King Kong – mini review

Oh no! I’ve gone completely mad. I saw a remake and I loved it.

Carol and I went to see Peter Jackson’s King Kong yesterday and it was, in a word – great!

We wanted to see a movie yesterday. Although there are many films we’d like to see right now we narrowed our choices down to Walk the Line (which I will see eventually) and King Kong. Kong’s big screen appeal won out even though I had major reservations about seeing this flick at all considering the hype, the fact that Jack Black (who needs punching) is in it and the entire film is a CGI fest. I admit I went looking to be disappointed, but I wasn’t.

The movie had its flaws, namely some weak dialogue as pointed out by John at The Movie Blog, but overall it was a film worthy of my movie bucks.

Casting, even Jack Black, was good. Everyone pulled their characters off quite enthusiastically. A real feat considering a lot of what they were interacting with (namely a 25 foot gorilla) didn’t even exist. Naomi Watts truly owned her role as Kong’s obsession.

Kong himself was worth the trip, although he was not revealed until well into the movie. Perhaps this is a good thing as I wasn’t sure I’d “buy” the whole CGI ape thing from watching clips and trailers, but drawing the audience into a story before going completely CGI crazy did the trick. I was totally sucked in.

Peter Jackson deserves a pat on the back for pulling this one off.

Kong will be, and deservedly so, king of the box office this weekend.