REVIEW: King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005)

An important thing to consider when rating the quality of a film is its intentions. Peter Jackson said that he embarked upon this new telling of the Kong story with hopes that it would do to audiences today what the original did to him years ago. Well, he hit the nail on the freakin' head.

When we look at the 1933 film that introduced Kong to our world, we see many important themes that go far beyond the simplicity of most creature features or monster flicks present. There is the seeming chaos of untouched nature pitted against the inate and developed forms of humanity, the inner weakness that beauty can evoke, and the apathatic avarice in many priviledged people, among others. This new version expounds upon those themes and explores them in exciting detail, while simultaneously allowing them to live freely in our minds due to the vastly wordless character of the film. As a matter of fact, the one time the film attempts to discuss one of these ideas directly though dialogue, it comes across as needless and excessively melodramatic.

There are several clever homages thrown in that make for some great humorous moments if you are familiar with the source material. While the '76 remake made the story contemporary again and focused more on society rather than romance it is no worthy companion to the original. Not only does the 1933 film still hold up today better than most films do when they're a mere ten years on, it exists as movie magic in its purest form.

Peter Jackson's reimagining takes off to an arguably slow start, but it all pays off. The development of the characters gets you into the story in a deep way. We also see a lot more of Kong, bringing us into his world more and also into his mind.

There are no holds barred in this production, especially in the action sequences. With audiences so desensitized to most everything movie studios can throw at them, King Kong is the new definition of edge-of-your-seat entertainment. The action is long lasting, overpowering, terrifying and original.

All in all, this movie is awesome in the true sense of the word. In complete honestly, my only qualm aside from its slow beginning and needless conversations between Jimmy and Hayes is a very trivial matter - Jack Black mentions something about being better than a B-movie filmmaker, when in fact during the time period that Kong takes place, the term "B-movie" simply meant a film was on a budget. It did not indicate that a film was a cheese-fest with low production values as the term has come to mean today, and as Black uses it in the movie. How about that, huh?

REVIEW: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Andrew Adamson, 2005)

As a child, I watched Wonderworks' Chronicles of Narnia movies constantly, and read CS Lewis' books. As a child, I really enjoyed these adventures. They captivated my imagination for short periods of time.

This new movie is actually quite good. Its not trying to be Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings like most current fantasy films. The best part is that there's no rush to get into Narnia, a lot of time is spent building up to it, and its not boring. Actually, the film kicks off with something exciting and unexpected that really pulls you in to the moviegoing experience - well worth the eight bucks!

I'm pretty jaded as far as movies go, it takes something special for me to really get into things. There really is magic to the land of Narnia, especially for someone like me having known the material since childhood. The landscapes make me want to walk into my closet and visit the place.

Of course there's some bad, but its easily looked past. The computer graphics look like they came from an unfinished cut, with some bad green screen, physics that sometimes seem too fluid, and even a few shots in which the background characters jump too quickly from one part of the screen to another. As is to be expected from a CS Lewis work, there is some religious mumbo-jumbo, but its kept to a nice minimum here. Aside from the metaphors all you have to listen to are a few references to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.

Don't be dissuaded by the PG rating - it seems like the MPAA was highly forgiving, so while overly animated, the battle scenes are exciting and fast-moving, yet followable. I can only remember one scene with blood; you can tell they made sure to keep the gore out.

I will look forward to the next films in the series, especially The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.