Hollywood Moviemaking sometimes works

HBO just showed Peter Jackson's King Kong and I thought I would check it out. Allow me to say that I watched the movie in it's entirety and planned on writing a section about how much of a crime it was to watch a movie like this pan and scan. However, I realized with 5 minutes left that I could have been watching it on HBOHD channel. There goes that rant, defeated by idiocy.

I thought the film was an excellent example of what Hollywood movies can be capable of. Huge vistas, engrossing action, well crafted plot, cutting edge special effects and big name stars, all add up to one of the best Hollywood pictures of it's type I've seen in quite some time. The type I'm refering to is action movie. I don't like action movies as a rule. Peter Jackson chose to remake an interesting subject with emotional connections bulit into the plot and not tacked on. There were beautifl shots and exciting sequences that really moved and involved me.

This is a Hollywood movie so it does have hackneyed overacting, shallow character development, and clumsy exchanges. In particular the relationship between the first mate and the boy was rife with cliches. The attempts at humor rang false.

Another thing that bothers me in mainstream big budget specticals like this is the special effects. While Kong looks good by himself, as do many of the monsters in the film, their interaction with the world and other characters always looks fake. A creature that large moving that fast would look different with a person. I don't know how clear I can be about this but it is off putting and takes me out of the film. The final sequence with Kong on the Empire State Building fighting with the planes is a perfect example of the fake appearance of the effects. The planes in the seuence are digital and look like it. If one is to go back and watch a film where planes are filmed live in the sky, they look different. It isn't the fault of the digital artists that they can't reproduce life. They aren't being asked to. What they are making now looks great to 90% of the people who like effects heavy films. I find it distracting most of the time. When I don't, is a rare occasion.

I'll give it 3 stars and I'll conceed that if I had seen it in the theater my experience may have raised the rating.