Just Saw Kong

They needed to leave about a 1/2 hour of it on the cutting room floor.. decent movie.. waay too long.

i completely disagree. I thought it was perfect, in fact i could have stood for MORE. I loved the intro, and I thought for awhile it was better than on the island. The story was so strong at the beginning it could have made a decent movie in itself. the connection between Ann and Kong was amazing(Serkis needs an Oscar) and truly sad(espessially at act 3). brilliant film. definately one of the best of the year. IMO that is

I agree, it did drag a little.

Kong itself was amazing - the manner in which they captured the Gorillas's characteristics were brilliant.

However, I didn't like the OTT nature of some of the scenes. It was just kinda like ..."yeah rightt!!!" I suppose a giant Gorilla in itself is OTT, but at least it's semi-believable.


*** Spoiler-ish alert ***

The single most stupid scene, was when they were running inbetween the stampede of dinousaurs. It was so cringeworthy.

*** End of spoiler-ish alert***


That said, it was a good movie. I'd give it 8/10.

Great points WS.. I agree w/all of them.

Bodie The Cursed said:

They needed to leave about a 1/2 hour of it on the cutting room floor.. decent movie.. waay too long.

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That is a very common suggestion/crit.

My thought is not that it's TOO LONG, but a lot of the fat that is shaved should be put towards other things, mainly KONG himself, and Kong/Ann.


So I think it should be as long as it is, with a lot of the non-essential stuff swapped out. Jimmy, lots of the crew scenes, some of the endless boat stuff to Skull Island, the unncecessarily dramatic Ann reaction shots to Kong's "first death" (chloroform), even the bug scene in its entirety- ZAPPED.

Put that all towards more Kong and Kong/Ann, and the filim would've been more potent in my opinion.

loved it.
not too long at all IMO.

actually, I cant wait to see a director's cut. PJ said over 300 finished special effects shots were cut from the film.

Film started at 9:00.. I looked at my watch and it was 11:30 and we were still in the jungle. Stampede and Jimmy sub story needed to go. Kinda liked the bugs even though it had little relevance. Loved the natives. Gabber made some good points.. Overall good film.

I totally agree about the stampede and the Jimmy side-story were pretty unnecessary. The Jimmy story especially. That whole thing made NO sense to me - and there was no resolution!! Totally weird.

But I loved the Ann/Kong scenes and the New York scenes. All-in-all a pretty good movie, but it didn't impress me enough to really make me want to see it again anytime soon....

I couldn't WAIT for the monkey to die . Movie was about 45 min. too long.

My wife told me that she felt uninvolved with the characters who were dying. Rather than caring about anybody, it was like, "Oh look, somebody else got stepped on by a dinosaur or eaten by a bug."

I think they built up the Hayes/Jimmy relationship so that we would really feel affected when Hayes got thrown into the cliff and killed by Kong. However, even that death left me indifferent, and there was no other big payoff that justified the time spent on those two characters.

There was so much going on for such an extended period of time to people we didn't care much about that by the time the bug pit scene got going, we just started to tune out and think, "Get on with it already." The Kong/Ann stuff was done well, but you never cared much when the story cut away to a bunch of "red shirts" running from danger. The story didn't have enough of the weight and depth that LOTR had to justify its long running time.

tomandshell said:

Get on with it already.

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I felt myself saying that a few times during the film.

I was preparing myself for a sad ending to the film before I saw it. Yet like Dagger I was ready for them to kill the monkey because I felt the film was dragging a bit.

I loved the film myself but just saw Memoirs of a Geisha with my wife arggg I thought that would never end!! She loved it but me wouldnt be one I would rewatch.

Bodie The Cursed said:

I was ready for them to kill the monkey

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Monkey?

***SPOILERS HERE***

Since I watched it at home on a DVD (an awards screener), I can't fairly judge the length. It was fine for me, but I could, and did, take a break.

I loved the Merian C. Cooper-Fay Wray joke in the cab, and the fact that he did a bug scene and put it where the original's spider pit scene would have gone; the in-references didn't take me out of the flick, I just loved them.

I gasped at the way he shot the end. Not what I expected. James Cameron must have howled when he saw it. There goes Leonardo Di Caprio, down into the watery depths. And Kong's gorilla stillness watching the sun rise and set...so authentic. It was a magnificent image.

One thing that struck me: the trailer had a scene in which Jack Black is directing Ann on the rocky beach, tells her to scream, and an answering roar comes across the water from a distant part of the island. Not only did this scene not appear in the film...I can't even see it fitting in the continuity, because so little of the island adventure happens in daylight. I don't know if it would even fit before their encounter with the natives, because they didn't seem scared until after the natives appear en masse. Was it shot for promotion? Was it scrapped because of a rewrite? Or is there a LOT more material for the commercial DVD to come?

Anybody familiar with Jackson's diaries? Any idea?

Re: ***SPOILERS HERE***

Gruff Old Bear said:

Was it scrapped because of a rewrite? Or is there a LOT more material for the commercial DVD to come?

Anybody familiar with Jackson's diaries? Any idea?

Click to expand...

from what I keep reading there is A LOT of cut material.
Including over 300 finished special effects shots.

can't wait for the d-cut.