King Kong

So this is movie review week. My new found access to movies through the library has allowed me to see some movies that I would not have paid to see in the theater. I picked up a copy of the latest version of King Kong and begrudgingly liked it. It was directed by the guy who did the Lord of The Rings trilogy and it had all of the special effects and grandeur of those films. The beginning however, was so slow that I almost did not make it to see Kong.

This was pretty close to the original but the visual effects were outstanding. It was a computer generated gorilla that demonstrated that he was indeed the king of the jungle. One of the scenes has him fighting 4 tyrannosaurus rex that are trying to eat up his beautiful bride. He has them by the throat using both his hands and feet and the gymnastics are nothing short of brilliant. It makes the original’s stop action look like a kindergarten attempt at cinematography. Of course with today’s technology, I may be underestimating our 5 year olds.

By the end of the film, you are very much into the Kong character. They created a personality for him and the interaction with the “Fay Wray” character, Naomi Watts, creates an emotional event. You begin to feel for the majesty of the noble beast as man circles in the bi-planes and shoots at him. He is only trying to survive and man has removed him from his element. Man is bad. Beast is noble. Beauty conquers all. The remake had that immortal line, “Twas beauty killed the beast.” Unfortunately, the dragging beginning to this film killed the movie.

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