The Wrath of Kong

I saw Jarhead about two months ago, and during the previews the trailer for King Kong was shown. I knew this movie was being produced, but I really didn't have much interest in seeing it; I hadn't seen the original, and it just seemed like a Hollywood get-rich-quick scheme.

And they showed the CGI of Kong, and the '30s setting, which were par for the course in my mind, and didn't really seem too fascinating.

That was until the T-Rex scene.

They show this dinosaur screaming, then King Kong jumps in and starts screaming, it get quiet, the T-Rex charges Kong, he goes nuts, quickly thumps his chest, and put his hands on both sides of the T-Rex's jaws as the screen goes to white. This for me was one of those moments where you know what goes on behind the white flash frame has to be something incredible. With my mouth agape, I turn around to see the five or six people I went to the theater with making the same exact expression as I was. The action looked tempting, and knowing that Peter Jackson had done well with the action scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies, I thought this couldn't be bad, and began to anticipate seeing Kong in a few months.

I was right. After finding out it was premiering the night I was done with finals, and really wanting to see it with Gish, Silva, and the rest of our band of fools because we feed off each other's excitement, making it even more exciting. We showed up early for the midnight showing, anticipating some sort of line. We walked in, and we waiting at the concession stand, when we got an idea of who we would be watching this film with: some slovenly fat guy with a ponytail comes up behind us, and proclaims to the employees, "I hear you have the best nachos in town......I WOULD LIKE TO PARTAKE!"

It was unmistakable: nerds. We would be watching this movie with a theater full of nerds. And we were right. They were everywhere. I guess nerds have a pledge of loyalty to Peter Jackson.

Finally, the movie started. Having watched the original a few weeks ago, I knew the story fairly well, and was able to pick up a lot of parallels included throughout. The first hour of Jackson's was actually kind of slow; the first movie set the story up well in a third of the time. It wasn't like it added anything to the story, and seemed to be so drawn out just to get the movie to the standard 3-hour length for an epic.

But once they get onto Skull Island, ridiculous. That's the only way to put it. What is so great about it is that it doesn't try too hard to be artsy or deep, it's just pure entertainment, something rare these days when going to the movies. I don't get too excited at the movies anymore, but for two hours I was on the edge of my seat, yelling and giggling like a little girl. When the part with the T-Rex came up, me, Gish, and Silva all started saying, "Here it comes, oh boy! Oh boy!" Despite acting a little immature for three twentysomethings, it was a great movie experience. I don't want to ruin any of the parts by saying what goes down, and besides, even if I did, it wouldn't do justice to actually watching it.

If you enjoy being happy and having fun, see King Kong.

Grade: A-



If this doesn't look cool to you, you're probably dead. Or gay.