palpable hatred. That's one of the reasons I see this film as a very dark take on the seventy year old tale. The natives in the original film were savage, but redeemable. Those in the new film are like Jack Black's Carl Denham-they don't seem to have any real human feeling,and are seemingly beyond the pale of redemption.
This film is loaded with so much to mull over. I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

 

[dpippel]

My wife and I caught the third showing today. I'm afraid that my opinion of King Kong will be in the minority.

Peter Jackson's Kong was indeed a spectacle - too much of one. I loved the first 30 minutes of setup and if Jackson had kept this tone for the rest of the movie it would have been better for it. It was after the crew landed on Skull Island that my problems with the film began. All of the MTV-style quick-cut and slow-mo editing completely got on my nerves. Many of the big effects sequences (brontosaurus stampede and V-Rex fight) were TOO big. They were just WAY too over the top! Too much bam-bam-bam. Too many incredulous escapes and near-misses (a nervous crewman using a machine gun like a spray can to shoot giant insects off of Adrian Brody without hitting him once - please). Too many physical and practical impossibilites. Someone should have spoken up and suggested to Mr. Jackson that things be reined in a bit. Frankly I'm surprised that the director indulged in such an all-out orgy of CGI just for the sake of doing it. It makes me wonder if he's now in the same position as George Lucas - surrounded by yes-men who lack the courage to tell him anything other than exactly what he wants to hear. Most of the action on Skull Island looked to me like Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer doing King Kong. The scenes with Kong and Ann were, however, phenomenal. The New York sequences were much better, and once the story relocated there things improved. Even though I knew the tragic end waiting for Kong atop the Empire State Building, I still got choked up when it happened and Jackson pulled this off deftly. However, I also have to say that in my opinion both Jack Black and Adrian Brody were miscast. I didn't think that either of them worked particularly well in their roles.

Then of course there's Kong himself. He was nothing short of astonishing, and without a doubt the most fully and completely realized synthetic character I have ever seen up on the screen. A complete triumph. He was a *real* being with emotional weight and a complete and fully realized personality. If King Kong doesn't take home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects just for it's title character then the Academy is smoking something, ILM and ROTS be damned.

But in the end, Kong as a film was a disappointment for me. I expected more from less with Peter Jackson at the helm and he let me down. In my opinion his ode to the original 1933 story would have played much better as a haiku instead of a rave party with a mosh pit.

Two stars out of four.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i really doubt this film is going to do as well as many are predicting...
no where near Titanic, or even Sith for that matter.

at the first showing of this today (one of 4 screens) there were all of about 12 people in the theater- myself included.

and Doug, my reaction mirrors yours in just about every respect- although i didn't mind Black and Brody- but i was disappointed that their characters never really went any place. for instance, Denham didn't deserve to show up at the end and toss off the classic line...it made no sense from a logic stand point or a dramatic stand point. and his character definitely needed some on screen comeuppance- another area where i felt the 76 version got it right over this one.

 

[Phil Florian]

Doug, I doubt PJ is surrounded by yes-men. I know of at least two no-women...his two co-writers/producers. Hearing their commentary on the LOTR discs make it clear that they have at times had to reign in some of PJ's excesses. The fact that there were more than one dwarf-tossing joke weighed on these women but they have to give in from time to time. But if you look outside of the LOTR movies (which, lets face it, have plenty of excess on their own) PJ isn't known for restraint. He is known for an abundance of imagination, great character and actor work and excess. Look at his earlier movies for the excess. Look at his middle movies and beyond for his character/actor work and all of the movies for his imagination. This is just as over the top as Dead Alive or Bad Taste but now he has a bigger budget. This isn't the excess of a man gone too far...this the excess that has always been with the guy and now that he has gobs of money he can engage in it again.

This is strictly a taste thing and if someone is more intested in a more subtle and engaging version of Beauty and the Beast then there are plenty of those out there. But when I see Kong, I want Denham's version. I want the 8th Wonder of the World and rip-roaring roars and ripping (off of heads and stuff). This was a B-movie excess in A-list clothing, all gussied up for the rich neighbors but still a skanky yet down to earth movie at its core.

While I do wish for more payoff with some of the sailor's stories, one could look at them as not "loose ends" but just some shading and coloring so that they aren't merely faceless and nameless men who get eating by dinosaurs. Maybe a bit too far but I would rather have SOME relationship with a Red shirt than none at all.

But man, i would see this movie if it were merely a fairy tale set only in 1933 New York. That was one of the finer bits of environmental recreation that I have seen. Just as effective as his work on LOTR creating realistic fantasy cities I felt that this was a real NYC with all the grime, grit and hobos. I know it is cheaper to use cities that still have some architecture similar to old NYC (Cincinnati had some of this thus a spate of period movies shot there in the 80's and 90's) but I think a whole cloth recreation presented here felt more "real." Neat-o.

 

[mattCR]

I caught the showing yesterday, in a private screening. I've been waiting to say anything until anyone else voiced my opinion so I wouldn't be the lone person to say it: I really disliked the film. The film had some zing to it, and some good moments, but in whole, a lot of it reminded me too much of films like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (not in storyline or plot, etc. but in the way effects and elements were handled) in that things were done so quickly with such moves that I just felt completely unattached from the characters.

I normally judge a film in part by how many times I check my watch. During films like FOTR/TTT/ROTK I can't remember checking my watch. I kept looking down at my time piece frequently during the showing thinking "is there somewhere else I would rather be?"

