Review - King Kong
Dec. 20th, 2005 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI don't know about everyone else, but I think I really enjoyed it. I never saw any other version, so I don't know how much of my impressions are due to that, and how much to the remake.
* The pacing felt good to me. Only a couple of times did I find myself waiting, sure what would happen next. OK, the whole three way giant lizard chase was silly, but I loved it. I liked all of the scenes in the depression and the boat, though some people were impatient iirc.
* I loved all the characters. The captain and some others were stereotypes, but everyone was different, and comprehensible, and mostly likeable.
* Amazingly, they weren't very stupid. I never found myself thinking "why didn't they...?" That's not to say they didn't make mistakes, but not *obvious* ones, or only when they were running fast.
* A few nitpicks: Can't steamships reverse when encountering shallow foggy water? How come everything runs at human running pace, unless it's chasing a jeep, when it goes at that pace? The bit with "It's not an adventure book, is it?" was rather blatant.
* Effects were pretty cool. About as non-silly as giant animals ever can be. Were the worms from beetlejuice, or what? Were they the only thing that wasn't an enlargement or adaption of a known animal?
* The millions of extended chase scenses -- the stampede, the three way, the hanging in vines, the creepies in the chasm -- were silly, but I enjoyed them. Even when I knew the mainest characters would survive, I often felt nervous for the others.
* In fact, some of the deaths were a bit sad, more than you often get in an action movie.
* I almost expected a disclaimer on the screen during the finale saying "We're sorry! The planes attacking the big building were in the original, we didn't have a choice. And Tolkien so did call his book 'the two towers'!"
* A few dollops on feminism onto Ann in the first ten minutes, I wonder if that was original or inserted. There's only so much you can do if you have only one female character. They did have one fairly cool non-tribal black guy :)
* The pacing felt good to me. Only a couple of times did I find myself waiting, sure what would happen next. OK, the whole three way giant lizard chase was silly, but I loved it. I liked all of the scenes in the depression and the boat, though some people were impatient iirc.
* I loved all the characters. The captain and some others were stereotypes, but everyone was different, and comprehensible, and mostly likeable.
* Amazingly, they weren't very stupid. I never found myself thinking "why didn't they...?" That's not to say they didn't make mistakes, but not *obvious* ones, or only when they were running fast.
* A few nitpicks: Can't steamships reverse when encountering shallow foggy water? How come everything runs at human running pace, unless it's chasing a jeep, when it goes at that pace? The bit with "It's not an adventure book, is it?" was rather blatant.
* Effects were pretty cool. About as non-silly as giant animals ever can be. Were the worms from beetlejuice, or what? Were they the only thing that wasn't an enlargement or adaption of a known animal?
* The millions of extended chase scenses -- the stampede, the three way, the hanging in vines, the creepies in the chasm -- were silly, but I enjoyed them. Even when I knew the mainest characters would survive, I often felt nervous for the others.
* In fact, some of the deaths were a bit sad, more than you often get in an action movie.
* I almost expected a disclaimer on the screen during the finale saying "We're sorry! The planes attacking the big building were in the original, we didn't have a choice. And Tolkien so did call his book 'the two towers'!"
* A few dollops on feminism onto Ann in the first ten minutes, I wonder if that was original or inserted. There's only so much you can do if you have only one female character. They did have one fairly cool non-tribal black guy :)