Kong

[gamemaster]

Was pretty good. I enjoyed the hell out of all three hours. I went with my company as a outing and will probably watch it again with my girlfriend but im pretty excited to see it again.Dont want to give anything away but it was alot darker at times then I thought it would be.

[gwffantrav]

It looks like it's not making as much as they thought it was...but doesn't mean it's a bad movie.

[Chris Ingersoll]

This was an emotionally-draining 3 hours.

[soug]

i really enjoyed it....and it didnt feel like 3 hours

[gwffantrav]

Just curious Chris, why was it emotionally draining? The length, story, or what?

[Chris Ingersoll]

All story.

Just draws you in and drags you through all of it's ups and downs. Even knowing the original doesn't help: the 30's version was only 100 minutes; this one is nearly twice that length, so there's a lot more time devoted to developing the relationships between the characters -- especially Kong and Ann. Jackson paced things extremely well, with several calm, tender moments that aburptly erupt into manic action and just wrench your emotions.

[pikemojo]

I can't really agree about the emotions of the story. It didn't really hit me much at all. I did really love the movie. It starts out kinda slow but does so for a reason. It really just builds til they get to the island (hopefully not considered a spoiler). From that point forward I was hooked. The parts that I really loved/hated were the heights and the creepy crawly bugs. I have always had a fear of heights and watching some of the falls and the great looking down a cliff, building, tree shots were actually kinda triggering that fear. Part of that is because I saw it on the really big screen at my theater but it was also due to the way that it was shot. The bugs looked so realistic it made your skin crawl. And then the action, ooohhh the action. Amazing. Just go see it and have some fun.

[ringsyde]

I just came from seeing KING KONG. My first reaction is man, what a movie!

I agree with Chris here. This movie drew me in to the pace, made me respect the characters and had me completely exhausted by the end.

Considering how much effort and style he puts into the making of things he's passionate about, I can't wait to see how Peter Jackson handles HALO (the movie).

[Darth Turkish]

A bit OT, but is Jackson going to tackle The Hobbit?

[gwffantrav]

Found this funny little "tidbit" on Kong in Entertainment Weekly. The new one didn't want to "feature Island natives who come off like a grotesque parody of African tribes."

So, they're "portrayed by a mix of actors--Asian, African, Maori, Polynesian--sprayed with dark makeup to achieve a consistent pigmentation.

So they didn't want them to all be black, but "sprayed them with dark makeup" so they would all look alike.

Pretty darn funny...RingsYde...where are you!

[pikemojo]

Well the natives were pretty creepy lookin. They had some great costumes.
As for The Hobbit, I think he said he might do it sometime down the line. That is just something I heard somewhere, sometime.

[nelson]

isnt the hobbit and lord of the rings the same?
neil

[Chris Ingersoll]

No. The former is a more child-oriented precursor to the latter.

[ringsyde]

Sorry Trav, I was still trying to stop laughing and scratching my head in humorous confusion over this.

What's really funny about this is that Peter Jackson himself often joked about how bad Japan's Godzilla vs King Kong movie was, and he was particularly brutal about using Asian actors in paint to portray island natives.

Well, you can never accuse him of not being a traditionalist.

[stephenvegas]

I saw King Kong yesterday afternoon and it is definitly the best movie I have seen in months. For the year, King Kong is up there with (in no particular order) Sin City, Kingdom of Heaven, Cinderella Man, and Batman Begins as my favorite movies of the year.

[Chris Ingersoll]

Wow... you liked Kingdom of Heaven that much? I mean, it wasn't completely offensive or anything, but "Ridley Scott's Middle Ages Adaptation of Gladiator" didn't exactly bowl me over.

[stephenvegas]

admin said:

Wow... you liked Kingdom of Heaven that much? I mean, it wasn't completely offensive or anything, but "Ridley Scott's Middle Ages Adaptation of Gladiator" didn't exactly bowl me over.

On further reflection, I probably shouldn't have put Kingdom of Heaven alongside Cinderella Man, Batman Begins, and especially Sin City as my favorite movies of the year. But I would definitely rank Kingdom of Heaven in my second tier of personal favorites alongside movies such as Walk the Line and A History of Violence.

However, I sincerely liked Kingdom of Heaven for a number of reasons. I really like historical epics (but I thought last year's Alexander really sucked). I liked how the movie differed from other epics because it looked at the Crusades more objectively by not favoring either of the two sides and indeed even suggesting that they could have lived together peacefully if it weren't for extremists on both sides. I also thought the final battle for control over Jerusalem was incredible.

[Chris Ingersoll]

Yeah, "second-tier" is about where I'd put it too, for pretty much all the reasons you gave.

[pikemojo]

I also really enjoyed Kingdom of Heaven. It was kind of hard to follow the actual story without really knowing the entire history of the crusades. Everything else about it I enjoyed for all of the same reasons as the 2 above.

[gwffantrav]

Just curious, I saw it was out of the top 10 this week. Now granted, it made over 200 Million so far, but does the industry consider Kong to be a flop since they thought it would have done over 300 Mil so far.