Here’s something to keep in mind…
If you’re ever cooking a frozen dinner in the oven, don’t reach in and pull it out without oven mitts on. The plastic container gets hot, too.
Not that I know anyone who’s done that lately. It just … uh… popped into my head. Yeah. That’s the ticket…
Technorati Tags: stupidity, safety, Jon Lovitz
There were good and bad points to this movie.
First the good: the special effects were really top-notch. Excellent work. And in the end, they were somewhat successful in getting me to empathize with Kong - so I give some credit to the directing, too.
And the bad: everything else.
Seriously, this was a really pretty movie. Great visuals. And like I said, I kinda was rooting for Kong despite knowing he buys it in the end (and if you think that’s a spoiler, you’ve been living under a rock for 60 years or so). But other than that… can’t say I thought it was time well spent.
The length: way too long. I could have cut out about a third of that movie and not lost anything important. This movie was Peter Jackson using the clout he got from the Lord of the Rings films to make a big film just because he could. It was all spectacle and no substance.
Ironically, Jackson did exactly what the “bad guy” of the film, played by Jack Black, did: he took what he loved and killed it. It was obvious that Jackson meant to take the superb original film and create a loving, but even more visually exciting, epic film. What he did was create an unwieldy, and eventually tiresome, creature. I was actually bored during the dinosaur sequences. After the first few minutes, I was thinking, “okay, that was nice - good fighting, I can see he wants to save her, now let’s get back to the plot.” But then it just kept going! Same thing with the bugs… “ooo, creepy — yikes! A couple guys got killed. Nasty. Cool. Okay, get ‘em outta there so we can get along with the plot!” But it just kept going!
Suspension of disbelief? Rarely, if ever. I’m usually pretty forgiving in this department, but come on… from the moment Ann was grabbed by Kong, she’d have been dead purely by accident. Her arms would have pulled off when he took her from the bridge, her bones would have been shattered by the pounding she took while he was running, her neck would have snapped every time he threw her from hand to hand, or over his shoulder - and that’s assuming he would know how to hold her without crushing her to begin with. Then “Jimmy” - who has never, apparently, shot a gun in his life - picks up and loads a machine gun and sharpshoots a bunch of bugs off of Driscoll without even grazing him. (I think that last one was supposed to be for comic effect, but it didn’t work for me at all.)
The plot: not bad, but not great. Certainly not enough to sustain a 3-hour time slot.
I could go on, but it comes down to this: this is one of the few blockbusters (especially one built on visuals) that I can honestly say I’m glad I didn’t spend money or time on in the theaters.
Sadly, despite the promise it held and the great effects, I can only give this one 2 stars.
Technorati Tags: movie, special effects, Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings, Jack Black, blockbusters, King Kong
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