Josh H

Caught King Kong last night and absolutely loved it. I had my doubts that Jackson would ever impress me again to the degree he did with the LOTR trilogy, but they were definitely misplaced as King Kong is right up their with those movies, and thus right up their with my all time favorites. Jackson has secured his place as my favorite director and I can't wait to see what he does next.

King Kong offered every thing I could want in a movie, being captivating throughout and alternationg between being funny, serious, scary, exciting, action packed and heart breaking. Watts and Brody were fantastic, Black was decent in the role. Loved the Cinematography. Just a wonderful movie through and through. Easily the best I've seen this year and will probably end up in my top ten, if not top five of all time with repeat viewings.

fiver

Saw it yesterday..I was very impressed by Kong and the dinos...i think these have to be the most real cgi characters I've seen in film to date...normally, mediocre cgi pulls me right out of a movie where a lot of people can ignore the quality of the cgi in favor of the story. I thought Jack Black was serviceable in his part but didn't think naomi watts acted all that well. The natives were frightening, the bugs disgusting...I don't actually remember the last time that an action sequence excited me or had me on the edge of my seat (perhaps the matrix)..but this movie did it for me. Not my favorite movie of all time, or even close...but very high for its genre.

Best movie experience I've had in awhile that's for sure...no cell phones, no talking, no babies crying, film was framed correctly from the previews forward, and the sound system was very good. Normally one or more of these things go wrong during any movie I go to.

Michael

maingon

loved that line. I also liked how Jackson updated how the tribesmen got on the boat. That was pretty sweet how they got across all the rocks. Alot better then just having them come in boats.

fmian

Saw an interview with him on The Movie Show here is Australia and he said he wants to go back to making low budget zombie movies. Said he was very envious of the guys that made Shaun of the Dead. Wouldn't mind seeing another Braindead.

PJsig08

Ugh. Peter Jackson should stick to the blockbusters, or big/semi-big budget flicks. Who cares about the low budget zombie movies, honestly? It's his call, but he might as well keep makin' the real $$$$.

Saw this last night....after first viewing, a 7.5/10 or so. Some complaints (dragged a little bit, some scenes were silly and ridiculous) but had a good time with it. Great action sequences, of course. Should be better on a second (DVD) viewing.

atlantamoi

Not perfect, but pretty damn amazing overall. We only go to the theater maybe three times a year and it was worth it for this pup. Never really understood the problems people had with a three hour movie, but I do think it could have been edited down just a little.

LivingINClip

Only CG I had problems with was the stampede. The actors just did not blend in well with the rest of the CG. It looked cheap.

PJsig08

Agree 100%. It was a fantastic scene, but just over CGI-ed IMO, if that makes any sense.

bsktballDude1

I absolutely loved it. I think they should hand over the Oscar to Naomi Watts right now. What a terrific performance she gave; a wonderful, sincere, tender piece of acting, and by God she was amazingly beautiful. The visual effects were first rate. NYC looked incredible, and Skull Island and all its vicious and slimy creatures were great looking. Kong itself though is what makes it the visual effects go from beyond great. The expressions and body language and the great ape was incredibly realistic and made for a emotionally moving performance.

I thought Jack Black was terrific, I know his performance has received some criticism, his character was a slimly conniving evil bastard and I thought he pulled it off and I freaking loved it! Adrien Brody has also received a lot of criticism as well, but I thought his character worked well. I also liked the development of some of minor crew characters like Jamie Bell's character in the first hour, it had me rooting for them against the dinosaurs more so.

The references to the 1933 Kong got me all giddy and there was a lot of them. From Denhem asking if Fay is available to come along on ship, but his agent or whatever says she's working on a picture at RKO for that Cooper fella. To some dialogue visuals right out of the classic 33 version and even some of the original Max Steiner score was used in the film. The movie also benefited from having a director passionate about the material, and I think when it works, there is no better filmmaking. That's enough rambling...for now.

