King Kong

On Thursday night after work, we went to see King Kong at the AMC 16 Theater in Emeryville. We used our re-admit passes from Walk the Line and snuck in our own refreshments so, aside from parking, it was a free night at the movies - and the gift that keeps on giving.

That was our first time seeing a movie at that theater and the place was really nice, aside from the slightly uncomfortale seats (KK is a 3-hour movie BTW) and the very talkative seat neighbors. But I had been waiting for this movie for so long, I was determined not to let anything ruin it for me.

Right off the bat, I have to say that this movie is amazing to watch. It is 3 hours long, so the pacing in certain points (mostly in the build-up to Kong - the first hour) is slow, but as soon as Kong is on screen, the movie just barrels along with a lot of action and, in the hands of Peter Jackson and Weta (the New Zealand equivalents of George Lucas (in his prime) and ILM ) all of the creatures and action are very realistic, at least as much as this kind of movie can be. I should say that within the world created by this movie, the creatures and action are believable. There are a couple of areas where you can see the seams in the animation (at least I did), but it's not enough to drag the rest of the movie down. The only acting complaint that I have about the movie is Jack Black. I'm a big fan of his, but, from time to time, he does slip out of character and moves or says something in a very Jack-Black-ian way, but again, it doesn't take anything away from the rest of the movie. Otherwise, the performances were solid, especially Kong himself, who turns out to be a very emotional and convincing character. On top of all of it, the movie hits all of the necessary moments: Kong at the top of the Empire State Building gave me chills.

If I were to give it a star rating, I would give it 3.5 out of 5. The perfect choice for our last movie of 2005.

This will probably be my last post of '05. So, Happy New Year to everyone.