25 ODD-FOOT OF GRUNT

WARNING: MAY BE PLOT SPOILERS BELOW, BUT NO MORE SO THAN THE TRAILER



I saw King Kong today. And frankly I was sort of disappointed. NOT because it was bad, but because it wasn't. I actually quite enjoyed it. Maybe I'm some sort of dumb-movie-goer, or maybe I'm not, but I'll explain myself further regardless.

I was swept up in the magic of the island, I was in love with the old-timey New York style, I felt for Kong, I was scared for Anne (Naomi Watts' character) I actually liked Jack Black. I thought Peter Jackson did a good job, despite being somewhat Peter Jackson-ish in his 'natives looking like orcs' approach. There were some good edtiting techniques, particularly the scene on the Empire State building, and recalling of earlier shots from the movie.

Yes yes, the movie was obviously done with CG and it was noticeable, but I could actually look past it, which is hard for me to do, and embrase the movie for what it was saying, and not how it was said. The person I saw the film with kept shaking his head as if to say "yeah right! that'd never happen!" but that's not the point. The film doesn't have to be realistic in its story telling, its unbelievable in nature, you have to suspend that part of your brain to enjoy it!

I did have some gripes though: The dinosaurs. Not enough of them. And they were pretty weird looking. The tyrannosaur was alright, a bit toothy but ok, but there were these other dinos that were sort of like Allosaurs & Raptors in one, which struck me as odd, as well as some serious scientific error with the long-necked dinos. Shall I go into it? No, well too bad: See, the bodies of the long-necked were that of an apatosaur, but the head was all wrong. It was thought up untill 10 years ago or so that they had short stuppy heads because the skulls were never found. Then 10 years ago they were found, and they were actually long slender heads. The ones in the movie had stumpy heads. Which is ok if they were a Camarasaurus or something, but that's rather obscure so I am not certain. Then again the did have a Torosaurus instead of a Triceratops, which is also obscure. Final criticism, a few too many mythical creatures. Sure, its the lost world, but not Middle Earth. The giant phallic worms and the Orc-bats were odd to see.

There were a lot of good things though, far out weighing the bad: The casting was good. Adrien Brody was good to see in a strong role despite his character being a writer and him looking like the worlds biggest wimp (watch Dummy to see what I mean). The old-timey New York was really cool, with the detail done pretty well (as far as I know), the skyline was cool, and Times Square was also cool. Old-timey ads are also always awesome! (A brand-new Chevy for $445). I enjoyed the pace, with the substories, and the fast pace in the second and third hours. I liked the set designs, the costume design and the sound was great too. The music was corny drama music which was good. A bit of a let-down with the titles, could've been a LOT cooler.

It was funny watching it though: There was some kids sitting behind us (which by the way: Not a movie for kids) and they kept talking the whole time. The funniest question they asked there dad, when the saw a giant skeleton of a gorilla "Is that a giant human?". Double-handed face slap!! Also we went for a drink afterwards and the bartender was talking about it too, in an extremely thick ocker Aussie accent she was complaining about the pace of the movie. It was kind of funny, and made me feel really elitist, but then again it was a Hollywood blockbuster I was defending, so yeah whatever.

Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10, good, not great, but certainly not bad at all.
A must for video, a maybe for the theatre.


IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN



I'm redoing my portfolio to take around with me when the job hunting begins in April. Here is my cover/contents page. I'm sticking with dinosaurs and color, but changing the font from Helevetica to something nicer and newer. Got any suggestions? Linus? Will? You guys know about that sort thing.. anyone else, because they're too lazy and I want your ideas too...

IESSO