King Kong (12a)
Dir. Peter Jackson
Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)
"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And from that day, he was as one dead..."
And lo, after three hours of awesome, jaw dropping monkey madness, I have to tell you, I was still hungry for more. Yes, prepare yourselves because things are going to get seriously hairy in a cinema near you this week! You may not be surprised that Peter ‘Lord of the Rings’ Jackson’s new version of the classic monster movie King Kong looks the business.
Kong himself is excellent, pushing the CGI effects envelope to a new level and bringing real character and heart to the screen thanks in no small part to the work done by Andy Serkis. After spending months studying real gorillas, he was motion captured by computer in a similar way to how he ‘acted’ the part of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, and it works a treat.
Everything on offer here is pure quality, Naomi Watts is absolutely ravishing as the blonde who steals the heart of the great hairy backed beast (no, I didn’t mean Peter Jackson but then he did seem quite taken with her when I met them both at the London press conference last week). Actually, the cast as whole work well, and Jack Black proves that he can deliver more than just laughs as the slimy but intrepid filmmaker Carl Denham.
You probably don’t need much of a plot recap – it really doesn’t matter if you’ve already seen King Kong in it’s classic 1933 version and / or the camp 1976 remake – King Kong 2005 is a film you simply must experience on the big screen. Jackson has gone all out to deliver 110% entertainment – you can tangibly feel his love of all things monster related e.g. why have Kong fight a single T Rex when he can be faced with three? Speaking of which, there are stand out scenes both on Skull Island and in the beautifully recreated New York. I guarantee you’ll grimace when faced with the ‘bug valley’ that includes leeches, which make even the carnivorous ones in Lemony Snicket look tame.
And you’ll be a hardhearted person indeed if there’s not a tear in your eye when Kong faces his tragic destiny atop the Empire State Building.
What with the excellent Narnia last week and now King Kong, cinema goers are in for a couple of festive treats. Christmas really has come early for lovers of big scale action adventures…
Darkmatt Rating: öööö (impressive - not ape sh*t)
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4 comments:
Is it not just infeasibly, bum numblingly, unbearably long?
OK I've seen it now. And yes, it is. My review on my blog....
Naomi should have died 20 times in the movie. Yet after every neck snapping scene, every dinosaur trodding scene and every vine catching scene, she remains totally unscathed. This movie is CR**
Thanks someone for the positive review. I just saw it again on DVD and I think it is just brilliant. I'm going to write my own review now.
It makes me laugh at the people who say it's "unrealistic" that Naomi Watts comes out unscathed after everything she goes through and all the other things they pick at, as if an island with dinosaurs and big apes are commonplace. That's exactly what I love about the film. It doesn't take itself that seriously and Ann Darrow can go through mud and vines, and still look so glamorous.
Anyways, I love this movie, and people should leave if they think it's too long. I love it. I want more.
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