Review of King Kong (2005) by Dan H — 08 Jul 2015

A bloated film that runs at an unnecessary 3 hours and tries too hard, that said it still succeeds despite itself. You can't help but feel that the first and last acts have a good deal of filler material in it, but the 2nd act on Skull Island is where the film really shines.

For a PG-13 film, it's brutal (many people and creatures die entertainingly cool and intense deaths) and disgusting (lots of gross insects and creatures, and one pretty grody death). Naomi Watts makes Ann Darrow into a real character, and we believe that she actually has feelings for the big ape, Adrian Brody does a fine job as Jack Driscoll, and even Jack Black manages to impress every now and then (He doesn't convincingly sell all of his lines, but most of his reaction shots are believable and his final classic line is delivered pretty convincingly.

His character is supposed to be somewhat unlikeable but still likable enough. It's a right rope that Black walks well enough). Andy Serkis' performance as Kong is also completely believable, although I will say he acts way too human at some points.

The CGI is also pretty good and believable except for a few scenes where it interacts with human characters. I will say the CGI 1930's NYC and Skull Island environments were convincingly done and both were pretty impressive.

Overall, this Kong is a mixed bag. It can't match up to the original classic, there's not as many memorable moments here, I don't agree with the focus on trying to make this film a huge epic, it's way too long, and it's likely a film you won't revisit often but I still found it to be a vastly entertaining and fun ride.