Jackson's KONG - One of the Most Overrated Movies Ever Made

[AndyDursin]

Tried watching this film again today for the first time since my initial viewing in 2005 because Warner's sent me the '33 KONG on Blu and I felt it might make for a nice point of comparison.

I still can't get over how overrated this film was by so many people. Every major critic had to have been drinking the LORD OF THE RINGS kool-aid because Jackson's KONG is so fatally overlong, packed with superfluous characters with no pay off, a terrible performance by Jack Black (in a badly written role), Adrien Brody as the hero who doesn't get anything to do, and...worst of all...more scenes that could've been dropped on the cutting room floor with no detriment to the picture.

The great irony of the spider-pit sequence from the '33 movie was that it was cut because it slowed the film down -- something Jackson should've learned!! WHAT in the world was the point of that scene? And that awful music by Newton Howard too...just terrible.

Yes the CGI is good, the creature is well animated, and it has a couple of nifty scenes -- but at 3+ hours in length, it plays like the kind of DVD "Extended Edition" that, had it been any other director, would have been trimmed by AT LEAST 45 minutes by a studio. And with good reason.

I should mention that Lisa Schwartzbaum in EW even said she overpraised it a couple of weeks ago...I think most every critic did. It's a hugely problematic movie, and I prefer the '76 version -- monkey suit and all -- over it. At least you have John Barry's score and superior cinematography, even if it's Rick Baker grunting a la Godzilla!

[mkaroly]

The scenes between Kong and Naomi Watts' character were worth the money for me. I was very moved by several of their scenes together...great acting on her part. But I have not watched it since, and I'm sure when it came out I liked it more than I do now looking back.

I never cared for the '76 version of KONG...I thought is was really bad. Barry's score is great though. Hated Jessica Lange...terrible actress IMO. '33 KONG is still my favorite and I'm still moved by the end. Amazing accomplishment with outstanding music by Max Steiner.

[Eric W.]

I don't think I've ever actually sat through a full King Kong movie in any way, shape, or form.

I'm not feeling bad about that.

[Monterey Jack]

I don't think I've ever actually sat through a full King Kong movie in any way, shape, or form.

I'm not feeling bad about that.

[AndyDursin]

LOL. My god, that gets me every time

[Monterey Jack]

LOL. My god, that gets me every time

[Eric Paddon]

Jackson's Kong was a tedious bore for me to sit through in the theater (I've mentioned how I saw it *right after* I had seen Narnia in the same complex). The FX scenes were so interminable that as soon as the spider pit sequence was about to come up, I knew I could take my restroom break and not miss any action at all. I found it's self-conscious sense of "Look how much more politically enlightened we are than in 1933" aura to be off-putting in the extreme, not to mention the absurdity of Black's Denham still being alive at the end, and their groteseque island with no beach evoked no sense of majesty the way the Hawaii locations in 76 did.

I too think the 76 Kong is underrated and easier to sit through simply because it isn't trying to say its better than the 33 movie it's just trying to be different and goes in a different direction so as not to supplant the original ultimately but to give us a different variation on the idea that in the end has aged better than Jackson's film ever will IMO.

[Eric Paddon]

Bumping this ten year old thread because I just spent the evening sitting through it. Reason was because I had just finally gotten around to getting Blu-Rays of the classic Kong and Son Of Kong and my memories were getting dim about the two times I saw this film (once theatrically when I saw it the SAME day after I'd seen "Narnia") and once on DVD. Could I be more objective?

I'll say that I'll give more praise to Watts this go-round than I did in the past, but I couldn't help but think how that part of the film ultimately has to draw from the overly maligned 76 version more than anything else (Jackson also copied a shot from 76 of photographers standing on Kong's body). But otherwise the film a tedious dull mess that shows why I am anesthetized to being impressed by endless F/X sequences that go on and on. The fact you can watch the 33 film *Twice* and still not be done watching Jackson *once* says something else.

Black sucks. A one note jerk who doesn't even get comeuppance (I suppose if Fay Wray had lived long enough to do the cameo where she would have given the "beauty killed the beast" line which was the intention that went all the way back to the 76 Universal script, Denham would have died). Brody is a stick figure who I guess is supposed to be given nobility by virtue of the fact he's a playwright for the common man (that whole angle with the character really lands with a thud. You could have just as easily kept him the first mate and it would have made no difference). The film just has no throughline whatsoever other than "We're copycattting 33 and doing it better!" 76 at least tried to be its own film on its own terms and that's why it still holds up better compared to this (better score and helped by the beautiful cinemtography too).

[mkaroly]

Best moments of the film were between Kong and Watts. The rest of it is terrible.

[AndyDursin]

The movie is lousy, flat out. Boring, needlessly overlong, miscast, over-written -- it's like all of the worst elements of Jackson's cinematic traits rolled into one.

KONG SKULL ISLAND is no classic but it's infinitely more entertaining, not even close.

[BobaMike]

I agree with everyone else...this was such a major disappointment!

I loved the 1933 original, and enjoy the 70's remake for what it is, but this...I was so excited to see it on opening night, after the LOTR films I was up for everything that Jackson did.

Also at this time the new Xbox was coming out, and one of the only games you could demo was the new King Kong game, which looked really great!

Both sucked.

I do enjoy the James Newton Howard score, considering the short time he had to do it in.

[mkaroly]

^^He was probably a better choice than Howard Shore. I like JNH's "love theme" between Kong and Watts. JNH had a messload of orchestrators for that score as well.

And I agree Andy - KONG SKULL ISLAND far more entertaining than Jackson's film.

[Paul MacLean]

^^He was probably a better choice than Howard Shore. I like JNH's "love theme" between Kong and Watts. JNH had a messload of orchestrators for that score as well.

Apparently this is the never-released the DVD special feature about Shore's music...



I never saw King Kong, since the LOTR films were thoroughly distasteful to me (The Two Towers literally left me with a migraine -- and I never get migraines!).

I only saw a few scenes from Kong -- the "giant bug" scene (which seemed to take twice as long as it needed to, and had no dramatic tension), the fight with the dinosaurs (which was impressively -- but overly -- complex, and felt like overkill), , the "frozen pond" scene (which struck me as unintentionaly funny).

[mkaroly]

Just from those snippets I imagine Shore's score got rejected because it sounded too much like LOTR. Lol...