King Kong
It's good to be the king

// The skinny: Meglomaniacal film maker goes to Skull Island and brings back Kong who then wreaks havoc on New York.

// Review: I felt a high degree of indifference when this movie was first announced. I couldn't understand the hype and how its trailer's tv world premier was actually being used as a ratings gimmick. I never saw the 1933 original and except for the hardest of the hard core movie lovers or Peter Jackson fans, I couldn't make sense of the buzz. I finally saw it and it exceeded my expectations. From what I knew of the story, I thought the entire movie just revolved around the famous Empire State Building scene.

/ It was actually pretty exciting to watch. A bulk of the movie takes place on Skull Island where the relationship between Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and Kong develops. The huge battle between Kong and a pack of T-Rexes was awesome. The dinosaur action annihilates everything Jurrasic Park had to offer. This film broke the record for special effects shots and biggest budget at a whopping $208M. But it shows with productions values through the roof. The CGI was seemless and the version of NYC had over 90,000 individual buildings. Kong looked great and you could actually see a range of emotion in his facial expressions.

/ A lot of people have called this remake essentially a love story. But the entire time I couldn't help feel that Kong thought of Darrow as a beloved pet and the only feelings she had for him were compassion and gratefulness. One minor point that I found irritating was the army recklessly shooting high caliber shells and machine gun fire into buildings when they are chasing Kong.
/ As good as Kong looked though, Naomi Watts is simply stunning. She is what my friend would call "classy hot." Just another reason why I hate Heath Ledger.

// Wrap up: Very solid entertaining quality movie. A must see if you missed it in the theaters and have an HDTV.

Entertainment rating: 3