I love this thread because I've loved KK since the first time I saw the original. I've wanted someone to "redo" the original for a long time and am happy it finally happened.
I agree with Craig here. In my mind, the action scenes all ran too long. The "thundering herd" was especially offensive in this respect. If the action scenes were cut down and the running time closer to 140 minutes, I believe the film would have been tighter and would ultimately make more money because 1) it's better, 2) more showings per day would be available to theaters, 3) the shorter/tighter version would be more appealing and less exhausting to the repeat viewers. Finally, although I appreciated the "ice" scene as a new and creative addition to the story, I had problems with his weight not cracking the ice and I felt the scene somehow didn't fit. It just seemed to come out of left field. All in all, I still love beauty and the beast and give it a solid 8-8.5. DBT -----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Craig Miller Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 1:14 AM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] King Kong the 3rd At 03:31 AM 12/27/05 -0500, JR wrote: >And the whole impossible sequence just went on for way too long, after it had lost all emotional impact, with ever-more absurd details being thrown in. > I think in that sentence you capture the bigget problem with Jackson's King Kong. Most everything goes on too long. I like the movie better than you -- I'd give it an 8 or 8.5 -- but it definitely could be trimmed. I like the opening hour; he brings a lot more depth of character to the story, makes the players human. And I think much of the last hour is fine, though I agree with you that Kong needed to respond with wonder to the cold weather and the snow and ice. (Though there is a problem with Kong's weight in this sequence. SPOILER WARNING! He shouldn't be so heavy that his climbing up into the empty theater balcony causes it to collapse -- considering how many people would normally fill that space -- yet he does. But that massive monkey doesn't crack the ice on Central Park Lake? Must have been one hell of a long cold winter for the lake to be frozen that thick.) But the worst offender is the middle hour or so on Skull Island. How much land the natives lived on didn't bother me. But that every action sequence went on twice as long as it should have did. And there were too many of everything. We didn't need an entire herd of giant dinos. A couple running from the raptors would have been fine. (I also thought the effects in the stampede sequence were among the weakest in the film.) A bit more restraint on the volume of action and some judicious editing, to bring the film down to 2:30 hours or so from its current 3:07 would have gone a long way to bring King Kong much closer to a 10. Craig. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Craig Miller Wolfmill Entertainment [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