FantasticVSDoom

Best movie in the theatres this year for me...Could have been trimmed and tightend up a little bit, but I was in awe for the most part. I think the damn gorilla should get a supporting actor nomination because he showed more emotions than most "real" actors in movies this year. I was completely in love with Naomi Watts as well. If it wasnt so long, I would consider going again, just for the damn fight scene. I guess being that the original is one of my all time favs, it was bound to happen that I would love it, but Im glad it met and surpassed my expectations.

Darkfriend

While her performance was good, no way Naomi Watts deserves an Oscar nomination for this. She just looked vulnerable, juggled and did some cartwheels yay. Oh and she screamed a lot.


I enjoyed the movie and yes, the first part could have used some trimming. Kong was amazing but all I thought while watching him was "Wow they really did a good job" instead of accepting him as a character.

And the moral of the story is not "Man is the real monster" but rather "Women will mess you up"


Kong could have just dismissed Anne like all those previous sacrifices and stay king of his island but no, he had to fall in love with her, risk his neck in saving her, compromise and move to where she lived. Once in NY he tried to work it out but then figured it was hopeless and just let himself die...

Kinda like my ex-girlfriend who wanted me to move to Vancouver with her; except I stayed king of my island and told her to piss off

Patman

The juggling was CGI, Watts just moved her hands, and the juggled rocks were added later.

Artman

That and Brody performing a jumping kick to the raptor's head - while continuing at the same speed.

Actually I thnk just the sheer volume of shots is what undermined some of the weaker sequences. It's just impossible when you have over a thousand effects shots to give them all the same amount of attention.

Overall the film was very good, not best pic material greatness though. I definitely felt every minute of it's three hour running time. I think it just felt long because the story is a pretty simple one. I'll probably enjoy this one more at home on the couch.

Artman

Yeah that's what I was thinking watching it. Even if she wanted to practice and do it herself, PJ probably told her not to worry about it. It did detract from the finished scenes however... hope PJ doesn't turn into you-know-who.

Jackskeleton

Oh jesus.. and here I thought we had a Jackson thread not resort to this going. oh well.

wm lopez

Kong was excellent in all his scenes, Jack Black & the rest of the cast was not.
Naomi Watts should have been more like Fay Wray acted.
Which is like any woman on earth will act if a giant ape was carrying her around.
And they should have started the movie while the ship was sailing and ditch the bug scenes and bronto scenes. That would have cut an hour off the movie.

Patman

It is crazy that it takes almost 2 hours just to get off Skull Island and back to NYC.

Also, according to a nice EW article on KK (A-Z tidbits), there are 300 effect shots that did not make it into the film.

wm lopez

I wonder if the dvd will be like the ALEXANDER dvd.
With cuts made to shorten the movie and than call it the Special Edition.

Patman

Mine's called the Chapter Skip button, but that's just me.

RichC2

Great movie. Only changes I'd of liked: Get rid of the "Jimmy" sub-plot and shorten the bug scene. Otherwise, great, great flick.

Watts was wonderful, Black was adequet for what they were trying to convey (the cornball self-satisfying director). The stage show scene (and most of NY overall) was spot on perfect and done in spectacular fashion.

redrum

amazing movie, didn't feel long at all, only one scene i didn't like and that was the spinning on ice scene.

RichC2

I actually found that scene to be fitting. Odd because I from what I had initially heard, I didn't think I would.

redrum

i would like the scene if it wasn't for the continous spinning he does.

maxfisher

I agree with all the criticisms here. I would add that the dinosaur stampede scene was awful. It was both illogical and looked horrible as well. I also felt like they overdid Ann's attachment to Kong. It's been years since I've seen the original, so maybe it's always been a flaw. I can understand her feeling sorry for Kong and being sad, but to keep putting herself in danger, over and over and over again at the end, when she has no chance of saving him, just felt totally over the top and unbelievable. While parts of the movie were truly grand, it fell pretty far below my expectations. I'm not sure whether this is the fault of the movie itself, or a combination of all the critical acclaim coupled with how much I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies. I'm wishing I'd had really low expectations going in, as I think I would've had less of a problem with some of the things that ended up really pulling me out of the movie.

RichC2

I'm usually pretty picky about CG, but that scene didn't bother me.

I guess it was just the fun of seeing a dinosaur pileup.