King Kong!!!

So die Frau and I finally went and saw King Kong a couple weeks ago with Oscar and her Boo. A day late and a dollar short but here it is anyway...

What can one possibly say about one of the most amazing "popcorn" movies ever seen? I thought the movie was terrific. The only real gripe I had was the same as everyone else. The subplot with the kid. I'm going to take the opposite stance of most people though. I think that if you're going to go to the trouble of putting the subplot in the film then you should develop it as fully as you can. That, of course, gets you into the sticky realm of how much does one develop a subplot so that it doesn't become the story itself? Anyway, some people thought that the whole bit with the kid should have been left out. Sure it didn't advance the plot but when most of the movie actually is plot-based (that's refreshing) it's nice to have a diversion even when it ties in.

Did that make sense? I don't care.

I also thought that some of the dialogue ranged from ridiculous to leaden and overly serious. I thought that James Newton Howard's score (covered previously) worked quite well in the film. Was it an earth-shattering, groundbreaking work? No. For that matter, was the music for Lord of the Rings? Think about it. Anyway, I thought the music worked fine, I just wish that he could have come up with better tunes. It would have been nice to have something a little more grandiose, but what do you expect for 3 weeks work?

And then there's Naomi Watts. I've never seen her in anything else (no I haven't seen The Ring, Ring 2 or I Heart Huckabee's) but I can't help but think one of two things; 1) she's an incredible actress or 2) she takes direction extraordinarily well. I think it's probably a little of both. I think this because no one else in the movie has to interact with a non-existent Kong more than she does.

Kong is incredible. The characterization in the animation is absolutely astounding. I thought the eyes were especially terrific because you knew the moment that he died that it had happened because of the way his pupils dilated. The fur was great. It seemed like every aspect of Kong was well researched, planned and executed.

Overall you just get the sense that Peter Jackson really did want to make this movie for the past 35 years. It was lavished with so much attention and love that it was a wonderfully engaging moviegoing experience.

A friend of mine and I were joking that, since the technology exists and PJ is such a great director of both actors and computer generation, he should be allowed to remake Episodes I-III of Star Wars "The way they were meant to be seen!".