King Kong
Among the juicy things that I accomplished this weekend was a screening of King Kong. While many of my coworkers managed to see this on opening night at the public theatre, I opted to go to a private function. Primarily because it was free and MUCH less crowded. Regardless, I'm sure the experience would be the same.
I never had the chance to see the original '33 King Kong, but I can imagine the feelings it must have evoked after viewing Peter Jackson's version. The story is pretty straightforward. Jack Black plays a film-maker/producer with an ulterior motive. He wants to shoot a romance film on a ship, with the ultimate goal being Skull Island, the place where Kong is found.
The characters play their roles well. Naomi Watts is excellent her role as Ann Darrow, originally played by Fay Wray. Naomi pulls off a wonderful performance. She proudly exhibits her voice with a couple of blood curdling screams, which I am unsure of how they managed to pull that sound out of the speakers in the theatre. It just echoed off the walls! Jack Black plays the film-maker, and he does a decent job of pulling off a dramatic role.
Stepping into the film, I was not prepared for what lay ahead. Any opinions I had previously, I left at the door. In doing so, I found that this film is truly a three hour epic. In places it seemed to drag on at times, but nothing that had me wishing it would hurry up. The section of the film was broken into fairly distinct parts. We're treated with an introduction to the characters the first hour as well as the journey to Skull Island. During the second hour we encounter the beasts of the island, and in the last we see what happens with Kong in New York.
Visual effects. I was amazing and impressed. All the creatures were done very well, with Kong being spectacular. From the fur and hair, to the expressions in the eyes and his facial animation. Like Narnia, there were several greenscreen moments, but they didn't pull you as far out from the film as Narnia did. I really enjoyed the spider pit sequence. You definitely have to suspend realism when travelling to an island with dinosaurs and giant insects, but in the end it was worth in.
I definitely recommend checking this out in the theatre if you can, primarily to see the detail in Kong and the other creatures, because they will surely be lost on the DVD! Hopefully it will be one of the HD first releases on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. I give the film a seven for story and a nine for visual effects, out of 10.
I have to give a big congratulations to all the crew at WETA, and especially the ones I know, Patrick, Jeff, David, Pippa, Kory, Tamara, Christina, Jeremy, Eric, congrats!
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