This weekend I saw Peter Jackson’s Epic, err, his STAND-ALONE epic, King Kong. If you’ve seen the original, or even The Simpsons parody, you’re not really going to be surprised by any part of the story (and so I’m going to go ahead and say there be spoilers ahead) but it’s well worth watching nonetheless.
It’s the Great Depression, and things suck. Ann Darrow is a talented Vaudeville comedian, until her theatre gets shut down because nobody in the Depression has any money. Meanwhile Carl Denham, rogue director in danger of being washed-up, steals the start of his movie and his crew and a ship to set out for the location of his new film- which he claims is Singapore, but he really plans to head for the lost Skull Island. Along the way, he recruits Ann Darrow, and traps scriptwriter Jack Driscoll on board.
The start of the movie goes pretty quick- you get a good overview of the characters, backgrounds, and personalities, from the main three to the secondary characters that make up the ship’s crew. The setup stage of the movie moved along at a pretty good clip to me and didn’t drag. It’s a three hour long movie, yes, but it doesn’t seem that way. Unlike my beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy, which definitely has some moments where it slows down dramatically, once the crew arrive on Skull Island there’s very little breathing space. The crew encounter natives first, who are awesomely creepy and savage looking, and shortly thereafter Kong shows up. Then you’re in for about an hour of Jurassic Park on speed. Lots and lots of frentic dinosaur/giant bug fighting. And the body count gets very high.
Of course, you know that eventually Kong is going to get captured, and some of them are going to make it back to New York for the big show. A lot of filler that you expect to be in there is simply faded by- you are expected to simply accept that a giant ape was brought back to New York via tiny steamship with significantly reduced ship’s crew (who, by the way, are not seen for the rest of the movie, even though some of them have plotlines that are never resolved.) Before you know it, Kong’s up on stage, and you pretty much know the rest, though there are a couple surprises and neat little scenes. Again, there’s so much going on, you don’t notice that you’ve already been there for over two hours.
Jack Black gets the most character development and growth, and pulls it off excellently. If you don’t think he’s capable of pulling off anything other than goofy comedy, you might be surprised by Kong. Sure, he’s still funny, but he starts out as the lovable rapscallion director with a dream who then starts crossing lines until he’s full-on despicable by the end. Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow puts in a very believable performance, but she doesn’t particularly get to change- in fact, she pretty much gets victimized in one way or another all throughout the movie. She still is a strong character, but the movie spends a lot of time having her get crapped on in one way or another. And Adrien Brody as Driscoll gets to be the reluctant hero who ends up getting no credit. The ship’s crew characters are pretty stereotyped, but fill their roles well enough. As I mentioned, there are a number of plot threads with them created which are forgotten and never explained… maybe for the 5 hour long Extended Edition.
The effects, of course, are top notch, though the creatures will remind you very strongly of Lord of the Rings. Andy Serkis and WETA put on a very emotive but still ass-kicking Kong. However, if you don’t like lots of slow-motion shots to emphasize emotion, you will dislike this movie. It can be a decent cinematography device, but it’s used WAY too much in this movie, sometimes at really bizarre times.
Overall, though, I recommend King Kong. Don’t worry that it’s 3 hours long, you’ll be too busy watching King Kong fight armies of T-rexes to notice.
Yeah, I think Jack Black may now be on the cusp of superstardom….
His name has been a solid headline comedy draw, and after this movie his acting talents should be acknowledged. I smell a Jim Carrey level on the horizon, choosing meaty roles and supplemented by gut busting high grossing comedies.
Yes. King Kong . Excellent for all, I give it two thumbs up. Five Star. The Spankle-Seal of Approval. Ol’ Peter Jackson can’t stand to cut his narratives short, but the three hours isn’t ever excruciating (cough cough hobbiton cough) because you watch three short movies in a row, basically. I liked them all. And just.. (thumping chest) beautiful… (and modest, too, bitch.) Definitely one to see projected in its glory, scale of course playing an important role in, well, the scale of things.
..aaaaaand Jack Black pulls it together for an almost serious role. I knew ya had it in ya, buddy.
..aaaaaand ya got the guy what played “Gollum” Andy Serkis acting the part of the great ape. You can also find him out of uniform as “Lumpy” the ship’s cook.
Yeah, it’s the holidays. “Treat yourself.”
As much as I enjoy watching Jack Black in comedies…which is all he can really play. He doesn’t have the facial expressions to portray a serious character on the Big-Screen. I felt the movie dragged out way too long. Yes it had some big names behind the directing and what not, but damn you Peter Jackson for feeling you must make all of your movies incredibly long!
The movie (which was already remade once before) was exaggerated in a lot of places it didn’t need to. Yes the fact that beauty killed the beast is the underlying theme, but did it have to be shoved down our throats, pulled out our arses, and fed to us again? No sir!
Anyway as you can tell, I didn’t think it was all that great…definitely a rental rather than a movie theater movie.