You Know The Name Of....

[filkertom]

Anne's and my schedules finally meshed, and we saw Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Five thoughts, more than any others:

Naomi Watts should repel me. She's of the exact same physical type as Tara Reid and Tea Leoni. But then she moves, or smiles, or looks at something, or speaks, and the lights are on and she's great and that's why Tara and Tea will never be anything but in Naomi's shadow.

I don't think Peter Jackson has a bad shot in him.

I think George Lucas has been handily toppled from his "big-ass blockbuster king" status, if he hadn't been already.

I think that, rather than trying to do the original Kong over, this film makes me love the original even more. It's as if the original was the Cliff Notes version of a really great story that they just didn't have all the tools to tell yet, so compelling that it still works seventy-five years later. And now they've got the tools, and they told the whole story without invalidating the other in either content or form.

I think they should just fuckin' hand Andy Serkis the Best Actor Oscar.

Comments

[ericcoleman]

well ... she's not as sexy as Fay Wray ... but how many are

I thought it was brilliant, and I've been watching the old version (and the stuff that came with it) all week.

The original is one of my favorite movies of all time and this

It's as if the original was the Cliff Notes version of a really great story that they just didn't have all the tools to tell yet, so compelling that it still works seventy-five years later. And now they've got the tools, and they told the whole story without invalidating the other in either content or form.

is one of the best comments I have seen on the new one.

[kshandra]

I think they should just fuckin' hand Andy Serkis the Best Actor Oscar.

He's creating an entire new category for the goddamn things.

[denali1.livejournal.com]

George Lucas is Peter Jackson's red-headed stepchild. And Peter has a hickory switch...

I'm gonna be unpopular here

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

My main objection to the current Kong was the pacing. The most expensive scenes just dragged on and on and served as speedbumps rather than enhancements to the plot. Nobody has cojones big enough to tell Peter Jackson he needs an editor, evidently.

And the bugs were sheerly gratuitous. Ecch.

Original Kong Forever!

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I too had some problems with pacing. Diana and I found us several times waving our hands at the screen saying, "Okay, we get it, lets move on". I think it could have been a good 1/2 hour shorter, but overall it was a terrific film, amazing imagery and terrific jobs all around.

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, Lucas lost top spot when Fellowship of the Ring hit the theatres...

Why unpopular? It's whatcha think....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I can absolutely see that. The pacing worked for me, but there were a number of shots that did go longer than one might expect.

And the bugs, especially the (as Anne dubbed them) rectum dentata leeches, were the only part of the film we agreed was Way The Hell Over The Top, which is pretty tough to do in a movie with a giant ape and live dinosaurs.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

In a word, Word. ;)

Re: Why unpopular? It's whatcha think....

[ericcoleman]

That scene made the movie an R as far as I was concerned. Kids fled for the lobby with and without parents when I saw it. I'm glad I didn't bring the younger boy (for that and several other reasons)

We are all watching the original tonight though ...

And I didn't have a problem with the pacing, but I do prefer a more stately pace, I'm so sick of eMpTV cutting I could scream (but not as well as Fay)

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I second that emotion!

Tangentially...

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Someone just sent me this particularly well-written pastiche, I thought you would Get It:
"King Kong vs. Iron Chef Godzilla"
http://www.livejournal.com/users/osewalrus/22356.html

Re: Why unpopular? It's whatcha think....

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

Okay, since I'm going to be seeing the movie at some point in the next month, I think I'll go ahead and ask.

What's up with the bugs? I thought, from some of what I've heard, that there just happened to be very large insects in the movie.

I really want to see this movie, but I'd also like to know if I'm going to want to hide my head in my husband's chest for a scene or two before we get there.

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

I am so used to being the only 'Naomi' in any group that it always throws me a bit to see reference to another 'Naomi'.

Makes my like the name, actually. Just common enough that nobody does a double-take over it, and just uncommon enough that I was always the only 'Naomi' in my grade, if not school.

Big Spoiler Time....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Jackson stuck tight to the spirit and structure of the original Kong. Not too long after the scene where Kong throws everybody off the log is a scene which is supposed to emulate the famous "lost spider" scene that they've never found footage for, where the remaining crew is attacked by giant spiders.

In the current film, it's intense, and rather icky, and they ain't spiders, and when the few guys left (including Lumpy, which is a hint) regain consciousness at the bottom of the crevasse, that might be a good time to go to the restroom.

[james-rayner.livejournal.com]

Now that THIS is out of the way...

LET THE HOBBIT HAPPEN!

^0^

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the new one yet, but I watched the 1933 version with my family yesterday. I was honestly surprised by how good the movie was. I suppose that's why it remains a classic, seventy years later.

I'm really excited about Peter Jackson's version, now.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

If Jackson wants to do it because he has something he needs to say, it'll get done. If it's just the movie studio wanting to rake in more bucks, I hope Jackson will tell them to piss off. We do not need a bad The Hobbit to dilute the achievement of the brilliant Lord of the Rings.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Why do you think it would be bad? It's precisely because they did LOTR so well that it would be really cool to get a Hobbit while Sirs Ian Holm and Ian McKellan are physically able to reprise Bilbo and Gandalf.

Besides, you want more Hugo as Elrond. You know you do.

(What I want is Anthony Hopkins as the voice of Smaug. And I wouldn't kick at Brian Blessed as Beorn, and John Rhys-Davies as Gloin....)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The pacing, the photography, the effects, and most of all the story were like nothing ever seen up to that point, and I daresay it influenced almost as many movies as Metropolis. Unlike a lot of other "lost world" flicks, Kong really did feel as if you entered another world, and a very dangerous one at that.