Review Detail
8.9 23 10
(Updated: September 13, 2012)
Enjoyment
9.0
July 12, 2010
Well, unlike many of the reviewers here, I do like the original movie. But, though I enjoyed it, it certainly had a number of flaws that kept it from being as good a movie as it could have been. This cut fixes nearly all those flaws and the final product is the best version of Kong I’ve seen other than the 1933 movie (which is a classic but also not perfect).
The pacing is much improved, more so than I would have thought possible. All the important parts of the story are still present and much padding and over-long development is gone. Very little of the material cut is missed. The only time I felt something missing was in the early restaruant scene where Denham convinces Ann Darrow to come by mentioning Driscoll is involved. Although I was impressed by the very clever use of dialogue from another scene inserted into this scene to bring Driscoll in to the discussion, since we no longer have the scenes that showed how much Darrow wanted to work with Driscoll, her reaction in the new edit seems to come from no where. I can live with it but it is a bit jarring.
I very much enjoyed how some of the scenes on the island were trimmed to just enough to carry the story (the giant bugs in the crevice and Kong and the dinos swinging and fighting in the vines). Both scenes went on much too long in the original movie, so much so that they became silly and comical instead of dramatic. This cut gives us just enough. The one scene that should have been cut still more or, even better, completely eliminated, was the dino stampede. This was simply unbelievable in the original movie and is still too long in this edit.
Though I did like the original movie, I expect that this is the version I will watch from now on. It’s not perfect, but it is damn good.
Well, unlike many of the reviewers here, I do like the original movie. But, though I enjoyed it, it certainly had a number of flaws that kept it from being as good a movie as it could have been. This cut fixes nearly all those flaws and the final product is the best version of Kong I’ve seen other than the 1933 movie (which is a classic but also not perfect).
The pacing is much improved, more so than I would have thought possible. All the important parts of the story are still present and much padding and over-long development is gone. Very little of the material cut is missed. The only time I felt something missing was in the early restaruant scene where Denham convinces Ann Darrow to come by mentioning Driscoll is involved. Although I was impressed by the very clever use of dialogue from another scene inserted into this scene to bring Driscoll in to the discussion, since we no longer have the scenes that showed how much Darrow wanted to work with Driscoll, her reaction in the new edit seems to come from no where. I can live with it but it is a bit jarring.
I very much enjoyed how some of the scenes on the island were trimmed to just enough to carry the story (the giant bugs in the crevice and Kong and the dinos swinging and fighting in the vines). Both scenes went on much too long in the original movie, so much so that they became silly and comical instead of dramatic. This cut gives us just enough. The one scene that should have been cut still more or, even better, completely eliminated, was the dino stampede. This was simply unbelievable in the original movie and is still too long in this edit.
Though I did like the original movie, I expect that this is the version I will watch from now on. It’s not perfect, but it is damn good.
B