Man, what a disappointment. I loved the first and last thirds, the rendering of 1930s New York was absolutely fantastic, and Naomi Watts played the Darrow role to perfection. But that middle section, in Skull Island, just ruined it for me- stretching what should have been 20 minutes of material into over an hour.
If there's one thing I couldn't stand about Peter Jackson's otherwise exemplary "Lord of the Rings" films, it was the director's annoying habit of stopping the plot dead in its tracks so its hero could fight off some grotesque creature. Then, once the creature is dispatched, there's another, even more grotesque one waiting, and then another after that. We never learn much about which creature is which, and we mostly just want the scene to be over so we can go on with the movie.
That, in a nutshell, is the entire second act of "King Kong." Why must there be dinosaurs? And all those other creatures? Why must they all just fight amongst themselves for 45 minutes, while all the rest of us are waiting for the third act to start?
'Kong' won't be making my Top Ten list, which will be posted tomorrow. I've now seen every relevant '05 film that I'm going to see in the theater, though everything left will be making its way through my Netflix in the next three or four months.
Posted by Stephen Silver at December 30, 2005 12:56 AM