�King Kong (2005)�
Directed by: Peter Jackson (�Lord of the Rings� trilogy)
Starring: Jack Black (�School of Rock�), Naomi Watts (�The Ring�), and Adrien Brody (�The Pianist,� �The Village�). Also features Colin Hanks (�Orange County�) and Andy Serkis (Gollum in �Lord of the Rings�).
Plot Outline: Evolution never stopped on an uncharted island known by few as Skull Island. When a film crew crashes into the island, they discover many dangerous creatures that have grown to gigantic proportions over millions of years. These creatures among King Kong lie behind the mysterious man-made wall.
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�King Kong� is a Jack Black movie. With the direction of Peter Jackson, �King Kong� ends on a serious note. It�s a film with the creativity of epic proportions, but basically a really fun adventure film. The only problem with it, in my mind, was that some of the scenes were drawn out. Maybe that�s to be expected with a Peter Jackson movie, where all of the �Lord of the Rings� films were about that length, but that�s not the smartest way to make a movie. That takes away from the re-watch value. Then there was the choppy/slow-mo kind of filming that Peter Jackson used to create tension and curious. That didn�t work for me, although with the music (the score was really good) in the background, it�d work...but again, it didn�t look good to me. Finally, there was Naomi Watts...I mean, I guess you wouldn�t expect her to talk to the giant Ape, but I think she shoulda given us something. It felt like her only lines were �AAAAHHH!� She was a great screamer, though, and it almost hurt my ears in the theater to listen to her.
Overall, I�d say �King Kong� was a really fun movie. I had fun watching it and it was visually and thoroughly exciting. I must say, though, it did feel like a computer animated movie for most of it (until the finale which was really exciting). I�d see it again in theaters, but the running time of 3 hrs and 7 minutes took a lot away from the pace of the movie. Grade: B+ for being a fun adventure film with some humor and a story that is just awesome. I think it gives you everything you expect...and then some.
The PG-13 rating may be for the islanders that the film crew discovers because they are pretty disturbing-looking. At least the three people I saw it with thought so. Also, there is some wicked fights between the King Kong and some...animals.
Grade: B+. This is how movies are supposed to be made.
~~Stop here for no Spoilers~~
The film starts out with James Newton Howard�s score and an old-time look for the opening (and ending) credits. Then it cuts right into a montage, a good old-fashioned montage (because of the old-time music) showing some entertainers on-stage, like juggling, dancing, acting, and clowning, it is there for a humorous effect and to introduce Naomi Watts into the movie. The theater where she works is then taken down, and she�s out of a job. Way to make a short story long with this introduction to �King Kong,� but then Jack Black is introduced. And what can I say; he�s the scene stealer and is, therefore, the star of this movie.
But let me break it down. The movie is long, and feels long. But I think it felt longer than it was because so much stuff happens, even though so many minutes are wasted on unneeded extended scenes. And there�s some character development of unimportant characters. We pretty much only care about the film crew on the boat. But let�s break this movie down first...
Indroduction/Parte uno: New York...�Plot thicker� to show the troubled lives of our two main characters (Jack Black and Naomi Watts).
