King Kong (2005)

What do you get when you mix the nuclear hot Naomi Watts, super actor Adrian Brody, the lunatic Jack Black and a shining light on new Directors in Peter Jackson? King Kong the newly created, three hour masterpiece that I felt priveleged to have watched. Peter Jackson of Lord Of The Rings fame brings the ape to life with stunning cinematography, loveable characters and his trademark attention to detail.

Starting out during the Great Depression, Jackson shows us the life and hardships of the working class during this time period in America and then shifts it to a great adventure that ends in a storybook type of Tragedy. There are times of laughter with Jack Black’s erratic character and times of awe and feeling when it comes to relationships aboard the ship. I was very impressed with the handling of the character backgrounds, building you up their identity before throwing them into the struggle for life ashore the dreaded “Skull Island”.

There were scenes that I considered overkill a bit with the monsters… picture 7 foot leeches (I actually cringed) and various other overgrown insects… roaches suckling on human bodies and centipedes, that was just too much for the ten minutes that highlighted them… but that is my only gripe. The movie makes you respect Kong, even love him for what he is, just a big guy snatched from his world of big things to be chained and captured in a busy, small person’s city, away from his world and the little woman he had befriended. If Naomi Watts isn’t given an award for her acting in this movie, I will go Kong on Hollywood next year (beats chest and reveals lower fang). The CG on the big ape was sick, he looked real all the way down to his battle scars and the sadness in his eyes… Adrian Brody had very little screen time compared to Naomi but he brings his textbook charm to this epic.

Please, please, please go see this movie. With as many stinkers as this year brought, this one is a diamond and has earned itself my first Super rating, due to:

- Kick ass Cinematography
– Actors that can act (Naomi Watts omg HAWTE
– Realistic CG, masterful, just simply amazing
– Sticking to the Script (The movie follows the original)
– Attention to Detail (The Great Depression was done so well..)
– As much as I hate to blemish the record… the bugs were a bit too much.

Peter Jackson has shown now that he is great even beyond the shadow of Lord Of The Rings and I reviewed this movie with no comparisons to his former work… why you may ask? Because it is in a class of it’s own, I dislike when people do it and I refuse to. King Kong rocks, get out there and see it on the big screen!