While everyone in the office I was with could go, very few women chose to go "why would I see a monster film?" So, in the end, only one went. After we talked afterwards - and this is a group of people who paid nothing for the film - the general thought was "it was good" and at the same time "but I'd wait for DVD, it wasn't that good". Which was much how I felt. I guess I must be part of the generation that didn't care much for King Kong the first time around, and have no reverence for the storyline.

Jack Black came across often very poorly, and I felt as though some of his lines were delivered in such a way that while some people with us laughed, I don't think they were intended to be taken as comedy.

The film is far too long, and while it has good moments, I didn't consider the "fights in the jungle" to be part of it; at a certain point, all of the fighting and battles in the jungle just wore on to were I wanted to say "enough already, can we get back to whatever is going to happen instead of all this filler full of great effects?" Yes, the effects were great, but they were just filler, IMHO, and they didn't add anything to the story except to extend the movie out into a much longer running time.

I know this review will sound very negative, but don't take it quite that way; I thought the film was good. I'd probably give it a B- or 2 1/2 * out of 4. But is it a great film? I surely didn't think so. Naomi Watts is very good, though. But the guy who plays the scriptwriter? Boy, that role was miscast.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Just one quick question: The only thing I've NEVER been able to get over with PJ's filmmaking is his reliance on the shit slow-mo where he just doubles up frames. Makes it look like a jittery 1985 music video. If he overcranked the camera it'd be one thing, but I HATE when he uses that jittery slo-mo. It's supposed to be disorienting but it just looks like hackwork.

Is this used in this movie anywhere? I mean, I can get past it (at least he uses it somewhat sparingly in Lord of the Rings, maybe 2 or 3 times per film) but I'm hoping he ditched it for this flick.

 

[Arman]

PJ "delivered" that promise - one critic even said, "Jackson's great accomplishment has been to make a spectacle with the power to thrill and engage modern cinemagoers jaded by weekly exposure to massive blockbusters. I'm still trying - and failing - to think up new adjectives to describe it." (Some scenes are) way over the top? Of course! 'Monsters belong in B-movies.'

"Jackson says he's not a message filmmaker: he just wants to make films that entertain. With King Kong he convinces." PJ - Bravo! Oh BTW, it's the greatest B movie I've ever seen, quite possibly the most underrated "B movie " ever made!

 

[Haggai]

No, it's there. He uses a lot of it in the first hour, mostly unnecessarily, I think. Don't bail out, though, I don't think there was much of it after Kong showed up, and if there was I didn't notice because the movie was really kicking ass.

Loved it overall, although I agree with some criticisms that have been voiced here and in the review thread. Subplot with the black guy + Jamie Bell = lame, plus the just mentioned unnecessary uses of jittery slow-mo. The shooting of one of the natives was edited like Peckinpah on crack...do you really have to cut away and back four times while he's falling down dead?

But Naomi Watts is a goddess, and Kong himself is stunning. The T-Rex/V-Rex/whatever fight was beyond incredible, I didn't think my jaw could drop as far as it did during that sequence. The emotional resonance of the Kong/Ann relationship really is amazing.

 

[DeeF]

This is the smartest thing that could be done with this movie. The entire boat sequence is useless, poorly written, and too long with no action. Cut this sequence, and the rest of the movie will work its magic even more magically.

Like Lord of the Rings, I feel this movie has spent its money very successfully on CGI, and forgotten the value of a good, economic script.

 

[MikeRS]

They are nice.

 

[Kami]

Man, this movie had some killer bass. I can't wait to get it in my HT with my SVS For those that haven't heard, the DVD is supposed to come out sometime in April!

As I said in my review, I also thought the Hayes/Jimmy stuff could be cut. It's my biggest gripe with the film.

Speaking of Hayes, I expected him to be a bigger character, or at least last longer after playing the video game (which is very cool BTW) where he plays a pretty big part.

As for the PJ slow-mo, when I first saw this in FOTR it really caught me off guard...it took me a few viewings to get used to it. Now when I see it, it doesn't bother me at all. I don't think it was overdone...I only remember it about 3 times?

 

[RyanAn]

I work at a theatre and our midnight show only sold 22 seats, the week before Narnia at 78 or so, and a few weeks back we sold out 4 or 5 Harry Potters. I think it just depends on the viewers, the weather, and if they feel it will be a big hit.

Some think it could be the highest grossing film of all time - It's a really fantastic film in my opinion. I never found myself checking my watch, or wishing that the conclusion woudl happen soon.

Favorite scenes:

The Kong mulitple T-Rex battle with the tongue/jaw sequence.

The Kong laugh at the dance.

Anything with Carl and his bloody camera.


Ryan

 

[Pete-D]

I felt probably the big weakness of this film is it really didn't need to be 3 hours in length.

The first act drags on way too long and does way too little.

Also all the screen time given to the "Jimmy" kid and his superior officer ... just a waste as people have said.

The action sequences are very well done, they seem very "Spielbergian".

I don't think it's going to be close to Titanic, but $350 million and a lot of technical nods come Oscar time should be attainable for sure.

King Kong as a CG character I think eclipses even Gollum.

 

[Paul_Scott]

and that would probably sell the moment far better than the self conscious, and parodically inappropriate way he uses slo mo here.

and then on the Island with the natives, its just overkill as much of the sequence is just unpleasant and the camera work serves to wallow in it.

and after that, i can't remember if its ever used again. for the interior scenes on Skull Island or NYC.