Kong- A Movie Review

With apologies to Danny Glover.

Note: there's no spoiler involved here because you already know the end of the story. The ape dies and ends up in a landfill, probably in New Jersey someplace if all those mob related stories in the news are to be believed. Also, I actually saw the movie before Christmas, wrote part of this review, then lost it before getting it posted today.

First of all, I really liked this movie. The story is so well known that its not worth repeating and so it really comes down to the movie and the technology involved in making it. The technology is amazing. Its hard not to believe that the dinosaurs and giant insects and Kong himself aren't all real creatures. The Skull Island scenes are just remarkable for their sense of realism. I can't compare this movie's CGI to other acclaimed CGI movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I didn't see those. But I can tell you that the creatures on Skull Island are dang scary in their realism. There were just a couple scenes where the characters were obviously working in front of a blue screen and the background added later. Noah noticed one scene where the heroine was juggling rocks that just didn't look quite real. Other than that, the technology is terrific. Kong flexes and stretches and groans in detailed close-up and you could swear you are watching a real gorilla.

The movie is long, three hours, so you might want to downsize that gut-buster sized soda or just plan on a potty trip sometime during the showing. It is also nearly three independent films with the barest of transitions between them. First there's the "getting to Skull Island" portion, mostly filmed on the bedraggled, rusty freighter and filled with the big plans of making a successful movie. The second portion could be titled "now that we're on Skull Island, how the hell do we get survive?" Finally, the third act is Kong's big night on Broadway.

Its that second act on Skull Island that was my favorite part of the movie. The bizarre creatures and bugs discovered and battled by the crew are quite creepy and the fight scenes are as exciting as any Indiana Jones adventure. But the best part of act two is the Battle Royale cage match between Kong and three hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex. This fight scene was worth the price of admission and the popcorn! Kong battles these three critters, mostly single handed because he's trying to protect and hang onto Anne the heroine through swamp and ravine and dangling vines until he breaks the jaw of the final killer dinosaur, just to prove the critter isn't getting back up.

That apology to Danny Glover I mentioned earlier? It's a reference to his character Roger Murdock from the Lethal Weapon movie series. Throughout that series of movies, his most famous line is, "I'm getting too old for this shit." That sentiment is portrayed so clearly in Kong's eyes after he has killed the dinos and taken his captive blond to rest on a high overlook. Its almost as if he is questioning his own motives for hanging onto that tiny bit of a blond in a silk slip.

Kong's confusion over his attachment to that blonde becomes apparent in the 3rd act too as he battles the buzzing, stinging aircraft from the top of the Empire State Building.  Its clear from the look in Kong's eyes that he misses his days on Skull Island before the blonde and her comrades arrived to upset his routine.

I found a serious life truth in King Kong's story; that is, if you chase after a woman that doesn't want to be caught, its going to bring you to nothing but grief and pain. My advice? Leave the woman to be eaten by the dinosaurs and take the day off. Go to the beach, the ski slopes or the golf course somewhere and save yourself the grief.

But the movie? Its terrific. Go see it if you haven't already.