Look at all the cool things I can do with filmmaking!

That's how it felt at times. I was surprised by how uneven this film was. The trailers were excellent, and I was greatly anticipating this movie.

The opening montages didn't disappoint; they set the film in a significant/meaningful context of inhumanity to one another (juxtaposed with caring pictures of apes). The first thing that disappointed me was the editing. I thought the early scenes cut to sharply from one to another. And it also seemed that Naomi Watts accent was coming and going in the early bits. Unfortunately, these things resulted in my being pulled into the theater watching the movie instead of existing in the story world with the film.

For awhile I couldn't tell if Jackson was trying to be campy/silly or spooky. And throughout the film he verges between both. I wish he'd just picked one, because what suffers is the pathos. The 70's re-make actually had more emotion than this one.

Okay, so the action sequences are stunning. But there's too much. I needed more breaks. We all felt over-over-stimulated upon leaving the theatre. Plus, we really could have done without some things. There's too much blood and gore in a couple of places. The film is simply gross too often and that worked to pull me out of the story world as well.

I really liked Kong. And there was much that was fantastic about this movie. Here's my diagnosis of the problem. When a director is allowed too much freedom, they often overdo their film (e.g., Scorsese and Spielberg have had this problem some in the last decade). Having to cut a film to a certain lenght requires some disicpline, and it would have helped this film to have been shorter, I think.

Overall I enjoyed it, but it didn't live up to expectations and hopes.

3 1/2 film reels
4 popcorn kernels