Those were my biggest gripes as well. Not to rewrite the ending, but for Ann to all-of-a-sudden show up on lower Broadway after that car chase was the ultimate in lame. That and the fact traffic was moving on 7th Avenue as the Army Air Corp (or whoever they were) were trying to shoot a 25’ gorilla off the top of the world’s tallest building after his power nap.
I asked my vet about this, and she said Kong’s injury was exactly like every single bite-wound she’s seen a giant ape receive from a living T.Rex.
I saw it last night and it WRECKED me. I think I sobbed from the moment they nabbed him on the island till the credits rolled.
Interestingly enough, I was impressed by how not annoyed by Adrien Brody I was. His whole character got kind of goofy after a point, because all he did was run and chase and chase and run, but he was actually kinda suave in the beginning, and unlike most others I did get a sense of a bit of chemistry between his character and Ann.
Yes, it did seem a bit long, and yes, the brontosaurus stampede was a bit much. Other than that I loved it.
Kong was awesome and broke my heart. I’m still upset and I can’t talk to anyone at work about it because they’re all a bunch of whippersnappers who have never even seen the first one and don’t know how it ends. Hello! There are freakin’ slot machines down to the casino that are big apes that climb the Empire State Building a little higher every time you hit a certain combo!!
Things I loved:
The “little” monsters, like the centipeds, the worms, the cockroaches.
King Kong laughing and then going ape-shit crazy and then being embarrassed by it.
Jack Black’s character.
Things that bugged me:
The over-the-top “natives”. Absolutely despised them and their cobwebby hair.
The movie requires too much suspense of belief. Each action scene resulted in little mortality, and it was exhausting watching the people run from brontos and raptors, then King Kong, only to end up assaulted by giant insects and toothy annelids. Then back to King Kong. And why are all the inhabitants on Skull Island so anti-human? Are they that starved for protein? The damn T-Rex had a giant lizard in its mouth and yet it was willing to drop it all for a blonde-haired snack? And I agree about King Kong not suffering enough from his scrapes. And the scrapes he did suffer from didn’t make sense. We’re supposed to believe that an ambush from a bunch of big ole bats is scarier than one from three T-Rex’s? He never dropped Ann during the T-Rex Battle, but the moment a bat clips his ear he’s rolling on the ground in pain.
A friend and I also wondered how they were able to get him on the boat. Not only that, but surely Kong would weigh much more than all the stuff they had jettissoned earlier. Must have taken them ages to get home. Hope they had enough chloroform!
Overall, a good movie. Not excellent or horrible. Just good.
You’ve never had bats hit you in the face, have you?
I’ve handled plenty of situations that were more dangerous than light contact with winged rodents, but a couple of those little bastards knock up against you a bit in dim lighting and you automatically piss yourself and scream like a girl. It’s a physical law, and I have no problem accepting that it scales up. They’re fecking bats. Aaagh!
I was really impressed with Naomi Watts. At first I thought, “She can’t scream as well as Faye Wray,” but holy crap, can she ever emote. Those eyes! Who needs dialogue?
The bats bugged me because they lived in Kong’s house. If they lived there, it seems like they should get along with the big guy. And where was the giant bat quano?
I had forgotten about this throwback to the old 1933 Kong, and just remembered it:
At the beginning of the Broadway show, Denham recites the “old Arabian proverb” that opened the original film.
And one useless tidbit that both Entertainment Weekly and USA Today reported: the scenes of old Times Square (which look rather nifty) feature genuine ads that appeared there in the period…except for one, which I noticed and was a little curious about. In the corner of one scene, you can see a billboard for Universal Pictures. It turns out in real life, there was a Columbia billboard there, but Columbia wanted to much money, so they changed it to the studio that released this film instead.
One interesting one that I thought was interesting that I didn’t notice, from USA Today:
In the 1933 film, the airplane that shot down Kong was run by directors Cooper and Shoesdack. I thought it would have been clever if Jackson had put himself as a pilot, but then I figured his face is too familiar and people would know it was him. Turns out he did- he’s the pilot of one of the planes and special effects guru Rick Baker is the gunner!
One other thought:
What’s the deal with the two ape skeletons in Kong’s lair? I presume they’re ancestors, but what happened to them? Did they die of natural causes? Did the bats eat them? Did Kong get peckish one day and decide to go all Donner Party on his parents?
I saw it last night and thought it was great. I rented the 1933 version earlier this week and it was neat to see the two films together like that for comparison. One thing that concerned me when Kong first shows up in the movie was that he just looked too much like a gorilla. Kong is a gorilla of course in the original, but at the same time he is a different sort of creature. At first I was unpleasantly reminded of that Mighty Joe Young remake from a few years ago, but it wasn’t long before I could accept this creature as Kong. I thoroughly enjoyed all the action scenes on Skull Island and the emotional scenes toward the end worked well for me. I do kind of think the scenes of Kong and Ann staring longingly into each others eyes got a little bit tiresome after a while, but Peter Jackson is taking his time here and it at least feels genuine. One thing this movie lacks is the subtlety of the original, but that’s not always a bad thing.
