Saw King Kong this weekend at the huge AMC in Tysons Corner.
The general reviews are correct, the 3hr movie is about 1hr too long, primarily because there are several side plots that aren’t all that relevant to the story line and could easily be dropped on the cutting room floor to give the movie a faster pace. That said, I’ll probablly get the DVD and be hunting for the extra footage and deleted scenes.
What I don’t get is the 5 star ratings it’s getting. It was visually appealing, but it struck me that the video compositing in Narnia were more ground breaking.
True, Kong has never been done in this scale or level of detail before. I just didn’t get emotionally pulled into the movie, having a hard time identifying with any particular character.
Three things were distracting to me. First was when Naomi Watts was being whipped around by King Kong — her image moved, but the physics of what would happen to her body didn’t, worse, her hair didn’t even obey the laws of gravity. Second was when King Kong kept changing sizes in my mind: first he’s 25 feet tall, then he’s towering against a dino, then he sits near Naomi, then he climbs a huge wall, then he smashes though an enormous gate, then he’s taken down by a few men, then he’s in a theater, then he’s three stories tall climbing a building — maybe I’m wrong here, but mass and scale just seemed to shift depending on shot. Third, super human speed by average humans; I’m pretty sure than in a stampede I’d be trampled in moments, and I’m fairly certain that in a race between me and a moving car, I’d not be able to keep up for long.
Many of the movie’s scenes were far over the top, too many happenstance chances. There were too many places where falling rocks, stomping monster feet, or ultra-deep chasms were at the right place, or had the right vine, or missed by just inches. People were getting picked up, thrown into the air, landing on rocks, sliding down rock faces bare skinned, and coming out no worse than when they started. I don’t know about you, but I can’t walk out to get the mail barefoot without my feet getting stabbed by twigs or sharp pebbles, yet these folks can run through a historic forest barefoot and not get a scrape.
Kong’s relationship, like many movies, happened too fast to almost be unjustifable. And, when Kong dies at the end, there are many wet eyes in the theater. Maybe I missed the point, but did everyone forget the pile of bones from helpless sacficed women that Kong previously brutalized, or the many innocents that were injured or killed as he rampaged through the city? With Kong gone, even Skull island is safer. Like I said, I think I missed the point. Maybe because Kong never seemed to me to be in love, but rather say Naomi as a novelity or amusement, or dare I say pet.
But, fiction is fiction, and it was an enjoyable theater experience none the less. Go see King Kong. See it on a big theater. Just do it at discounted ticket prices. I give it 3 stars out of 5.