Forums
King Kong - Printable Version

+- Forums (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum)
+-- Forum: Doom Arts (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+--- Forum: Doom DVDs (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/forumdisplay.php?fid=11)
+--- Thread: King Kong (/showthread.php?tid=430)



King Kong - Drunk Monk - 06-16-2006

I barely made it through. It's like 3 hours. And it's not like there's any suspense. You know what's going to happen. 3 hours? What, after LotR, Jackson thinks every film should be hours and hours and hours long? Come on, it's ape meets girl, ape loses girl, ape gets shot down off the empire state building. That story could be told in an hour.

I couldn't get over how much the islanders looked like orcs and skull island like Middle Earth. Naomi Watts was out-acted by a CGI ape. Adrian Brody was so tiresome - I just can't stare into those sad eyes and enjoy his work. On the whole, I like Jack Black. I saw him live as Tenacious D and he was hilarious. but his role in Kong was a disturbing reminder of Cannibal Holocaust Confusedhock: and while I liked his performance, he totally dropped the final line, the kicker in the film, which made it end on a very sour note. The effects were ok, but it was so CGI laden that I would have liked it better if it was just a straight-on cartoon. Nothing looked real, not even the people. Anyway, it was a disappointing experience in general and by the end, I didn't even want to engage any DVD features...


I've stayed away for similar reasons - King Bob - 06-16-2006

I was put off by LotR because he's so in love with his special effects shots that he has to repeat every one AT LEAST once (e.g. flying rocks crushing Orcs). And he puts in a lot of pointless shots of people riding, etc. Plus too many "stirring" speeches. I think each film could have been at least 45 minutes shorter without any loss. I figured KK would have more of the same, and it sounds like it does. If he would just let a good editor have at it, he could be much better.


But I liked LotR... - Drunk Monk - 06-16-2006

I actually liked the expanded DVD version better than the theatrical release. It's a big story and I thought Jackson did a great job, all things considered. That and I was totally smitten by the elf chicks. Although I still say that Bakshi did a better job depicting the Nazgul. Jackson had better orcs by far, but I really loved Bakshi's Nazgul. My only other complaint was the Enya soundtrack. LotR should have totally had a Led Zepplin soundtrack.

In a similar note, I found myself longing for 70's remake of Kong, the debut film of Jessica Lange, no less. Strangely, I didn't care for that film that much when it came out, but in retrospect, it was better than Jackson's version. Maybe Jackson should go back to Froogles. If Heaven in the Lovely Bones looks like elf land or the shire, I'll be sorely disappointed...


Re: I've stayed away for similar reasons - The Queen - 06-16-2006

King Bob Wrote:I was put off by LotR because he's so in love with his special effects shots that he has to repeat every one AT LEAST once (e.g. flying rocks crushing Orcs). And he puts in a lot of pointless shots of people riding, etc. Plus too many "stirring" speeches. I think each film could have been at least 45 minutes shorter without any loss. I figured KK would have more of the same, and it sounds like it does. If he would just let a good editor have at it, he could be much better.

I loved the few bits and pieces of LotR that matched what I had imagined, but I was put off by much more of it because of what Jackson chose to cut from the story and the liberties he took with changing the story. It needed to be MUCH, MUCH longer to do it justice. I could go on for days, describing all the bad wrong things, so I'll just stop now. Ask poor Greg who had to suffer through me expressing my displeasure with a variety of sighs and onomotopaeic vocalizations.

I've learned my lesson. If I really, really, really cared about the book I probably should NOT see the movie.


I thought the opposite - King Bob - 06-16-2006

Funny, I thought the opposite. Since you can make a movie from a short story, any movie based on an entire book - much less three - will have to edit a lot out. I think he should have taken the books merely as raw material, and chopped it up. So I thought his mistake was leaving too much in. Since all the fans know the story, you really don't need to tell all of it.
And you're never going to please everyone, so why try? Particularly in the last film (with multiple pointless ending tableaux), where it would have made much more sense to end it in Mordor with the destruction of the ring. He even had a good shot as I recall, looking down on Frodo and Sam next to the lava.

Oddly, from what I've read of King Kong, he took the opposite approach and bloated up a simple story.

I can understand the desire to make an epic, but let's face it - he's no David Lean. Or no Kurosawa. His films rely too much on effects and he's not in the league of those two as far as visual composition.


What? - cranefly - 06-16-2006

You mean Lord of the Rings was based on a book?

Gotta investigate this at the library...


The difference between Kings and Queens - The Queen - 06-16-2006

I think I read those books at least a hundred times. I even read the Silmarillion cover to cover, and all of the Middle Earth reference books I could get my hands on. Obssessive would be a very kind and gentle term for my love of LotR. I knew it as well as geeks who still live in their parents' basements know their comic books. As well as some people know Star Wars and Star Trek trivia. (Yeah, well, okay, I admit, I know way too much of that stuff too, but hey, Greg doesn't call me The Queen of the Geeks for no reason.)

So clearly, there was no way they could cut almost ANYTHING and make me happy.

Re the end -- no, you absolutely CAN'T end it at Mt. Doom -- so much more happens after the fall of Sauron. I still want to see a film version of the ending chapters about what the four hobbits found when they came home -- the remants of Saruman and Wormtongue ruling the Shire and making their lives miserable. Almost all of what they did with the character of Saruman was screwed up as far as I was concerned. There just such incredible richness in the various stories that just got totally missed.

Yeah, I know, I know, it's a MOVIE not a book and you only have a few hundred million to put everything together and people won't sit still long enough to do the whole thing. All in all, I think Peter Jackson did a great job of negotiating between folks like you and folks like me - trying to please as many of us and keep as much of the story (as was important to HIM) as possible. If *I* had made cuts, it would be much more of a chick flick - much shorter battle sequences, much more character detail. And my version would probably have bored the pants off the general public and the critics. :-)


no no no - a chick flick? no no no no no no - Drunk Monk - 06-16-2006

LotR should have had more battle scenes to a Led Zeppelin soundtrack played at extremely high volume, with short interludes for elf chicks.

Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way.
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do...

*Ramble On, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song.
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.
I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.

Got no time to for spreadin' roots, The time has come to be gone.
And to' our health we drank a thousand times, it's time to Ramble On.

* Chorus

Mine's a tale that can't be told, my freedom I hold dear.
How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air.
T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her....yeah.

* Chorus

Gonna ramble on, sing my song. Gotta keep-a-searchin' for my baby...
Gonna work my way, round the world. I can't stop this feelin' in my heart
Gotta keep searchin' for my baby. I can't find my bluebird!



wrong song - King Bob - 06-16-2006

Four Sticks would be perfect for Mordor scenes


exactly my point - Drunk Monk - 06-16-2006

There are so many. Ramble On is just the most obvious. Misty Mountain Hop, the Battle of Evermore, classics all. Compare to Enya's Fairytale? No way man. the mighty Zep understood LotR better than any band.