Parte Dos: The boat (Introduces and develops Adrien Brody�s character, and shows how people made movies back in the day...1933, I believe). Also, Naomi�s and Adrien�s characters kinda fall for each other. Kyle Chandler plays an old-fashioned stereotypical actor. He gives the film even more of an old-fashioned feel. Soon, but not too soon at all, fog surrounds the ship. This may feel like a long and drawn-out scene similar to the iceberg scene in �Titanic.�. My train of thought was: �If this movie has to be 3 hours long, why are they spending so much time waiting to crash into the island?�
Parte Tres: The Island...Not only do our characters discover who lives on this island, but Naomi is kidnapped and used to be a sacrifice to the monster. She�s kidnapped by whatever people live on the island, and even though they�re only in the movie for the purposes of using Naomi as a sacrifice, they really aren�t used except to look gross. They�re not bothersome gross, they�re rather unique looking, but they were almost unneeded. Jack Black unleashes some anger on them, though. The choppy camera visuals, I didn�t like. I wouldn�t have used them. Naomi still gets kidnapped, though, and for her sacrifice scene, there are some cool fly-over camera shots that looked like deleted camera scenes out of �Lord of the Rings.�
The biggest part the movie is where Adrien Brody must save Naomi from the jungle of the island. The crew from the ship and Jack Black (with his camera and most of his film crew) tries to help find the girl, too. On the way, they run into a herd of brontosaurus�, I mean...a herd of brontosaurus� runs over them in a scene one critic said �is better than �Jurassic Park,� and also some giant scorpion-like things, not to mention huge slugs that bite off Andy Serkis� head (he played Gollum in �Lord of the Rings�)...(and he plays King Kong, apparently). Adrien is able to continue trying to rescue Naomi. Naomi, meanwhile, is attacked by giant millipedes (which actually is used as a comic-relief scene, just there to gross some people out to laughter). Then she�s attacked by Tyrannosaurus�, which may be a tribute to Steven Spielberg�s scenes in �Jurassic Park� in which the eyes of the raptors watch its prey. But King Kong comes to her rescue in an enormous (and sometimes brutal) fight scene that ends well. She goes on to entertain the King Kong, making the giant gorilla/ape laugh and be entertained...until he gets tired and sits to watch the sunset. Naomi climbs into his hand, deciding she likes him and is thankful that he saved her life, and they pretty much sleep together. This is when Adrien Brody finds her and tries to rescue her. Kong of course sees them, and tries to attack Adrien, but to his benefit, giant bats fly him and Naomi away.
In a suspenseful, tension-filled scene, nice slow motion was used to make the audience ask "What is Jack Black going to do? Oh no. Why is he going to do that to King Kong?� Jack Black (who has lost all the footage for his movie (that he risked his life and career to make) decides to use the chemicals on board the ship to put Kong asleep. This is of course successful, yet director Peter Jackson skips mentioning how they got the giant Ape on the boat. We, the audience, have to use our imaginations. Of course, if gorillas can be 25 feet tall and can take on three tyrannosaurus Rexes at once, then our imaginations can be further stretched to assume that the gorilla was put on the ship without waking up.
Parte cuatro: Kong is held captive for the purposes of show business. Jack Black�s character uses him to get-rich quick and to show off to the world. Jack Black may be the bad guy of the movie (unless you count King Kong himself, who does kill plenty of people), but we love him (and we love Kong). King Kong escapes and goes on a serial killing rampage looking for blonde women (Naomi Watts). Naomi comes back into the movie, still without a word, and just uses her sweet face to show Kong some love. This is right after Kong flips Adrien Brody�s car completely around. Adrien reportedly did all of his own stunt driving. They have a cute scene together on some ice. It�s some really thick ice, for those of who just don�t understand. It�s a nice scene and beautiful. Peter Jackson shows himself off as an artist, but the scene ends with a missile blowing up the ice.
Finale: King Kong carries Naomi to the top of the Empire State Building, and then some planes fly by. This scene is really spectacular to watch and it�s probably the best looking scene (when it comes to special effects). With the fly-by camera work and even the sound effects of machine guns and plane motors. Kong�s pain gets him weak, and Naomi looks at him one final time, crying her eyes out (I think this scene should have gotten to me in an emotional way, but Kong is bad, and I didn�t really care for Naomi)...and watches Kong�s body slide off the top of the building.
That�s the movie in a nutshell. If you have 3 hrs and 7 minutes to spend sitting down (I�d recommend a theater that doesn�t hurt your ass), then see �King Kong.� You�ll have fun being scared, being thrilled, being emotional, and being happy. This is what the movie business is for, entertainment. If it wasn�t a remake, it�d be one of the most creative movies ever. It creates a whole other world.
It may not be Oscar-worthy, but, too often, not even those movies are as fun as they should be.
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