Is Kong King?

Was surprised by B with a couple of tickets to the hottest show on the Island. Nope – Not Scrooge (with the superb acting n laughs) but King Kong (movie by the Kiwi Peter Jackson). Yep – living in the Isle of Man means we get these worldwide releases approximately a month after all you others. But it’s the way we like it.

So. Is Kong king? A highly anticipated film, hyped beyond reason on the net, and I read gushing after gushing reviews for the remake that was about to raise the bar in filmmaking.

You can guess where this is going, huh. So I’ll start off with the good bits. The monkey was brilliant. Fantastically portrayed by Andy Serkis, who had done his homework and got into the whole Silverback Gorilla thing. The CG of Kong in the environments of Skull island and downtown New York were magnificently portrayed to give you a scope of beast in and out of his environment. The Landscape shots were also – beyond expectation. The research, imagination and shooting of the geography was breath-taking. The skull Island tribe was cool (if lacking in longevity). The set up of the main characters spot on. Especially Naomi Watts.

But – the film was ultimately disappointing.

The first hour was loooong. Set up lottsa characters (that many of them were pointless and without payoff). A few movie in-jokes did not make up for lengthy time it takes to get to Skull Island (itself was introduced as a map – but potential was left dangling). Once it hit the island, things stepped up, (despite a little “interesting” camera work which should have been left back at movie-studenthood).

The film felt unfinished in places. Not only did it jump along from a few scenes without necessary talky-bit explanations, but some of the CGI was laughable. Lots of the set pieces just did not work. Watching the stampede and the dino/human interaction was embarrassing. Dreadful mix that meant suspending belief beyond the norm – spliced with some ‘danger’ to try and detract from the ridiculous situation.

In fact, most of the action set pieces didn’t work for one reason or another. And other stuff that just fell flat or was left wanting: Insect attack that might have looked great on paper, ‘Save the day’ rescues, limp hero with unerring navigation, bat-things, comedy routine, monkey sign language, characters were just abandoned for the 3rd act, and do not talk to me about ice skidding in Central park. I burst out laughing – it was just so . . . naff.

Even the biggies – such as the T-rex fight was poor. Ignoring the fact that blondie would have crushed most of the bones in her non-screamy body and just kept staring at these monstrosities (without having the CGI monsters to react to must have been tough, but really, a flicker of the enormity of the beasts wouldn’t go amiss).

All in all – it’s a three hour bumnumbathon. Lord of the Rings was the movie set of the 21st Century. But be careful, PJ, cos that ‘magic touch’ does not transfer to everything you touch. A bit more effort has to be made before you can wheel stuff out.
King Kong will be a box-office wham. Although it’ll be a poor DVD release (until it hits the bargain prices). Peter Jackson has not made his ‘failure film’ as most Directors do after the rise in popularity. But it was a close call.