Stuff by Steve

Synopsis: Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) remakes the 1933 story of a giant ape discovered on a mysterious island who falls in love with the leading lady of a movie that is filming on location there.

Peter Jackson has earned a solid - er, nigh infallible - reputation for himself of late, given the phenomenal success of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. For this reason, as well as my opinion of monster movies, I was looking forward to the film. Overall, I was not disappointed; I got a good monster movie, a good adventure movie, and an okay love story in the process. First, the good. The production values in this film were outstanding. From the set design to the special effects, everything blew me away. Kong and, in fact, most of the computer generated characters were animated in a very lifelike and believable manner. Skull Island, Kong’s home, was appropriately remote and creepy, with a “Lost World” feel that was quite enthralling. Also, I admit to having been a bit unsure of how Jack Black would come across in a serious role, but he and the others (yes, even Adrien Brody) pulled it off with style. Now, the bad. This movie was way too long. In fact, it could easily have been three movies. The first would have been called “Prelude to a Romance.” The second, “Adventure on Skull Island.” And the third, “King Kong goes to New York.” Except for the main characters and some loose motivation between the three “acts,” all three bits were distinct from each other. The romance that was built in the first act was never fully realized (maybe so as not to step on Kong’s toes when he himself fell in love with the girl). The middle part of the movie had so little to do with Kong and so much to do with the perils that befell the cast while visiting Skull Island that you almost forgot what the title of the movie was. And by the time we finally met Kong (about halfway through), we were narrowly guided through a series of events that all led to Kong ending up at the top of the Empire State building, like you always see on a poster with Fay Wray. With each of these acts being about an hour (the movie was just over three), they all felt a little rushed, since that wasn’t enough time to flesh out their individual stories. This seems odd since by the end I was squirming in my seat wondering what was taking so long for the end credits to roll. Just to clarify, this was an exciting film. I’d like to watch it again (maybe in three sittings) just to take in all of the wonderment that was so lavishly spread on the screen. But despite the length, the movie seemed to leave out some very important elements, and that made me wonder what the screen time was wasted on instead.