Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you....Kong!

Yeah, I know I haven't written much lately. If you've read Brian's blog or know us personally you probably know that I got a new job last month, which has been the source of much business.

When Brian and I were in Minnesota over Christmas we went to see Peter Jackson's King Kong. Turns out the show time we chose to attend was on the "Ultrascreen" at the movie theater. (Most likely known at other theaters as "Giant Screen" or "Megascreen" it is a screen that fills up almost the entire front wall of the theater.) It made for a Kong-sized viewing experience, that's for sure. Towards the end there's a shot where you watch Kong falling off the Empire State Building and the camera rotates as Kong falls which gave me motion sickness.

All in all, I liked it, but I thought it could have been a lot shorter. I would have cut out a lot leading up to their getting to the island, and maybe cut out a little bit at the island itself. However, there were three major things that stood out about Kong the most.

One thing was that I really enjoyed seeing Jack Black in a more serious role. I didn't quite take to the way Carl Denham was painted as more of a bad guy than in the original, but least they kept his original closing line the same. It's such a classic line, I think I would have been upset if they hadn't kept it.

The second thing was Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts. I found the on-screen chemistry between their charachters pretty convincing. Though, I think Adrien Brody is probably more talented than half the actors in hollywood so of course he was great in this role. Being significantly more bulked up than he was in say, The Pianist, I definitely bought him in the hero role as Jack Driscoll.

The third thing that stood out to me the most also involved Naomi Watts. Given how much technology has progressed since 1933 I would have been disappointed had they not deepened the relationship between Anne Darrow and Kong. They did a lot with his facial expressions to where he almost seemed more human that ape at times. Through their adventure on the island Anne comes to rely on Kong as a protector, and we even see some glimpses of friendship between them. Peter Jackson suceeded, I think, in causing us to feel for Kong. When it got to the end, even putting the motion sickness rotating shot aside, I really hated seeing him fall to the ground from the top of the Empire State Building. Oh no, it wasn't the planes. It was beauty killed the beast.