King Kong

[GAC]

I took the kids to the matinee yesterday to see King Kong. 3 hours long.

Excellent movie that was pretty faithful to the original (along with the 30's setting).

Overall I gave it three stars out of four because the first 30-40 minutes of it kinda dragged IMO trying to set up character development. Also - a sequence involving a dinosaur stampede was kinda hokey (won't say much more).

But once they got to Skull Island this thing took off. The computer generated graphics were phenomel to say the least. Andy Serkis (who also was Gollum in TLOTR's trilogy) once again provided the movements (he spent some time studying gorillas to prepare) and the CG teams have afforded Kong incredible subtlety in the facial expressions.

This ape had character and personality, and simply wasn't presented as some sort of Universal Pictures horror monster. Jackson did a great job making Kong's mannerisms and habits very "apelike" (he just happened to be 25 ft tall that's all). The relationship and closeness that developed between Kong and Naomi Watts were done very well. The final sequence, where they are both on the top of the Empire State Building was rather "poignant" and was like a "Titanic" moment. I was waiting for Kong, when he pounded his chest, do his Leonardo DiCaprio impersonation and scream "I'm on top of the world!