***The following is a PARTIAL REVIEW, as I stopped watching when the crew leaves Skull Island.***
I saw PJ's King Kong when it came out, but only recently watched the original for the first time. And, to be honest, I don't really enjoy either version all that much. Sure, the first one is a great film and a classic, but apart from its iconic concepts and effects, it's a lot of action without much heart. I really enjoyed the Ann/Kong relationship in PJ's version, but hated the over-the-top action like the Rex battle and Brontosaurus stampede.
So... onto KONG.
While I missed the Jolson intro, TMBTM's first act to the movie is terrific. It moves along nice and quickly, cuts lots of flab, and gets us to Skull Island with admirable speed.
Then comes that damned slo-mo battle. What was PJ thinking? It may have been trimmed here, but felt just as agonizingly long as in the theatrical. I would have liked far fewer slo-mo shots, and could also have done with a bare minimum of "the natives are quasi-inhuman" cutaways. I'm not one to make big deals out of this sort of thing, but PJ's natives are at the very least borderline offensive, much more so than in the original.
After that, it's pretty good, still cutting lots of flab, though a good deal of ridiculousness survives. Those unfamiliar with the theatrical may find certain elements confusing and/or abrupt, such as the revelation that Kyle Chandler is an action hero rather than any old actor.
I think it was a mistake to cut the Ann/Kong daytime bonding scene, though. Without it, even with the Rex rescue and the sunset, her grief at his capture just doesn't convince. TMBTM's stated goal is to make this as much like the '33 original as possible, but the difference in the Anns' attitudes towards Kong is massive, and it shows.
Finally, I did skip to the ending to see if it had been changed. I think it would have been best to end the picture during the shot of Kong falling. The '33 ending notwithstanding, I just can't take that bloodless, clean corpse at all seriously; it darn near ruins the experience for me.
Technically, this is a terrific edit, and, since it cuts so much of PJ's flab, I feel comfortable calling it the best cut of any Kong yet produced. I'd much rather watch it than the theatrical again, but to really replace PJ's cut, I think the Ann/Kong bonding scenes would have to be restored.
('Course, I'd use intertitles to cover up the deletion of monstrosities such as the still-terrible stampede sequence, but that's just moi! :wink: )
I won't rate this edit because I didn't watch the whole thing, so there you go. Good work, and thanks for the xvid preview!
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Since this is a partial review, not sure whether to post it on fanedit.org or not, even with the disclaimer...