Big, furry guy .. and his blonde

You guessed it, I watched Peter Jacksons remake of 1933's King Kong. Boy was I right not to spent any money on a ticket when it first aired in december. This mix of Lord of the Rings-, Jurassic Park- and Mimic-elements really doesn't need much more words to be explained. Its three hours of running time are not really needed to get the story across, most of the time they're on that Skull Island anyway.

So there are Orks .. ehm .. indiogenic population inhabiting the black, harsh cliffs of Mordor .. ehm .. a long island-circling wall of a civilization, lost long ago. Dinosaurs without their glamourous entrance in JP and insects ten times their normal size. A freakshow with an idiotic film-maker who always wants to end his film, on that island, in the name of anyone, who just happend to die a minute ago (instead of leaving after two people were killed) but refuses to die himself (which, ironically is pointed out by the ship's captain on their rescue).

The best scenes, and they're the best scenes visually as well, are those of Kong in the streets of New York in the late 1920s/ beginning 1930s and on top of Chrysler Building fighting the loosing battle against the planes. I am a fan of the 20s/30s and as such of any movie depicting that time-period and showing it to us with special effects available to film makers nowadays. As I loved Chicago in Road to Perdition or New York in the Matrix-like world created in The 13th Floor, I also loved Jackson's New York, but that doesn't make a three-hour movie. Of course everybody knows the story, but that island-stuff was just too much Peter Jackson, if you know what I mean. In The Lord of the Rings, Middle-Earth needed the contrasts of landscapes as much as of creatures, but I would have loved to learn more about that lost civilization and why they built that wall (Kong can't swim, neither can the T-Rexes) but Jackson chose not to explain this.

The indiginous (was it?) tribe also seemed to disappear, after they killed two men and gave the blonde to Kong. Of course the Venture's captain and his men held them off with their guns, but I am feeling, that Jackson didn't quite know how to integrate them further into the story.

So, if you want to see a gorilla falling in love with a blonde - which is kinda disturbing when you think about it twice - or love the looks of the 1920s/30s or people getting killed for nothing (there are a lot of men dying to save ONE woman), then you should probably think about spending money on the DVD or renting it. But think twice, before you're sitting through the 187 minutes of this popcorn-driven big screen adventure.

Facts:

- Adventure/Fantasy - New Zealand/USA 2005
- FSK: ages 12 and up
- Runnig Time: 187 Min.
- German publisher: UIP
- German Publish Date: 14.12.2005 / DVD: 04.04.2006

PS: there's a Deluxe Extended Edition beeing released on 3 DVDs in Germany November 30th, 2006. This one will be 13 minutes longer than the original.

You guessed it, I watched Peter Jacksons remake of 1933's King Kong. Boy was I right not to spent any money on a ticket when it first aired in december. This mix of Lord of the Rings-, Jurassic Park- and Mimic-elements really doesn't need much more words to be explained. Its three hours of running time are not really needed to get the story across, most of the time they're on that Skull Island anyway.

So there are Orks .. ehm .. indiogenic population inhabiting the black, harsh cliffs of Mordor .. ehm .. a long island-circling wall of a civilization, lost long ago. Dinosaurs without their glamourous entrance in JP and insects ten times their normal size. A freakshow with an idiotic film-maker who always wants to end his film, on that island, in the name of anyone, who just happend to die a minute ago (instead of leaving after two people were killed) but refuses to die himself (which, ironically is pointed out by the ship's captain on their rescue).

The best scenes, and they're the best scenes visually as well, are those of Kong in the streets of New York in the late 1920s/ beginning 1930s and on top of Chrysler Building fighting the loosing battle against the planes. I am a fan of the 20s/30s and as such of any movie depicting that time-period and showing it to us with special effects available to film makers nowadays. As I loved Chicago in Road to Perdition or New York in the Matrix-like world created in The 13th Floor, I also loved Jackson's New York, but that doesn't make a three-hour movie. Of course everybody knows the story, but that island-stuff was just too much Peter Jackson, if you know what I mean. In The Lord of the Rings, Middle-Earth needed the contrasts of landscapes as much as of creatures, but I would have loved to learn more about that lost civilization and why they built that wall (Kong can't swim, neither can the T-Rexes) but Jackson chose not to explain this.

The indiginous (was it?) tribe also seemed to disappear, after they killed two men and gave the blonde to Kong. Of course the Venture's captain and his men held them off with their guns, but I am feeling, that Jackson didn't quite know how to integrate them further into the story.

So, if you want to see a gorilla falling in love with a blonde - which is kinda disturbing when you think about it twice - or love the looks of the 1920s/30s or people getting killed for nothing (there are a lot of men dying to save ONE woman), then you should probably think about spending money on the DVD or renting it. But think twice, before you're sitting through the 187 minutes of this popcorn-driven big screen adventure.

Facts:

- Adventure/Fantasy - New Zealand/USA 2005
- FSK: ages 12 and up
- Runnig Time: 187 Min.
- German publisher: UIP
- German Publish Date: 14.12.2005 / DVD: 04.04.2006

PS: there's a Deluxe Extended Edition beeing released on 3 DVDs in Germany November 30th, 2006. This one will be 13 minutes longer than the original.

Big, furry guy .. and his blonde