King Kong: No spoilers

[thewayne]

Quite liked it. Jack Black: in my opinion, so-so. I think he played the character well. Russ thought he was well-cast. The casting was quite good, the effects were great. The dinosaurs and other things on/re: the island were excellent. I've never been enamoured with dinosaurs, I was bored by Jurassic Park, but these were cool!

Peter Jackson put some very nice humor into the film and it had some touching scenes. Even though the film was three hours long, and even though I was conscious of the length (I survived without an intermission or having to run off to the restroom without problem or incident) it was sufficiently well-paced that, at least to me, it didn't lag. Russet thought it a bit long and that the island sequence could have been trimmed a bit, I didn't have a problem with it.

Anyway, well done, Mr. Jackson. I don't think it will get a nomination for Film of the Year, and honestly, the film doesn't really deserve that. Still, well done and recommended. I would like to see the original again to compare them a bit more realistically, a friend who saw the sneak in Phoenix prefers the original.

Comments

Mild spoilers in this post

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

Bill Mueller's review in the AZ Republic raised two points which cause me to wonder if I'll enjoy this movie. First, that Carl Denham's character was changed into a more greedy and manipulative type. Second, that many of the key (and probably unintended) conflicts of the first picture were not there (the most important being the man-versus-beast conflict).

And I'm seriously thinking about bringing a piss bottle along if and when I see it.

Re: Mild spoilers in this post

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I'd say Denham was more greedy. He wasn't greedy for money, per se, he was greedy to make a good picture. In the end those could be taken as the same thing, but I think the base motivation is different. Manipulative, yes. He has no problem misdirecting and misinforming people to get them to do things, and this does sometimes include fraud. He's very driven to get to Skull Island and film this island unknown to man.

Now, after they capture Kong and get him back to NY, then you see some greed on Denham's part! OH, DAMN! I JUST REVEALED A VITAL PLOT POINT! THEY SUCCEED IN GETTING KONG BACK TO NYC! ;)

I guess greed is just a desire for something, doesn't have to be money (though that's the most common thing to be desired) and you will manipulate and/or hurt people/events to get it. Using a broader, not strictly monetary basis, then yes, he's greedy,

I think the man vs beast angle is there, perhaps not as blatantly as Mueller would have liked. Certainly the beast vs beast angle is there!

For me, I liked the original Mighty Jo Young over King Kong.