Prairie Sable Movies and TV

This section contains my reviews and musings on various TV shows and movies. Some of the movies or TV shows may be currently still in the theatres or on TV but not exclusively. I will note when a TV show or movie comes from another media source, such as a DVD.

King Kong

The first review that is up is the movie King Kong that was released on the 14th of December. This movie is getting huge critical acclaim from pro and amateur movie reviewers. It is a good movie but I was not as impressed with it as the reviewers have been for these reasons:

The way the "natives" of Skull Island were portrayed. They were like demons essentially. Nothing really human about them nor did they seem to have much social aspects about them. They were definitely a far cry from the "natives" in the original. Oddly, after "sacrificing" Watts they were never seen again.
Giant bugs. I didn't have much issues with the brief scene with large mosquitos when they first head off after Darrow, but there is a part later where there are massive, nasty bugs of some sort that not only are impossibly big but impossibly strong. This was all just much too over the top.
There is a scene where Kong takes Darrow to his lair that is filled with these, of course, giant bats (at least i think they were supposed to be bats) and they do not respond to any activity of Kong and Darrow then Driscoll and Darrow but as soon as Kong tries to stop Darrow and Driscoll the bats attack him. Other than obviously being a means of allowing Darrow and Driscoll to escape it was so illogical that it sort of left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and scratching my head, too.
I know the whole story is a beauty and the beast and gorillas are capable of human-like emotions/reactions but they go too far building this up. It gets silly when Kong finds Darrow after escaping the theatre and they "play" on the ice of (Central) Park. They just keep beating a dead horse with this love affair Kong has with Darrow.
Then there is Darrow charging around New York in the winter in just a evening gown and high heels. (I had forgotten about this point until reading about it elsewhere.) At least she may have warmed up in Kong's grasp for a bit but then she ends out on her own on top of the Empire State Building where the winds are higher and it would have been so very much colder.

Now don't get me wrong it is very faithful to the original and goes beyond it in some respects. The filming and effects are super but this film is not quite as good as the hype out there. Obviously many folks are still very endeared to Jackson for his LotR and view this work through very rose coloured glasses.

You will be entertained and amazed by some of this movie but it is not without fault. 3.5 out of 5

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