KING KONG (2005)

 

C

It's funny.  In my nearly 39 years of life, I've seen a lot of documentaries & a lot of commentary surrounding KING KONG, but I had yet to ever sit down and watch one of the films.  I searched around the streaming services that Ashley and I have a couple of days ago, and was able to find the 2005 version. 

As to the film itself, it seemed to me that they took a 60 page script and stretched it out over a three hour film.  The first act was well developed. The scenes were well set up, the characters properly introduced and their relationships to one another realistic and transparent.  It gave the illusion that this wasn't going to be a mindless collage of senseless action.  Jack Black and especially Adrian Brody gave standout performances, with an exceptionally strong showing out of Naomi Watts.  Settled comfortably into the first hour of the film, it was like, "Hey, there's gonna be a story here too."  

That all went out the window the very moment act two began. The final two hours were nothing but a special effects team on a mission to show off and top every great moment of action, with something more spectacular than what you had seen two minutes prior.  To those who simply want to watch a bunch of cool stuff on a screen without a reason as to why it is happening, it was about as packed as it was going to get. 

Therefore I give the film a C.  If it had continued to have a strong story and the characters had more sensibility within their choices, I would have given in a better grade.  I mean what I say when I comment that it seemed like the script was around 60 pages and they got 180 minutes out of it. 

Moving on, I found myself doing some research on King Kong. I was fascinated as to how in the world someone would come up with the concept of a giant gorilla terrorizing a city back in the 1930's.  It's quite interesting to learn how it all came about.  It's difficult to believe, as educated as we are today, but at one time, not all that long ago, not much was known about gorillas. Their true size and nature was unknown to the general population. They were thought to be much larger and far more vicious than what they actually were. Rumors went around that Gorillas would steal women and children away from villages, to do various things with them.  Rape and eating, not out of the question.  It's asinine to think that anyone would picture a gorilla doing such a thing today.  A relatively gentle creature, a herbivore to top it off. Yet this was 91 years ago, people didn't know. 

It should also be noted that we had only recently discovered the island of Komodo and the famous Dragons that live there.  The scene where Kong fights the Tyrannosaurus Rex, was originally supposed to be a fight with a Komodo.  It should also be noted that in KING KONG (1933), people are attacked by a Brontosaurus.  Which is exceptionally humorous, considering our understanding of a Brontosaurus is that it was a herbivore, relatively non-violent.  It most certainly wouldn't eat people.