KING KONG
Well, what can I say? It's King Freakin' Kong! After numerous attempts to go see it, I finally got a chance last night at the gynormous Cineramadome. Really, you need to see this on a big screen.
I've never seen the original (I know, I know...shame on me), so I only really knew the basic plot: film crew goes to island, natives capture girl, sacrifice her to big monkey, crew steals monkey, monkey climbs skyscraper, the end. All I knew for the new one was that the shots of Kong looked awesome and it was over three hours long.
What shocked me during the first 40 minutes or so was how atrocious the dialogue was. It made for some real stiff acting. I think Peter Jackson was attempting to capture the way people spoke in the movies in the 1930's. At least, I hope that's what it was. Either way, it just didn't work.
So we get this whole story of Jack Black's character, the film director, getting in trouble with the studio because they hate his new film. He informs them that he came into posession of a map to an uncharted island. Okay, first of all, if it's uncharted, how could there be a map? Second of all, where the hell did he get it?! We never find out.
Anyway, Jack meets up with Naomi Watts, the actress. They get on a boat along with Adrian Brody, the screenwriter. We spend a good 20 minutes or so on the boat, meeting all the characters riding on it. For some reason, there's special care to show the ambitious young assistant who just wants to stand by his captain. I could not, for the life of me, figure out what the hell he had to do with anything. His dialogue was corny and he ends up not being important at all, yet we keep going back to him.
The boat reaches the island. It's an amazing find, but no one really seems to care all that much. Jackson does his infamous 'zoom-in-to-stuff-and-put-a-strobe-effect-on-the-film' shtick that I hate so much. Suddenly, the natives appear and steal Naomi. It's now about an hour into the movie called King Kong, and we have yet to see him. He finally arrives and takes Naomi, but it's all in the dark, so you don't see squat.
The crew goes on a rescue mission and only then does it start to pick up. There's giant bugs and dinosaurs and other prehistoric nastiness that threatens the lives of the crew. Meanwhile, Naomi attempts to communicate with Kong.
I will say this...for most of the time that Kong was on screen, I COMPLETELY forgot he was a total CGI character. He looks and acts so freakin' realistically that I just got entranced. He doesn't really feature any human characteristics, which I was afraid of. He just acts like a big ol' gorilla.
So anyway, more bad acting and improbable situations ensue and they capture Kong and take him back to New York. Kong gets loose and climbs the Empire State Building. This final sequence really amazed me and I'd love to see it all over again without the rest of the movie. The beauty and the tension and the sadness and the effects all come together so perfectly.
Anyway, obviously I have issues with it, but that being said, it's well worth seeing. It's a spectacle and the amazing stuff in it will almost make you forget about the not-so-good stuff.
I've never seen the original (I know, I know...shame on me), so I only really knew the basic plot: film crew goes to island, natives capture girl, sacrifice her to big monkey, crew steals monkey, monkey climbs skyscraper, the end. All I knew for the new one was that the shots of Kong looked awesome and it was over three hours long.
What shocked me during the first 40 minutes or so was how atrocious the dialogue was. It made for some real stiff acting. I think Peter Jackson was attempting to capture the way people spoke in the movies in the 1930's. At least, I hope that's what it was. Either way, it just didn't work.
So we get this whole story of Jack Black's character, the film director, getting in trouble with the studio because they hate his new film. He informs them that he came into posession of a map to an uncharted island. Okay, first of all, if it's uncharted, how could there be a map? Second of all, where the hell did he get it?! We never find out.
Anyway, Jack meets up with Naomi Watts, the actress. They get on a boat along with Adrian Brody, the screenwriter. We spend a good 20 minutes or so on the boat, meeting all the characters riding on it. For some reason, there's special care to show the ambitious young assistant who just wants to stand by his captain. I could not, for the life of me, figure out what the hell he had to do with anything. His dialogue was corny and he ends up not being important at all, yet we keep going back to him.
The boat reaches the island. It's an amazing find, but no one really seems to care all that much. Jackson does his infamous 'zoom-in-to-stuff-and-put-a-strobe-effect-on-the-film' shtick that I hate so much. Suddenly, the natives appear and steal Naomi. It's now about an hour into the movie called King Kong, and we have yet to see him. He finally arrives and takes Naomi, but it's all in the dark, so you don't see squat.
The crew goes on a rescue mission and only then does it start to pick up. There's giant bugs and dinosaurs and other prehistoric nastiness that threatens the lives of the crew. Meanwhile, Naomi attempts to communicate with Kong.
I will say this...for most of the time that Kong was on screen, I COMPLETELY forgot he was a total CGI character. He looks and acts so freakin' realistically that I just got entranced. He doesn't really feature any human characteristics, which I was afraid of. He just acts like a big ol' gorilla.
So anyway, more bad acting and improbable situations ensue and they capture Kong and take him back to New York. Kong gets loose and climbs the Empire State Building. This final sequence really amazed me and I'd love to see it all over again without the rest of the movie. The beauty and the tension and the sadness and the effects all come together so perfectly.
Anyway, obviously I have issues with it, but that being said, it's well worth seeing. It's a spectacle and the amazing stuff in it will almost make you forget about the not-so-good stuff.
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