Saw King Kong last night. However… I’m moving today so don’t really have time to put up my full review (I’ll cover the review on Friday’s Audio Edition).
I just wanted to say a couple of things at this point to let those of you who have seen it already to discuss:
1) Very good and entertaining film. I liked it a lot… but honestly a little over-hyped by the critics
2) Maybe the BEST damn action sequence (which took what felt like 20 minutes) that I have ever seen in a motion picture! (If you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about).
3) It was too long. Go ahead… start throwing stones at me for having the audacity to say anything not 100% positive about a Peter Jackson film… but it should have been like 30 minutes shorter. Not from the end of the film… but from the beginning. The whole first hour just dragged. Everything they did in the first hour (introducing characters, setting up the plot ect.) could have been done without sacrificing quality in half the time. I was almost getting bored and even looked at the watch once or twice.
4) Once they get to Skull Island… OH HELL YEAH! It makes up for the first hour.
5) Some of the effects (Kong, the T-Rex) are FANTASTIC!
6) Some of the effects (mostly compositing… people standing on the boat at sea and things like that) looked horrible and fake
7) Jack Black annoyed me at first… but he grows on you as the film goes on.
8) Nothing but good things to say about the cast in general
9) Music was a bit of a let down
10) Dialog was a bit weak… but not painfully so
11) I just can’t say enough good things about Kong himself. Not just how good he looked… but how great of a performance the folks at WETA and Andy Serkis brought out of the big ape. Just amazing. It didn’t top Gollum… but it came damn close.
Ok, so those are some of my thoughts. Overall I give King Kong an 8 out of 10. Very good flick, solid entertainment… just not the be all and end all that some people are making it out to be. Go see it and enjoy.. then give your thoughts here.
