On a remote and forgotten island a film crew will stumble into a land of the unknown. When the beautiful lead actress is kidnapped by the island’s natives and offered to their God, the members of the crew will embark on a journey to rescue the damsel in distress. But will they have the courage to brave the wilds of the island? And will have the ability to defeat the mighty king of the island: Kong?

Peter Jackson attempts to recreate the power and imagery of the 1933 classic with his take on the story of beauty and the beast in King Kong. Does he succeed, or does he fail? The answer is an unfortunate mix of the two.

This was Jackson's dream project and during this film you can, without a doubt, see how much he truly loved the characters and the story, but the film becomes nearly bogged down with all that it tries to include. So without any further delay let’s get to the good, the bad and the ugly of King Kong.

The Good:
The casting of Naomi Watts, I have never been really impressed by her until this film, she simply becomes the part and was great in the role.

Andy “I’m Gollum No More” Serkis, my hats off to this guy, not only is he the physical model that Kong is based on, he also plays quite a bad-ass in the film, a huge departure from the other roles I’ve seen him in.

The natives were also very well done. Their village and appearance were extremely creepy and exotic, in fact I would love to see Jackson take on a cannibal tribe flick at some time.

Kong, the ape looks amazing and the facial expressions the effects put on the mighty gorilla are incredible. Kong is very realistic and leaps off the screen at you.

The story also follows the original, almost exactly, I give Jackson credit for that.

The Bad:
The cast, I liked Jack Black and Adrien Brody, but they seemed to be swallowed up in this flick, yeah they are main characters, but in truth, I hardly noticed them while they were on screen.

Some CGI was also very questionable, not a lot, but at times it’s shoddy.

Now the Ugly:
This film would have been much more enjoyable to me if it was released in the summer time, as a studio blockbuster. It was released as an event film in the winter but it just doesn’t measure up, and here is why: The action sequences are out of control and so far over done that at times I was laughing out loud. The brontosaurus chase and pile up scene was just an entire joke, in fact it was terrible. I liked the way Kong was able to swing and climb in his attacks, but watching him leap into Spiderman mode was a bit much. When he fights the T-rexes while they all are entangled in vines was a bit harsh as well.

The flick is also way too long, I mean it’s a little over three hours, and there are too many scenes that really have no importance to the film, I would have much rather have had a special DVD release, this flick could have been cut to an hour and a half and been stellar.

Now after all that Jackson does get two things simply flawless in this film. One is the relationship between Watt’s Ann Darrow and the beast himself. Their onscreen time together is touching and the highlight of the film, the interactions are just so well done. Secondly, the last fifteen minutes of this film are incredible, Jackson hit the nail squarely on the head and drives it home with a force of great emotion and disgust, and you should leave the theater hating the fact that you’re part of the human race.

I’m a huge fan of the original and I enjoyed the 1976 version as well, maybe I was a little let down because I was expecting so much from this version, the film is good and very entertaining, but this wasn’t the epic Kong I wanted so bad, it was Summer Hollywood Movie Kong that the studios want so bad, but in the end it is still a fair film.

6 of 10

I went in with high hopes for this film and I wasn't entirely disappointed. Kong was fantastic in this film and dished some brutal whoopings. The CGI wasn't half as terrible as I thought it would be. The big problem is the first hour of the movie is incredibly slow and really doesn't help build up to the rest of the story anyway. Mainly being filled with small gaps of humor and uninteresting dialogue.

The part that shined the most to me was that Jackson was able to retain the classic feel throughout the movie. Taking the dinosaurs into consideration, they were CGI, but they're were Jurassic Park. They're over all look just let them blend in so well with the film and gave it that classic monster feel.

Jackson implemented a style of emotional shots then being violently interrupted. This works well for about an hour and a half, but near the end of the film I think it just got a bit annoying. And sadly I feel we will be seeing this overused in many upcoming films now.

I had my suspicions of Jack Black taking a main role, but he did really well in introducing himself as a likeable character and then becoming a sleaze ball at the end, he worked it well.

Overall, I feel some of the action scenes were a little draggged-out as I found myself waiting impatiently for it to get over with and on to more Kong. I don't give it two thumbs up but I give credit where its due. In the end, I felt Kong really was king.

I’ll go ahead and start out by saying this: I’ve never seen a Peter Jackson movie. Wait, I take that back, I saw half of The Frighteners one time. Basically, I’m admitting to everyone that I never had any desire to see The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that I made fun of people who were obsessed with it. I’d like to apologize. I take it back. Jackson knows how to make a kickass movie.

Yeah, it’s more than three hours. But I usually get restless at ninety minute movies, and I didn’t move a muscle during this. It could have been shorter, but it really didn’t need to be.