I was a little confounded by Jackson’s depictions of the natives. I figured that the natives would be an awkward subject to cover in the movie, but Jackson seems to try to get around the problem by making the natives so inhuman and monster-like there’s no way you could mistake them for some kind of serious portrayal of indigenous people. The effect is more shocking than anything else, and it’s probably for the best that Jackson chooses to drop the subject as soon as their role in the story is completed.
I saw the movie today, and I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed.
Not by the special effects sequences…those were all spot-on and incredible to watch. I was sitting on the edge of my seat all through the Skull Island sequences. Also, I loved what Jackson did with the natives…they were like something out of a Clive Barker film and were genuinely scarey.
What disappointed me about the movie was twofold:
1)I hated the PC-ization of the flick. I felt like I was watching a historically revisionist western half the time. Denham, who is a charismatic and respected movie maker in the original, is now a hukster who seems to be either a sociopath or a narcissist or both. And Jack Driscoll is now a sensitive New-Age playwright rather than a first mate on a tramp steamer. Sorry, but when the bullets start to fly and the T-rexes start to roar, give me the first mate on a tramp steamer to save the day, not a fucking playwright.
and 2)the now-requited love between Ann and Kong totally changed the dynamic of the tale for me and not in a good way. Ann’s mooning over Kong brought back unwelcome memories of the 1970s abomination and made the encounter between them in NYC way too incredibly creepy and weird. It just didn’t work for me.
I loved Jackson’s imagining of Lord of the Rings, but in this case I think he dropped the ball. I hope it doesn’t derail his gravy train, because I seriously want to see him do The Hobbit, but this movie was not the movie I wanted to see.
K, saw it.
In some ways it’s the best movie ever made, innit? Certainly the moviest movie ever. I can’t think of another film that more successfully celebrates everys square centimeter of screen real estate.
Some downers though: I yield to no man in my gleeful admiration of Jack Black. But he was horribly miscast. He was just in the wrong movie. Wrong in every scene, in every way. Wrong face, wrong persona, wrong look, wrong reading; wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. He woulda made a great Hobbit. But Denham should have evoked John Huston, Clint Eastwood, something like that. He was an adventurer, not a smartalecky nerd. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Hell, if Jackson was going for camp in that character, Bruce Campbell woulda been a better choice. He needed to be larger than life. At least dashing. Just wrong.
Interesting to see how little Jackson changed. He added a lot, but subtracted very little. Some of the best little moments were from the original: playing briefly with the Trex’s broken jaw; hauling Ann and Driscoll up hand over hand. But what he changed, I have to ponder on. The redefining of the relationship between Kong and Ann requires ponderation; not sure how that works for me.
Some distractions: [ul]
[li]the running among the brontosaurus stampede and mostly not getting a scratch was just about the most athletic bit of eyerolling I’ve done for a long time.[/li][li]The way Kong was yankin’ her around, she’da broke every neck in her body 87 times over. Distractingly bad physics.[/li][li]The timing of the bat attack–when apparently they’d always got along just fine–was a first-round brainstorming idea; they shoulda come up with something better. [/li][li]K, it’s so cold in NY that the snow is powdery. But Ann luxuriates in the tropical splendor of that satin shift for the entire time they’re together? Mid-evening (the show hadn’t ended yet) till morning? and then on top of the ESB with nary a shiver? When it was well below freezing–20sF at best?[/li][li]So . . . Kong weighs more than the entire balcony audience, but he can run and jump on the frozen pond without cracking it?[/li][li]The CGI juggling bothered me; Naomi shoulda spent some time learning to juggle. THe rocks flying back and forth from her hands while she waved them haphazardly around–never closing them around the rock; just flapping them like flippers–bugged me.[/li][li]The machine gunned bugs offa Brody’s spazzing body,without a bullet scratch.[/li][/ul]
Now, ultimately these things get overlooked. But how nice it woulda been not to have to!
I wondered how Jackson would deal with the over racism in the original; the natives in their Hollywood “Native” garb, bones in noses, etc. I thought it was great that he brought that in after all, in the “stage show” at the end. Funny, but still a commentary on the perceptions of the day.
I liked how Kong was so scarred up, broken teeth, crooked jaw. THat, plus the giant ape skeletons, really helped give him a sense of history and loneliness. Nicely done.
