Let me get the gripes out of the way. The movie's definitely overlong, with many scenes that could be cut by half. The structure of the film is a bit wonky in that, despite spending a rather lengthy amount of time developing characters on the journey to Skull Island, the romance between Jack Driscoll and Ann Darrow is given so little time that it feels even thinner than the romance in the original version. There are some really awful choices scattered throughout the film; Adrien Brody typing out "SKULL ISLAND" in jittery, strobe-effect slow motion is one of the worst, most bullshit things I've ever seen in a movie of this caliber, and there are a few other similarly indulgent, boneheaded moves. And the score, while effective at times, is at turns too sentimental and obvious (they really, really should have trusted Howard Shore to do this, especially since the score often sounds like an imperfect emulation of Shore's fantastic work for The Lord of the Rings [which makes one wonder why he was replaced at all]). And this only makes more apparent the times when the movie itself is, at turns, too sentimental and too obvious.
Okay? Can I gush now? The film really works on a level I hadn't expected from it. They've taken a tale about men trying to tame savagery and bestial instincts in order to save women, and turned it into a film about how the women these men are trying to save need this savagery within themselves. The character of Ann Darrow goes from shrieking scream-box in the original to main character in this film, a vaudeville actress plucked out of New York during the depression by a savage, primal movie producer (a pretty great Jack Black). When they get to Skull Island, they encounter a scary, savage (and when I say savage, I'm speaking of the random killing and decapitating kind of savagery) and, what's more, matriarchal group of natives who eventually abduct Ann and offer her to Kong. Ann is understandably terrified of Kong at first, but, after some harrowing encounters with the local wildlife, she comes to see him as a protector, a necessity for survival in the hostile land. When Kong is brought back to New York, Ann, in a turn of character that is shot similarly to the moments right before her abduction, seeks him out, apparently unable to resist the primal connection they have.
Article comments
1 - Jenifer Gonzales
It was too long, I agree. Even though I loved the film as a whole, I felt every bit of those three hours. Exhausting on so many levels.
2 - Matt Paprocki
I thought the Driscoll/Darrow relationship worked out well. They had those flirty moments on the ship for a while, and things blossomed from there. At least there was something, and it was far better than the 76 version and original. It had a flow to it and it wasn't just one of those "fall in love in 10 movie minites" things.
I completely agree about the strobe effects. I didn't think it helped the Skull Island sequence where the native tied her up. It was an attempt to draw some horror, and in the end, it was only annoying.
The score was rushed too. I think they had all of three months after the Shore incident. It eneded up being a little repetitive, but the idea to put the original Kong theme in there during his reveal in New York was brilliant.
3 - Jonathan
That review confirms many of my suspicions about King Kong. I've yet to see it, although I am surprised to hear about some of the depth it goes into in terms of things like "how the women these men are trying to save need this savagery within themselves".