Kong is my boo

King Kong..........Wow.

***Numerous spoilage throughout - Go see it, then come back.

Anyways, so yeah, I loved that damn sonofabitch. A perfect movie? No, I didn't say that but there's not many I'd say that about. Certainly up at the top of my list for 2005 (along with Jarhead).

I'll admit, when I heard it was 3 hrs, I was like, "oh, c'mon Petey Jackson. Is it really necessary?"

It did not feel like 3 hours. It simply didn't. Now, could he have trimmed some fat? Sure, but when you think back to some of the earlier scenes, a lot of it was character-building stuff instead of just pointless drivel.

One thing I liked was the relationship between the Shipmate and Billy Elliot. I didn't think it was pointless at all, plus it didn't take up much screen time. It added something to these characters (also some of the other ship crew that we got to know). At least they had some CHARACTER instead of just walking targets. I liked what they did with the Lead Actor guy (I forget his name, he was in a fun show called Early Edition a few years back).

Didn't mind Jack Black, I thought he was pretty good as the obsessive (and very desperate) director. Colin Hanks was decent as his assistant.

Loved Watts, and Brody was great, too. Having him, the writer, down in the cages as his "room" was a nice touch.

NYC wowed me, it was amazing. Peter really nailed it right from the start.

The Ship crashing scene was quite a ride. And those Natives were just plain freaky as shit. Nightmare material, all of them, and that main freak-of-a-woman who kept yelling "Konga!" was nasty. The spider/weta/crickets/roach fight was horrible - In an amazing way. Yuck, man, that was like every nightmare I could have had all rolled into one scene.

All the dino stuff ruled. One of the fav parts was the stampede, although I've heard a few bitch about it. Believable? Well, yeah, cause it's a friggin' fun adventure movie about a giant ape, so I can take a dino stampede. I mean, some of the crew got crushed, you want to kill the leads, too? C'mon, people. You're not going to a movie called King Kong to see how realistic it is. But I loved when Billy Elliot (Just remembered his name was Jimmy in the movie) was dashing along the disintergrating cliff.

Now, his character was built-up a lot, and he did disappear after the island. But really, what can you do with him? Have him in NYC? The kid wanted to be on that boat, and that's likely where he stayed, although it would have been nice to get him in there at some point. Maybe he did get off the boat as the Shipmate told him to do (his life wasn't on the boat, he told him). Maybe have him stuggling in NY, then runs out and gets involved in the Kong stuff. But at that point you're already 2+ hours in and it starts to drag the movie down. I bet Jackson had it in there at some point but it had to go due to the already-long running time.

The climax was astounding. Central Park was beautiful, Kong having fun on the ice was really sweet. Walking slowly down the NY street was a nice touch. But since I knew what was coming, it made the scenes all the more tragic. I was sad for him. Dammit, I know it's Andy Serkis with Peter Jackson pulling his CGI strings, but they made me love that damn thing!

Empire State was perfect. His last stand was a thing of beauty, and one of my favorite shots (which just goes to show how friggin good Peter Jackson is) one of my fav shots EVER was when he fell off the building, tumbling and twisting, and those bi-planes zoom past the bottom of the frame. God dammit, Peter. You are good. You are insanely good.

Did I cry? Well, no, but I could feel it coming. Last time I cried at a flick was Saving Private Ryan. And that was actual sobbing, man. But I say this because I cried when it was the '70s version (Up yours, man, I was like 8 at the time!!!!!!).

You see, Jackson made this movie because you can see that he loved it. LOVED it. Which is why George Lucas really pissed me off. You can read back to one of my 1st posts to get my Star Wars/Sith rant, but I'll sum it up here: Lucas wasted the prequels on bullshit. Did they have great MOMENTS? Sure. But overall they are mostly unwatchable to me. And I'm a massive Star Wars nut.

But the detail and love and heart that went into King Kong shows on every frame. Every damn frame. This movie deserves to be kicking ass, I wish it was kicking more ass at the box office (Narnia is beating it this weekend) but maybe it'll have "legs" and make enough for people to call it a hit. I wonder what Spielberg (who still makes rocking great movies, by the way, can't wait to see Munich) and Lucas thought when they saw it.

King Kong deserves to be seen. Even if you might not LOVE it, it's not something to "wait for the DVD for." It needs to be seen in a theater. It just simply needs to be seen.