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A Wannabe Movie Critic's Wannabe Movie Review: "King Kong"
By kellirhea in Quixotic Quicksand
January 4, 2006

Long movies bother me. If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll recall that I once expressed my desire to avoid watching Peter Jackson’s two-year-long “King Kong.”

Well, I recently had two free movie passes and an afternoon to kill. Nothing else at the box office appealed to me. So what the heck, right?

A three-hour-long movie can only be worth watching if, at the end, it doesn’t seem as though you’ve actually been sitting for three hours. Such movies, for me, include “Scarface,” “Schindler’s List” and “Titanic.”

I can now proudly add “King Kong” to my list. Folks, when the closing credits began rolling, I really wouldn’t have guessed that I had just sat through such a long movie. Well, OK, my legs were tingling a bit, but my mind wasn’t weary at all.

What initially drew me to this movie was Jack Black, and he doesn’t disappoint here. He plays his dubious role very convincingly, so much so that you have to wonder if he truly is a weasel in real life.

And Naomi Watts. She’s stunningly beautiful here. It’s no wonder King Kong couldn’t resist her charms. She lights up the screen every bit as much as she lights up his giant eyes.

And what about King Kong himself? Well, he’s magnificent. He pulls every single one of the viewer’s heartstrings and allows the viewer to see the world from a completely different perspective. The viewer can walk away from the film and wonder if there are any underlying messages to be found in King Kong’s troubling story.

Another great thing about this flick is that the viewer seems to get two movies for the price of one. One movie concerns King Kong and the tragedies that arise from his capture. Another movie within “King Kong” involves a magical, but terrifying world of true-to-life dinosaurs and enormous prehistoric insects—think “Jurassic Park Lite.”

Of course, eye-catching scenery abounds, and the grit of the 1930s is realistically portrayed here. Gloomy weather, Depression-era starvation, and muted colors transport the viewer to another time and mindset.

As only the best movies do, “King Kong” leaves the viewer mulling over a fundamental question. Here’s the question you’ll ask yourself after seeing this particular film: Did beauty kill the beast, or did man kill him? Although this quandary is addressed in the movie itself, the viewer is invited to make his or her own judgment.

Here’s the inevitable bottom line: Watch the movie. Three hours or not, it’s one of the best out there right now.