Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

by **king_ghidorah** » Wed May 11, 2011 5:06 pm

King Kong (2005)

I need to vent. This movie. This piece of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" movie.

I don't think I have ever been so excited to see a movie in my life with maybe the exception of The Lost World in 1997. Flash foward to 2005 where I was living in Japan, away from home for the first time, and life as I knew it revolved around the upcoming King Kong movie. I played the game for PS2, watched the original again, along with Mighty Joe Young, and Son of Kong. Read the book King of Skull Island. I was in a Kong mindset. I've always loved Godzilla and Gamera growing up, but I always had a softspot in my heart for Kong too (I'll admit, the story of Kong is probably the best involving a giant monster)

Kong is a Lovecraftian version of Beauty and the Beast (yes, Lovecraftian, no not all of Lovecraft had to involve tentacles or Cthulu) mixed in with dinosaurs and 1930's pulp adventure. It really is the perfect story.

I had all of this in my mind as I went to see Kong in a Japanese theater. I left the movie that night lying to myself, trying to concvince myself that I liked the movie more than I actually did.

Thing is, I've done this several times over the years with this film. I convince myself that I'm being too hard on it, and then I watch it again.

This film. This piece of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" film.

Almost an hour and a half until we see Kong! WTF! That's not dramatic tension, it's just boring. It could have been dramatic, but with the lackluster characters involved, and the fact that we know Kong is coming and we payed to see a giant ape, it's just an exercise in the more is more mentality that dominates this film.

One t-rex in the first film, THREE "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" V Rexes in this film!!! Kong isn't Superman! He'd get his butt kicked by 3 V/T Rexes! One of the great things about American monsters is that they are mortal, and when we care about them, we worry about them cause we know they can die.

The human characters are irrevelant.

Peter Jackson's directions is a hinderous to the wonderful world that WETA creates. Although even then, they are not without blame...the Brontosaurus stampede is one of the worst things I've ever seen in the history of film making. Not to mention, over the course of the movie, the ecosystem of Skull Island gets totally destroyed...there can't be that many large herbivores on an island that small, and if Kong takes out three V rexes too, well...you begin to see the picture.

Brody typing S K U L L I S L A N D is one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I've possibly ever seen

Kong is one of my favorite, if not tied with Godzilla, Gamera and the Gillman, characters of all time and this film in my mind was worse than GINO. I can watch GINO because eventually, it doesn't resemble a Godzilla movie in any way, shape or form. But with Kong 05, you can see the spectre of the thing you loved, pumped full of artificial crap and lousy directing (I'm not convinced at all Peter Jackson is a competent director, I've never enjoyed one of his films)

This f'n film. But damnit if I don't own a Mezco figure of Kong from it, the one thing this film got right were the majority of the creature designs. Kong looks perfect in this film. Sadly, he's not enough of a monster for my tastes in this film, and his entrance lacks any sort of build up, the 76 film did Kong's entrance much, much better.

Something about Kong being forced down our throats as sympathetic actually makes him less so in my book. I miss the old, scientifically incorrect, carnivorous, pissed off ape who eventually was revealed to have a kind, and gentle soul...

Also, the score for this film sucks. I don't think Kong has any real noticeable theme.

So, venting completed for now.

I'll stick to watching the 33, or even 76, version of Kong supplemented with the awesome Natural History of Skull Island book that Weta came out with.

Peter Jackson...F U

by **king_ghidorah** » Wed May 11, 2011 5:12 pm

One more thing to add...how sad is it that the game adaption of this was actually better than the movie itself. I think I cared more when Kong died the game too...

by **lhb412** » Wed May 11, 2011 5:15 pm

by **jellydonut25** » Wed May 11, 2011 5:23 pm

by **king_ghidorah** » Wed May 11, 2011 5:28 pm

by **kidnicky** » Wed May 11, 2011 8:22 pm

by **canofhumdingers** » Thu May 12, 2011 12:59 am

by **Tom R VanSlambrouck** » Thu May 12, 2011 4:40 am

by **Hybrid Gojira** » Thu May 12, 2011 8:58 am

by **Dr Kain** » Thu May 12, 2011 9:18 am

by **jellydonut25** » Thu May 12, 2011 10:03 am

by **Hybrid Gojira** » Thu May 12, 2011 11:29 am

by **king_ghidorah** » Thu May 12, 2011 6:29 pm

by **Tom R VanSlambrouck** » Thu May 12, 2011 7:31 pm

I didn't think KK05 was that bad, if you could get rid of the ridiculously long prologue then the film would be MUCH better. However once you get to Skull Island the pacing picks up then it slows down the last act of the movie.

by **king_ghidorah** » Thu May 12, 2011 7:58 pm

by **Mac** » Thu May 12, 2011 8:05 pm

by **kidnicky** » Thu May 12, 2011 8:14 pm

by **king_ghidorah** » Thu May 12, 2011 8:17 pm

by **Green Dragon** » Thu May 12, 2011 9:59 pm

Well, there's always the Special Expanded Edition on DVD, if you don't like the theatrical version of KK05.

Seriously, though...WAY too much plus the kitchen sink, this is living proof that there is something to be said for "Less is More."

Every freaking scene was amped up to 11 in true adoring fanboy fashion, from the intro NYC scenes, the Venture's voyage to Skull Island, and so much needless and irrelevant backstory, exposition, ancillary characters. Everything had to be dripping with meaning and subtext, to the point of being utterly excruciating!

We KNOW PJ loved the '33 movie and that this was his love letter to it (not sure how that works, but okay, whatever). The technical skill that went into it is marvelous, but again, WAY too much. (the WETA statue of Kong fighting the V-Rex was pretty amazing itself, even if the movie scenes were typically over the top)

There are plenty of admirable moments, mostly dealing with Skull Island. I liked the depiction of the natives and their village here more than the other movies, but even by the time you get to this point in the movie you're just over it. The way the island was teeming with insect life and every creepy crawly thing imaginable was neat to see, the old civilization's ruins....but the downside is just like everyone said...that brontosaur stampede is horrendous. The spider pit went on for far too long, in spite of some really ghastly scenes in there. The centipede scene inside the log, though....that got to me. (ever see one of those f****rs up close? :eek:

)

And just how many crew members get offed on Skull Island? In every scene/encounter, several guys get eaten, smashed, gored, hurled, obliterated, and it seems like an endless supply of them, in spite of Carl Denham's claim in NYC where "seventeen" met horrible death. And this doesn't count the scenes ADDED back into the Special Edition. :roll:

Again, New York scenes...beautifully rendered effects, but that Central Park frozen pond scene, oy vey. :roll:

By the time we get to Empire State Building, you've just been hammered with too much THIS IS EPIC stuff...all that EPIC EPICNESS just cancels each other out.

Music was competent, but not memorable....but considering that James Newton Howard had only like 3 weeks to put it together after Howard Shore was fired, it's pretty impressive. But again, all pomp, no circumstance.

Sad, really, because we know his intentions were well and good... all the talent was there, it's unfortunate it just didn't add up. (at least they didn't film his script from his 90's attempt to make the movie. I recall seeing that somewhere years ago and it was pretty lame and deviated horribly from the original story).

... but I still prefer this over the crassness of KK76 and the whole "AMAZING ROBOT EFFECTS" debacle used in hyping that movie. (Love John Barry's score for KK76, perhaps the best thing about that movie for me)

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