SPOILER ALERT SKIP TO REVIEW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
King Kaing, I mean King Kong is the story of a filmmaker named Carl Denim, played by Jack Black, who is struggling to make a picture that people want to see. So in some confusing parts, Jack hires Naomi Watts a struggling theater actress to be the star of his latest and greatest picture set on an uncharted island only he and his script writer - Adrien Brody know about. S K U L L I S L A N D EEEEEE. So they get to Skull Island an hour later (literally - more on this later) and the picture begins to get shot. That is until a mysterious tribe of people like people show up and reak havoc and reak stench as well, and sacrifice Naomi Watts to none other than KANG himself. She doesn't die though.
Kang Kong begins to fall in love with Naomi, however everyone else including the captain of the ship are looking for her. What everyone doesn't know is that a few dinosaurs and some scary bugs are after them as well on this mysterious S K U L L I S L A N D.
Well if you've seen the original, you'll know what happens next, however this one has many parts that would not be possible back in the 1930s, and they take a long time and are drawn out to their full potential too.
So Kang is brought to NYC to be the star of a kang play made by Carl Denim, and the most famous scene of KANG happens at this point, you know, the claymation Kong climbing the empire state building.
This sequence is the greatest in the film. Then, thats the end.
HERE IS THE REVIEW, IF YOU DIDN'T WANT TO SPOIL THINGS.
King Kong is deffinately an epic film. I say epic because its over 3 hours long. The first hour is spent on a ship, thats it. It seems to take forever for the film to get going here, and this could be done without. Cut a half an hour out of the ship and the film would have gotten 4 stars out of 4 from me. Peter Jackson sure knows how to draw things out, and judging from the DVD releases of LOTR, I'm pretty sure this film could end up being four hours long with extended scenes of the boat traveling and the mysterious subplot between the black guy and the stu kid.
This is one of the only issues I have with this film, the length. Scenes deffinitely run a little long for my tastes, but they are done fairly well cinematography wise.
One of the other problems I have with this film is the over use of CGI, of course, what can you do, that stuff can't be acheived any other way. If you see the film, you'll know what I mean. There is no way that this film could be made like it is prior to about 1997.
The film is very entertaining in spite of the first hour taking forever. I've never seen the original version or the 1976 version. Jackson really has fun retelling this classic, (almost too much fun) and the film contains many echos of LOTR, most obviously the freedom feel of the camera as it floats above the people like people's land.
The scenes towards the end and all throughout the T-Rex battles are amazing.
Characters are a little hoaky, but so is the story. I didn't enjoy the dorky slowed film sequences, including S K U L L I S L A N D. Okay, I know its a uncharted unknown island, but come on, its just an island. And even though Kong is on the island, big deal, this could have been done better.
I know it may sound like I am picking on this film quite a bit, but it doesn't mean I didn't like it and it wont become part of my DVD collection (right next to LOTR), and in closing, I give King Kong 3 stars out of 4, its truely an epic film that may be e bit long but is still entertaining.
Also, Naomi Watts is hot regardless of her face expressions.
How does my breath smell now?