The Return of the King, Kong

I got to see King Kong today, thanks to our work policy that allows us to see a film each month on work time. This month, we had a choice between The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong. I do plan to see the former, but for sheer magnitude, I wanted to see Kong on the big screen.

You should all know the story. There have been two versions of it on film now. The first was the 1933 classic. The second, was the much-hyped but rarely seen since 1976 version. An expedition goes to a mysterious island, the beautiful girl is sacrificed by the natives to Kong, and Kong ends up destroying a chunk of Broadway before his climbs the Empire State Building (changed to the WTC in 1976) and is killed.

This version is relatively true to the overall backstory. I won't go into the plot as that's described on a thousand other websites. Instead, I'll tell you what worked for me and what didn't. There are some potential spoilers here so proceed at your own risk.

What Worked:

1) 1930's New York - I had heard that this was spectacular and Peter Jackson certainly didn't disappoint. Not only did he focus on the skyline, but he also showed you the streets and what passed for entertainment during the Depression.

2) Kong - Graphically, I found the beast very satisfying. At almost no time did I get pulled from the film by an obvious computer-generated slip. He was spectacular.

3) Naomi Watts - One word. Wow. She was absolutely transfixing in this film. I especially loved the scene where she begins "entertaining" Kong. The ice rink scene ws a bit forced, but her tearful blue eyes on the big screen just made it impossible to look away.

4) Jack Black, Adrien Brody and the supporting cast - All good. I was skeptical about Black but he pulls off the 30's huckster nicely. Brody was not given screen time to develop his character though.

5) Good old monster fights - A fella that saw the film with me commented "how could those vines have held up Kong and the T-Rexes". For me, that was a thrilling sequence as it was something that I had never seen before. That's what I enjoy when I go to the movies. Something that is new, fresh, and makes my heart pound until it's over. The monster fights were terrific, although I found it curious the vampire bats waited until the most convenient time for Jack Driscoll to attack Kong.

6) The death - Kudos to Jackson for not showing Kong hitting the street. It would have been dramatic, I'm sure, and completely possible with the current state of CGI but it was also unneeded. I was thankful to see this left out.


What Didn't Work:

1) Some of the CGI got a little obvious. The problem is that after seeing 400+ hours of "How I Did The Lord Of The Rings" we know more about the process than we should.

2) The calvary arrived just in time...twice.

3) The scene where Driscoll is getting Kong to chase him in the car really, REALLY reminded me of the similar scene in the recent Godzilla. And that is not a good thing.

4) This might be splitting hairs, but this seems to be a HUGE inconsistency. Let's start at the end of the movie, when Kong is on top of the Empire State Building. It's sunrise, which happens at about 7am in NYC during December. Let's assume that the actual "performance" where Kong is revealed happened at 10pm at the latest. That means Kong is on the loose for nearly 8 and a half hours before he climbs the ESB. Obviously, that's not the case and you have to leave some creative license there but it really nagged at me that what seemed to be real time in the film couldn't have been.

Honorable Mention:

1) Nice tip of the hat to the original King Kong. It came when Denham is told that "Fay is doing a film for RKO". Of course, that's a reference to Fay Ray and the original King Kong by RKO Pictures.

2) Nice misdirection at the end. It takes several minutes to figure out where Ann went.

3) Some of the jerky, slow motion, effecty camera shots seemed really out of place and really kicked you out of the moment. Apparantly a skull skewered on a stick isn't shocking enough so we have to spin the camera around and blur it. Oh well.


All in all, I would give King Kong 3.5 out of 4. I had a terrific time and it didn't seem long to me at all. I was engrossed all the way through and would certainly see it again.