The Earth's Mightiest Movie Review - King Kong

I want to thank Lee of The Butler Did It as my inspiration for my movie reviews....I hope I can do a tenth as good as him. I only review movies my wife and I watch. Visit his blog and keep track of 21 Movies to make your Drop the Remote.

That being said.....(Small Spoilers....after all this is King Kong....you know what happened!)

It must be nice to have a billion dollar movie under your belt. It can get you all kind of favors. Peter Jackson parlayed his success with The Lord of the Rings trilogy to ask the studios to let him make his favorite movie of all time. King Kong, this version, was definately a Peter Jackson movie.

From the opening, New York was in its matte and model excellence. However, I think he might have done a little better by including more of the ACTUAL city in it. I wish I knew the number of matte and effect shots in the first 30 minutes of the movie. The first part of the movie moved so dreadfully slow. It was painful to sit through. Thank Goodness for our new couch! Jack Black just did seem like he fit in this movie. He did ok, but ..hmmm...I dont know....I just didn't buy him as this character. Adrien Brody was ok as Driscoll, but could he have spoken any softer. I could barely hear him during this movie? Naomi Watts was ok as Ann Darrow, but her scenes with Kong....well, just didn't spark anything. It did seem to me that other than the obivious relationship she had with Kong, it just didn't gel with me. I couldn't feel the connection between the two even after what all Kong did to save her. She was much better in the first 30 minutes of the film. I would liked to have had one scene in the movie that was set on the ship on the way home showing Kong on board, but I can understand this because of the grand appearance of Kong in shackles. My favorite scene was the end. No..not the end of the movie, but the Empire State Building sequence. In my opinion, this was done perfectly. Ann was moving kinda fast and sure footed for being up that high, but I can overlook that. I have acrophobia and my gut was in knots when they were up that high. Thats how bad I have it. Kong's demise was played perfect. That was great moviemaking. The only thing that was wrong at the end was Jack Black saying the last lines "....twas beauty killed the beast....." Shouldn't he be in police custody by now?? Did Denham finally get a heart? Great words, but wasted on Black. I guess the Denham character said it in the original so Jackson kept it in this one.

All in all, a good movie. Jackson was able to make his dream movie. Now, lets move on, shall we? Three out of Five Stars.

By the way, the spider picture is the only surviving still remaining of a cut scene from the original movie. This scene was at the bottom of the pit after Kong threw the giant log down in it, including the rescue party that was clinging to it. It was considered too shocking for the time and took away the menace of Kong. Jackson instead used the pit filled with giant bugs and maggots. I was wondering if Jackson was going to pay homage to the cut scene, but two consecutive movies with giant spiders would be too much, ya think?