**** The Legend Is Reborn.

43 years after the original "King Kong", somebody got the idea to make a remake ("Godzilla" was 44 years after the original, coincidence?). They modernized the classic tale, and made an allegory out of it.

A ship heads out to a strange island in search of oil (remember, this was during the oil embargo crises). An anthropologist (or was it some other kind of "ologist", I forgot), stows away on the ship because he believes that a really large creature lives there. Along the way, the ship picks up a shipwreck survivor that just so happens to be a beautiful blonde (you got to have one of those when dealing with Kong). The land on the island, but instead of finding usable oil (they apparently don’t need the lubricating kind), they find an ancient people and a really big gorilla. Dwan, the blonde women, gets captured and is given to Kong. After a "love story" develops between Kong and Dwan, a big snake provides a destraction, Dwan is rescued, and Kong is captured. They bring Kong to New York, he obviously escapes, grabs the girl, and climbs to the top of the tallest spot in the area, the World Trade center buildings. Kong is consequently shot down by helicopters.

This is one of those movies that you either really like, or really hate. It has a ton of little nit-picky problems, probably because they slapped it together really fast and really sloppy in comparison to the original. It also isn’t much of a monster movie; it focuses almost solely on the allegory of big business and people‘s quick judgment of character. Although quite a few people hate the format of this movie (including my Mother), I personally liked this movie. It tried to make a point, and succeeded very well. Maybe to well, cause that’s all it does, but having a movie focused and with great plot flow is worth the pain of non-versatility.

They special effects were done very well, enough to win an Oscar. They were able to make a guy in a gorilla suit look real, something Toho was never able to do. The Kong vs. a big snake fight was good, but a little short. My guess is that they wanted to have the same plot as the original, but didn’t want unrealistic dinosaurs, so they made it very brief. They climax was done extremely well. They set it on top of the world trade center, and not only was it good for them to update to the current tallest, but it was a good idea for another reason. The flat top and double building set up gives Kong more room to run around, giving him more moveability and making the climax more climatic. The nifty scenes may not have been as memorable as the first, but it still is somehow classic.

As a whole, I thought the movie was done very well. It had it’s problems, but those actually made the movie more campy, which is a good thing. It may not be for everyone, but I still recommend it to everyone even remotely interested in monster movies. You never know, you might like it.

Great plot

Oscar wining special effects

Made a point

Surprisingly campy

Great climax

Hey, a big snake? I like snakes!

A bit overly mushy

Tons of nit-picks

Bad acting (especially that dippy blonde!).

What’s up with the red background?

Classic scenes not as classic

Come on? When’s this dumb ritualistic dance ever get over with?

Credits