The sequence at the end? Holy crap. My thing is heights; authentic paralytic acrophobia. I have frozen on ladders, and observed myself drily as my limbs cease receiving signals from my brain and simply cannot move. The shit on the ESB? I have had two honest to god panic attacks in my life–emergency room type anxiety attacks–and I literally almost had one while that friggin ninny in her satin heels was climbing up that goddamn ladder with the biplanes buzzin around. I literally had to raise my shirt up over half my face, not having a paper bag, because I was honest to god hyperfuckingventigoddamnlating. My socks and palms were wet with nearly squirting freak sweat. That shit just went on way too long. That sequence should be rated XXX for acrophobics, or something. Just some seriously medically dangerous shit. And then she gets up on her tippytoes to kiss Driscoll! Oops I crapped my pants.
This was one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. Naomi Watts was a great Ann. She looks like an actress from the 30s, moves gracefully, She’s athletic enough to play the role. Kong was incredible. He looked like a gorilla. He moved like a gorilla. He made facial expresions like a gorilla. He threw temper tantrums like a 3 year old. I was worried that the fat, over-emoting clown and the sad-eyed, pencil-thin whimp with a beak you can park your car under would ruin this movie, but they were both actually good. Jack Black surprised me. I don’t know if it was Peter jackson’s direction, but he managed to tone down his performance and showed a manic, conniving, amoral and desperate Carl Denham. This Carl was pretty much the same guy from the original Kong, but actually mentally off-balance and capable of having his enthusiasm medicated out of him today. The backstory on both him and Ann really got me into the story. And I guess Adrien Brody is perfect for a rivalry with Kong. With the exception of both being tall, they’re complete opposites. Brody is thin, pale, hairless, cerebral, wordy and has a long thin nose while Kong is stocky, muscular, uneducated, athletic, dark, hairy, a fellow of few words and has a short, wide nose.
The islanders are so completely weird and disgusting that you don’t ask yourself “why do they want Ann?”, but “What happened to this ruined civilization?”.
Skull Island was beautiful. From the time the ship ran aground on the rocks, each one of which was shaped like a screaming gorilla face(!), to the creepy islanders, to the rugged, mountainous, tropical forests, to the weird giant bugs and dinosaurs. We got 3 incredible skies; One on the ship, the sunrise on Skull Island and one on the Empire State Building.
I agree, it was a little too much. the scene right after Kong snatches Ann and he’s shaking her like a can of spray paint, I was guessing that she hadn’t eaten for a while because she didn’t throw up. I don’t think anyone would have survived being carried from the village to the first rest stop the way he was running on his knuckles with her in one hand. The bronto stampede was really too much. And when Kong got his first bite from the T Rex, I thought “That bite’s gonna turn septic and he’ll die from the infection”. The later bites should have taken his arm off. The last half hour of the film. Ann would have frozen to death. No steam on anyone’s breath and the pond is frozen. if it’s frozen at ground level, how much colder would it be on top of the Empire State Building?
Apparently it’s not doing nearly as well as expected:
That “21st best Wed.” puts it behind films such as Pokemon and Catch Me if You Can, not exactly films that burned it up at the BO.
One thing I forgot to mention in my initial reaction, above, was a thought I had while watching KK:
This ain’t a love story. It’s the biggest, hairiest case of Stockholm Syndrome since Patty Hearst. I mean, right? Seriously. Not that I have a problem with Jackson portraying sympathetically to the abductee’s POV; as such it does make a grea “love story.” But fellas, come on, how classic is King Kong as a case of Stockholm Syndrome?
I thought the same thing too, but then I remembered that Stockholm syndrome wasn’t invented for another forty years. 
What does any of the above have to do with PC?
I think he’s suggesting that the characters had to be given motivation beyond simple macho adventuring. I’m not sure I agree, but I do think the simpler motivations of the original are part of what makes it a better movie.
I watched Kong with a party of eight, and I was the only one who liked it. Most everybody said it went on way too long, with way too many long shots of people’s faces staring at things. I thought it was fine right up until they left Skull Island, when it got real dull real fast. I loved all the fighting and running and adventuring up until that point. But I agree that it might have been better edited.
I suspect the real reason it’s bombing at the box office, if it is, is that everybody knows it’s a bummer – Kong dies. The universal response of our group at the end was, “Would somebody please die already? Anybody, we don’t care who, let’s get this movie ended.”
Also, Mrs. Captor was very annoyed that the female lead did most of her scenes with her mouth hanging wide open. The Blow Up Doll style of acting.
I was also the one out of our party of three who liked it. Those scenes at the end with the Empire State Building had me gripping the sides of my seat. I mean, DAMN, they really achieved a feeling of heights.
Other than that, nothing I can say that hasn’t really been said in this thread, but I want to second the comment about the shot of Kong falling from the building. That was breathtaking for me, absolutely beautiful.