Movie Review: King Kong

Peter Jackson's King Kong vs the 1933 original is like the Sistine Chapel to Arts & Crafts at summer camp! The movie is 3 hrs long but I felt like I was there for only an hour and a half.I have to disagree with Javen on this one The emotion that was displayed between Anne Darrow (Naomi Watts) and Kong was far superior than anything Portman and Christensen displayed. A few years back when Final Fantasy: The spirits within came out in theaters there was a lot of commotion about technology and CG characters taking jobs away from real actors, Kong not only is the star of this film he is also one of the best performers, and he never says one word! The CG character made the audience laugh, cry, cheer, grip our chairs with our mouths wide open......... not too easy a task for any actor and this digital gorilla does it effortlessly.This is most definately not some B movie monster flick that will some day get MST'd.There are some very small issues I have as well, the scene in Central Park is not one of them. First minor issue is when Kong takes Darrow the first time I think her arms might have been dislocated, and the scene shortly afterwards when he is whipping her around....can you say whiplash or snapped neck, the animation was a tad poor there.The scene where Andy Serkis (Lumpy the Chef) becomes "worm food" is borderline Hellraiser scarry. I have a strong stomach and that made my stomach turn. Oh and if you have issues with bugs.....offer to go get a refill on the soda then they fall down the chasm on that tree bridge.....The inhabitants of Skull Island are stone cold ruthless, my only quib is if they are soooo isolated and modern civilization has yet to find them, why would they be so terrified of gun shots?I will say with full confidence this movie is worth full price admission and would rock to see it in Imax....it lends itself to it.The finale is pure movie magic and once again the emotion between Watts and a Digital Kong is phenomenal. It's always a good sign when the audience claps at the end of the movie, it's better (sometimes) when they walk out silent. Kong got both!

A