The movie is beautiful. Old New York is amazing looking, and the island in which we first meet Kong is breathtaking. I have no gripes with the CGI. Every once in awhile things looked a tiny bit fake, but most of the time I was completely blown away. Kong is incredible. All of the animals, reptiles, and insects are amazing to look at. I can’t say enough about it, it’s a fantastic looking movie...

If you don't feel like reading it all, I'll just tell you that King Kong is awesome, and I give it a 9 out of 10.

Boy, oh boy. Did I wanted this movie to be great. It seemed to have everything it needed to becoming yet another one of Jackson's classics.

I'm a huge fan of the original tale of the giant ape and when I heard that Peter Jackson is making a remake, I was truly overwhelmed with joy. The first doubts appeared when I heard how long it's supposed to be. I thought "What the hell are you going to cram into three hours worth of film, Peter?". Turns out, my doubts were well justified.

The movie is simply too long. Stop, come again. EVERYTHING in this movie is waaay too long. The scenes depicting the relationship between Ann and the ape would have been ok. For two minutes. The first time. But after the fifteenth ten minute shot of Kong staring lovingly at Ms Darrow (and vice versa), I truly stopped caring.

Same with the action sequences. Exaggerated beyond the point of "Wow!" to a point of " *yawn* Wake me up when they finally stop swinging on these vines and get on with the movie..". Even the much overhyped sequence in which Kong takes on three T-Rexes was dull.

It makes me wonder, what happened to a director, who created the greatest movie adaptation of all time? It was a 12-hour long movie, fer godsakes, and he managed to pull it off brilliantly, creating a well balanced masterpiece that wasn't boring for one second. Now, he's come to get lost in remaking a simple story. That seems to be the problem, though. Jackson obviously thinks of King Kong as an epic, thus loses all restraint.

Sorry, Peter. Not this time.

I give this a mere 5 out of ten guys being devoured by giant leeches, being a very cool scene indeed.

This flick is truly beautifully done. The colors are vibrant, too much so, almost like a old movie that’s been colorized. Also it’s not only a remake of an old flick, that partially fictionalizes that same old flick, it also pays homage. Directorial style and storyline aside, there’s many little tidbits of dialog that seem lifted right out of a classic. A nice touch, I thought.

One thing I found really nice was the entire natives/Kong relationship and how that was handled. First of all, those were some creepy-ass natives and as I thought about it, the better and better it was. Think about their situation, they’re a death cult with a giant ape as their god. That alone could make for a great flick. Imagine if your religion wasn’t about faith or mantra, but instead a giant, hungry, angry fact. Absolute belief coupled with what a depressing, fearful religion that would be.

Everything about the island was great, I thought. So much so that I even ignored the fact that Kong could climb anything in the planet with ease except a wooden wall. Oh yes, it can’t be disputed that Kong is worth his weight in plot holes like that one.

Also many times the boundaries of believability were so stretched and cartoonish I was concerned about what I was watching. The running of the dinos was a good example, it looked silly, and if they brontosauruses were really that clumsy and prone to falling and turning into an avalanche of Jurassic proportions, wouldn’t most the fossils of smaller animals be crushed? I got by that scene by assuming they were all drunk and playing dino-twister.

Also when Kong fought the T-Rexes, it was entertaining, but quite ludicrous. Unless there’s a prequel coming out that tells the story of how the giant ape was trained in martial arts. Seriously, as he fought the dinos whilst tossing Naomi from his hands to his feet, I was wondering if the fight scenes were designed by Jackie Chan.

It’s been mentioned much that maybe Jackson was trying to cross King Kong with Jurassic Park, but I thought it was more like something from a Disney cartoon. When they used a dino-bird as a hang-glider, I thought I might be watching Flintstones.

The saving grace is that King Kong is a perfect morality tale about humanity and our attitude toward all things natural. Twasn’t beauty that killed the beast, just old fashioned human greed.

I’ll give this a fair-handed 6 of 10, and note my preference for the ‘76 version for the most part

This will definitely become part of my DVD collection when it is released. I liked this film a lot and not because of the thrilling fight scenes between Kong and the dinos or the end sequence on the Empire State Building. Those were slick and well done (o.k. Prime maybe a bit too well done) but the relationship between woman and beast really moved me. That sounds a bit weird but I don't care.

Don't forget the natives! I loved they way they looked and acted. Priceless!

I can absolutely understand the people who find faults with this film. It's pretty damn long and the CGI does get pretty crazy during the dinos in the vines scene. Nevertheless, I thought it was great and the type of movie the deserves to be seen on the big screen.

Random comment ahead:

I would like to have seen some giant gorilla turds lying around to add some reality to the whole thing.

9 out of 10 giant monkeys