Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a thrilling masterpiece and a feast for the eyes unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time.  Truly spectacular, this movie is both stunning and soulful in an unexpected way.

 A lot has been said about the amazing CG effects used to create King Kong the beast, and he is seriously an amazing piece of art.  But in a lot of ways, I was even more impressed with the beautiful recreation of 1930s New York City.  Both the CG work and the set design on the city are gorgeous, and there is hardly a moment in this movie where you are not in complete awe of what you are seeing on the screen.

 The island is also a wild ride of beauty and danger, but here I almost got overwhelmed.  The natives have an interesting resemblance to the Orcs of Mordor, which makes sense since Jackson has already done such an effective job freaking us out with that look.  The introduction scene of the natives and the subsequent tribal scene are both absolutely terrifying and spellbinding.  Considering the three-hour length of this movie though, I couldn’t help but wonder if every single dangerous situation was necessary.  It started to feel like the creatives on this project had some sort of competition going on how elaborate and treacherous they could make each island scene.  Without giving too much away, the bug sequence was too lengthy, too outrageous…and just too much already!

 That said, I really have no complaints about the length of this movie.  It was extremely well paced and I can’t imagine removing a single scene between Ann and King Kong.  And while I’m on the subject, something needs to be said about this relationship.  I’ve overheard several people discussing how unrealistic it is that she would fall in love with the beast.  Seriously people, she doesn’t want to marry King Kong and have his babies.  Consider a pet dog you have and how much you love it.  What would you do to protect this beloved friend and what would he/she do to protect you?  With that perspective, King Kong is a very powerful and a very accurate portrayal of love.

 While this movie isn’t really about the actors, they each did an impressive job in their roles.  Naomi Watts deserves serious credit for her ability to create incredibly believable emotion while interacting with a non-existent co-star.

 So How Does It End?

 Considering this is the third time this movie has been brought to the screen, most people know how it ends.  And it was quite depressing, which I believe means it was effective.  I think a tiny part of me was holding out hope that Ann could prove King Kong is not dangerous if he is not threatened, but alas, he fell off the building to his death…a giant, sweet, misunderstood beast.

 This was a very tough movie for me to rate because I do believe that it is a flawed beast, and perhaps a little overdone.  However it is so enjoyable on so many levels, that I can’t imagine taking away one of its stars. 

I give it 5 out of 5.