BIG K ONG
Okay, I'll admit it: I've never seen the original version of King Kong in its entirety. It's one of those movies that I've seen bits and pieces of several times, as it has appeared on TV over the years.

But I knew the story, and I knew the ending, so I didn't really care too much.

Most Patient Wife and I went to see Peter Jackson's version of the movie, and let me tell you up front that it's everything the critics say it is: stupendous, fantastic, sensational, incredible. If you want the short edition of this review of the movie, you can stop reading here. But there's more.



The movie was pretty good. I really had a lot of fun in certain parts of it, but to tell the truth it dragged in a few areas for me. But I don't think it's all Jackson's fault.

In fact, I blame James Cameron. Because my problems with Kong are the same I had with Titanic. And the Lord of the Rings. And later with the Spider-man movies: it's too big. There's too much in there that has little or nothing to do with the story.

Now, Cameron's Titanic may not be the first extreme movie, but it stands out to me as the the first big excessive epic that took a simple story and decompressed it, making it a bloated, effects-ridden cinematic parasite that lives off the plot of the story.

In the original movie, Kong fights a dinosaur or two. In this movie, that's not enough. We have to see Kong battle so many dinosaurs (in a manner that is reminiscent of professional wrestling) that after a couple of minutes of it, I stopped being impressed and just wished that they would get on with the story already.

He's big. He's strong. He fights with passion to defend the girl. Cool. We get it. Now let's move on.

All of that aside, there is a lot to like about this movie. The CGI of Kong is amazing. He looked big, powerful, vulnerable, happy and sad as the moment allowed. He was triumphant and tragic, just as I knew he would be.

The real treat of this movie, I felt, was the acting. MPW and I were talking about this, and I have to say that I belived all of the human characters of this film.

Ann Darrow as played by Naomi Watts was luminescent. And I'm not just talking about her looks. (Although I have to say that her skimpy costume deserves a Best Supporting nomination, because I swear her breasts were immobile in spite of a whole lot of body movement.)

Jack Black's portrayal of Carl Denham rang true for me, but I wished that he had paid a real price for his folly. It seems to me that he got off rather lightly considering everything he did.

Hayes, the first mate of the ship, was a guy I liked a lot. He was smart, tough, heroic and fun to watch.

There were a lot of fun moments of the film, and some truly scary bits as well. Without giving anything away, keep an eye out for the island people who board the boat; it was incredible.

All in all, I wish the movie was smaller. It felt to me that the reason most of the effects were in Kong merely because we now have the technology to create them.

Maybe it's that I'm a writer, but I really want more focus on story, plot and character -- and less on spectacle.

But go see it. There's enough fun to offset what I think are flaws in the storytelling.