This film has gotten rave reviews, but I've gotta say, I was rather unawed by it. I'm really struggling to think of a more average film which has received so much hype. Here are a few of the reasons I do not consider it a great film (although it is the best film I've seen in 2006
):
-Overlong. I reckon this could have been compressed into 2.5hrs; quite a few people actually walked out of the cinema. I don't have anything against long films, btw, for instance Casino and Magnolia are of similar length, but don't suffer for it.
-Vomit-inducing ending. Seriously, I was almost physically wretching when after the sadness of Kong falling, you get the typical hollywood style hero&heroine reunion to ensure that it ends on a happy note and that the US Box Office laps it up. Ughhhhhh.
-Poor scaling in the CG chase sequences (dinosaur bit). It just seemed well off, people running between the legs of things that size, without getting outpaced, or trampled or anything most of the time. Jurassic Park did this sort of thing better, over 10 years ago.
-Range of monsters which appear out of nowhere for no apparent reason.
-Very poor continuity in places. Examples would be in the chases across new york, at one point you see him driving down an alleyway, and theres a person in a white coat crossing the exit. The camera then cuts to the intersection/exit of the alley, only this time they are suddenly wearing a black(dark at least) coat and scurring out of the way of the car. Then how about the fact that this chase is happening in the evening, doesn't really last all that long, and then all of a sudden it's broad daylight when Kong falls down.
-Poor characterisation for a film of this length. Aside from Jack Black and that woman, we learn next to nothing about the backgrounds of the people on the ship. It's difficult to care about people who get killed when most of them are pretty 2 dimensional.
-Maybe I wasn't paying attention or fell asleep or something, but it seemed to me as though the native tribe on the island just vanished for no apparent reason. I know there was a raiding party sent back laden with guns etc, but if there was any kind of fight seeing them all get killed I can't remember it.
-Repetitive. When you think about it, what really happened on the island apart from a bunch of chases/fights?. I think there were opportunities missed for some quieter moments of reflection, something to build up the rapport between the characters and the viewer.
-By the end I just wanted it to be over, I was in fact rooting for the army who were trying to take Kong down (he was mashing so many civives after all). I think it's hard to relate to Kong because he isn't human and doesn't really speak, so there's not that bond and tinge of sadness you sometimes feel when a character in a film dies.