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Post by Stormrider on Jan 10, 2006 10:49:10 GMT -6
SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
I've finally seen Peter Jackson's King Kong!
It was pretty darn good. The depression era scenes were very realistic, there were a lot of automobiles etc. from that era used in the scenes, too.
The boat ride to Skull Island was a little long and PJ might have been able to cut that down somewhat.
The savages on the island were very scary and it will be interesting to see how PJ did the makeup on all those people when I purchase the DVD and look at the special features--which I am sure there will be plenty.
The brontosaurus stampede looked like it was a tough one to plan and choreograph. I was surprised not more people got stomped on during that scene!
The bug and slug scene was gross!
When Kong and Ann were on top the Empire State Building and planes were flying around, I got very dizzy. The whole movie theater seemed to be spinning and I wonder how PJ did that!
Kong's mannerisms seemed very life like and the relationship between him and Ann was touching.
I liked PJ's version. It was well done and kept your attention through it all.
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Post by Desi Baggins on Jan 11, 2006 6:29:19 GMT -6
All and all I give it a thumbs up. The boat ride really should have been shorter, I started to get bored and closed my eyes for a bit (I didn't fall alseep though). The island natives were very scary and I was glad my 5 year old was a sleep at that point. There was lots of action on the island. Some of it looked fake, but I didn't care. PJ definatly put in his share of scare. It really made you feel sorry for Kong. I have never seen a King Kong movie so I can't compare it...
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Post by Androga Erindalant on Dec 23, 2006 7:13:47 GMT -6
Oh my, I never replied on this thread. Of course, I've seen King Kong by now. Hey, I already saw it when it was still in theatres! 
I must agree with both of you. The film has been made very well. PJ put a lot of care in it. Very realistic giant. I love how that big bag of musscles reacts on Ann's acting scene. The tower scene was very touching too, as is the point where Kong is chained on stage, with a fake Ann. Some scenes had been too long though, with that boat scene as most famous one. PJ could have cut a bit there. That old woman from the island was creepy! I can still recall her image if I close my eyes! And it has been nearly a year since it came out lol.
Me neither saw the original, which is pity. I should get my hands on that one too, once. I hope I won't be too biased by today's special effects...
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Post by Andorinha on Dec 25, 2006 10:27:07 GMT -6
My wife brought the PJ version King Kong home last week, so we saw it on a smallish screen which may have diminished the show's impact considerably. It is my least favorite of the three versions, the old Black and White film with Faye Wray remains tops for me: a pure adventure work with animation that was very convincing back in the 1950s when I first saw it, and still the special effects hold up well enough that I can get into the story. It also seemed to have a tighter script with fewer side journeys than the Jessica Lange Kong, or the PJ offering (the boat ride that lasted forever!).
More Special Effects, does not, for me, make a better movie. I thought PJ's Kong was over-packed with computer generated impossibilities, like the giant bugs (you can only grow so big with an exoskeleton before you become immobilized under your own weight). The bugs were just a "filler" I thought, an attempt to keep the action level high for the impressionable minds of the kids who probably spent more money on the film than their parents. Oh well, tastes change, and I think PJ was probably correct in assuming that "creepy-crawliness" and action-on-top-of-action would be the successful, modern way to take the film.
I thought the Jessica Lange King Kong gorrilla was the best visual presentation, that one looked more realistically gorrilla-like; PJ's version seemed oddly misshapen, and the legs looked badly added to the torso, LOL! The dinosaurs, in PJ's movie I thought better done than those of the earlier films but the stampede was overdone and unbelievable to my mind. Dinosaurs would have so much inertia at a full run that a mere stumble would break even the heavy leg bones, and smacking into the cliff walls would have stopped them cold... Oh well, most of the audience does not figure mass X velocity = incredible impact force into their film pleasures. Also, there was so much violence in Kong's treatment of the heroine, that she would have to be made of steel and carbon-fiber to survive all that shaking?
My wife pointed out what she thinks is a progression from Kong 1 to Kong 2 to Kong 3: the heroines have been getting increasingly "chummy" with Kong; maybe in Kong Four, the gorrilla and gurl will be able to settle down peacefully somewhere in the Bronx Zoo and raise a flock of little blonde Konglets?
It wasn't, for me, a bad movie -- although PJ made the "natives" look too degraded, deformed and Orclike for my taste -- but, I prefer the fiirst treatment of the matter, and I still watch the old B&W version from time to time -- but I don't think I'll deliberately seek out PJ's version again. Maybe I'm just old...
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- 'It's an ill wind as blows nobody no good, as I always say. And All's well as ends Better!'
