Layman movie Review: KING KONG 2005

Dude, what the hell? I had such high hopes for this movie, but Peter Jackson is clearly out of control. For his next movie, he needs to reign it the fuck back in.

Damn, I really wanted to like this movie. I loved all three Lord of the Rings movies, and their expanded counterparts, but they were were adapting a 1000-something pages of a giant-ass book trilogy, while King Kong takes the original hour and a half movie and stretches it out to eternity.

Every single action sequence in the new King Kong went twice as long as it should have. The rampaging dinosaurs, the fight in the spider pit, the fight against the T-Rexes (one should have sufficed, not three) and even the cab-ride to escape the ape scene in New York. Plus, the first hour really should have been cut up by a half an hour. It's sad, because here's a movie that could have been great, if only I was a film editor and had final cut.

Anyway, the CGI with the ape really was astounding, and the moments with Naomi Watts--who is not exactly hard on the eyes--were the highlight of the film. But why the subplot about Jimmy the sailor boy? There was no resolution, unless (the likely scenario) it was left on the cutting room floor (where much of the rest of the movie should have been.) And did anyone notice that the long "filming in the island with Anne and telling her to scream" sequence, which was shown in the extended theater trailer, was not actually in the movie.

I don't want to make it sound like I hated the movie, because I didn't. But I was definitely numbed by all its excess. Probably not something I'd buy when it comes to DVD. You want to see a really great Peter Jackson movie? Rent "Heavenly Creatures."