review squared
2006-01-14 10:10 p.m.
here is dora's movie review, which i tried to send to her via email. obviously i failed or i wouldnt b posting it here.
Dora Lim (18). Edited by Dawn Eng.
3/4
Movie review (with intelligent comments added)
King Kong -a movie directed by Peter Jackson- is a bum-numbing (bum-numbing?! Where had that come from!) three hour, stimulating, exhilarating, and thrilling show. This movie captivates and absorbs its audiences with its mostly high-tension parts, whilst managing to show many heart-warming and moving scenes, mainly between King Kong and Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts).
This three-hour long movie started off showing only Carl Denham, the director who wanted to go in search of Skull Island -an island said to be haunted by a beast- to film the movie of his dreams. Despite being persuaded by many to not go, and the various setbacks onboard the ship, Carl nevertheless still went into the island with his camera crew, leading lady Ann Darrow, screenwriter Jack Driscoll �who was tricked into coming with them-, and Adrien Brody (HEL-LO Adrien Brody is the guy playing big nose! Someone�s a little messed up.), his right-hand man.
King Kong only appeared on screen somewhere during the middle of the movie, hence I feel that the parts before that, for example when they board the ship, and when Carl looks for a lady to act in his new film, were too long. Most of it was even unnecessary, hence the long three hours.
I feel that there were many unrealistic characters and scenarios, like giant leeches, giant mosquitoes, dinosaurs, and T-rexes fighting with King Kong or attacking the humans. However, that was quite expected (and why is that so? Don�t tell me because you saw the trailer) and not too surprising, coming from a movie with King Kong, a mythical character, as the main lead. Also, these were the moments which provided the audience with high-tension scenes, keeping them on the edges of their seats, or nervously stuffing popcorn into their mouths, (or pinching their pitiful seatmates) not knowing what the outcome would be.
Another terrifying and thrilling (albeit unrealistic) scene would be when movie director Carl and his crew just enter the island, and see a scary, ghost-like brown native girl left in her skin and bones standing right in front of them. He foolishly advances slowly toward her and offers her a chocolate bar, only to find the island inhabited with thousands of these scary, skin-and-bone ghost-like natives who start appearing everywhere, attacking and attempting to kill them and chop off parts of their body, ignoring their screams and pleas. The human inhabitants were ironically the scariest in the entire movie, instead of King Kong.
King Kong was projected to be a great, ferocious beast, who was aggressive but at the same time, had a touch of gentleness and a romantic (how can a monkey be ROMANTIC?) side that was displayed for Ann Darrow, his supposed captive (the �witch doctors� and the natives from the island made her the sacrificial bride (bride? DINNER, more like.) to King Kong), who became his friend �and someone he loved- afterwards.
An example of a touching and tear-jerking scene would be when the men �who were searching for Ann Darrow who had been taken away by King Kong- trapped the majestic, great beast and threw huge tins of chlorofoam at him, causing him to lose conciousness, before bringing him back to New York (MANHATTEN, potato, not New York) as an exhibit (King Kong- the eighth wonder of the world). When tins were being thrown at him, Ann Darrow was half-sobbing, half shouting at them and begging them to stop, to no avail. Her pleas were ignored, and she was forced to board a boat and sail away whilst watching King Kong get dragged onto another boat (which leads to an unanswered question- how did the humongous King Kong, whose mere palm was so much bigger than the whole body of Ann Darrow, fit into a tiny sampan?), who was looking back at her with sad, confused eyes in a half-conscious state, as if he were asking her why she wasn�t helping him.
Ann Darrow started crying helplessly, as it broke her heart to see King Kong being treated so inhumanely, as if he were a non-living thing whose feelings were moot. King Kong had saved her lives numerous times from dinosaurs and other savage creatures who had tried to eat her (which sounds so stupid at this point. Maybe �tried to kill her� would sound better than �tried to EAT her.� She wouldn�t make more than a mouthful, would she?). I am sure that whilst she was crying, many of the audiences� hearts went out to her, and that they teared along too. (oh, really.)
Another example of a similar moving scene would be the ending part, where King Kong was perched on top of the building in New York city. Planes were attacking it, so, to not risk Ann getting hurt, he let go of whatever he was holding on to and fell down the 100-storey building and died, right in the eyes of Ann Darrow. (ahem. �and was killed� sounds better than �and died�. How could it be right in the eyes of Ann Darrow anyway, unless she has super-sight and can clearly see what is happening 100-storeys below her) Below, Carl says to the police officer (also the very last sentence of the entire movie) �Oh, no. It wasn�t the planes. It was beauty killed the beast.� This is how the movie ended off and it was a very moving scene (�a very moving scene�. Wasn�t someone complaining of its stupidity?) which greatly touched me, (oh, ha)as King Kong, the great, majestic beast, died as a result of human�s selfishness and their inability to think of anything else besides the good of themselves.
Overall, I found the movie silly and unrealistic and undeserving of the four stars it received. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank my editor, who has spent MUCH time and effort reviewing this review to make it absolutely perfect. I would make it up to her by treating her to a Burger King meal this Sunday.
there we are.
