Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
New member
I had been looking forward to seeing this movie for over a year. Movies that deal with survival in the jungle, or rugged wilderness, have always appealed to me. A couple of my all-time favorite movies dealing with survival and harsh conditions would be First Blood, Predator, Jeremiah Johnson, and the original King Kong. The new movie cost over 200 million to make; I think they could have saved 50 million by shortening the first hour of the movie, which all takes place in New York during the depression. If I was going to see it again, I would skip the first hour. The movie is 3 hours and 7 minutes long.
Once the ship "crashes" into Skull Island, the action rolls on almost non-stop. Sometimes, its even overkill, such as a brontosaurus stampede, intertwined with 20 people and half a dozen raptors, all running intermixed down a 20 foot wide ravine... ending in a big pileup, such as you would find at the one yard line of a football game. The computer animated special effects were pushed so far in this sequence, that you can almost see the seams, and easily spot several not-so-real-looking moments. The island natives are more like zombies that human
King Kong was great, very well-done, although his expressions at times seemed a bit too human. In one sequence of the movie, he takes on not one, but 3 T-Rex's at the same time. He does all this while holding the girl in his hand, or tossing her to the other hand (or foot)when he needs the opposite arm. That fight ends up rolling into a deep vine-strewn chasm, where Kong and the 3 dinosaurs continue fighting while hung up in the vines, and dropping several stories at a time. There is all so giant bugs aplenty
Generally, the special effects were great. Once Kong is captured, the story line is picked up back in New York city, where he is poised behind the curtain for his entry as the 8th Wonder of the World. Kong's subsequent escape and rampage through New York is pretty well done. And of course his battle on top of the Empire State building, where he finally succumbs to the relentless machine guns from the bi-planes.
All in all, I give the movie an A-. There were a couple of corny parts, and I thought a couple of characters whose story didn't need to be in the movie as nothing ever became of them.
Vernon
Once the ship "crashes" into Skull Island, the action rolls on almost non-stop. Sometimes, its even overkill, such as a brontosaurus stampede, intertwined with 20 people and half a dozen raptors, all running intermixed down a 20 foot wide ravine... ending in a big pileup, such as you would find at the one yard line of a football game. The computer animated special effects were pushed so far in this sequence, that you can almost see the seams, and easily spot several not-so-real-looking moments. The island natives are more like zombies that human
King Kong was great, very well-done, although his expressions at times seemed a bit too human. In one sequence of the movie, he takes on not one, but 3 T-Rex's at the same time. He does all this while holding the girl in his hand, or tossing her to the other hand (or foot)when he needs the opposite arm. That fight ends up rolling into a deep vine-strewn chasm, where Kong and the 3 dinosaurs continue fighting while hung up in the vines, and dropping several stories at a time. There is all so giant bugs aplenty
Generally, the special effects were great. Once Kong is captured, the story line is picked up back in New York city, where he is poised behind the curtain for his entry as the 8th Wonder of the World. Kong's subsequent escape and rampage through New York is pretty well done. And of course his battle on top of the Empire State building, where he finally succumbs to the relentless machine guns from the bi-planes.
All in all, I give the movie an A-. There were a couple of corny parts, and I thought a couple of characters whose story didn't need to be in the movie as nothing ever became of them.
Vernon
