MOVIE REVIEW: King Kong

Outstanding movie. 3 hours is too much of a haul for some people, but I enjoyed the movie from beginning to end as it was well paced, excellently cast and shot, and really brought the classic to life with the incredible graphics.

Naomi Watts did much more than just scream (although she did a lot) and the relationship between the beauty and the beast felt authentic because of it. Probably deserving of recognition for the difficulty and success of her acting ability, whether or not a fantasy movie (albeit a hollywood classic) will come up in the big awards is a different matter. Excellent direction from Peter Jackson made for a well paced movie. Some will complain the movie was too long, and it could easily have been shorn here and there, but none of the scenes in the theatrical release felt overly long or unnecessary. As you would expect given his directing pedigree (Frighteners, LotR Trilogy), CG composite shots are brilliantly framed and realised. Excellent casting including Jack Black, Adrien Brody and especially Naomi Watts completed the picture.

Kong himself is wonderfully animated and acted. The emotion portrayed, and the expression within his eyes take digital charachters to a new level both graphically and artistically.

It's difficult to find much to criticise except for small scenes and moments that I personally didn't like. Maybe a bit stretched in the motivation behind Blacks charachter early on in the flight from New York, and I thought the savages were a tad too sterotypical. But altogether an excellent summer blockbuster!