King Kong

The movie had the hype. All the critics loved it. A critic on NPR said even though the movie is 3 hours and 7 minutes long, every minute is worth it.

I went to see it with Bach, Bryan, Robert, Tammy, and Tony, and the movie lived up to the hype. It's definitely one of the the best movies of the year, as Ebert said. You don't even see Kong until 70 minutes into the movie, but it was great in building up suspense. You know what's there, but you're still on the edge of your seat.

The action on the island is basically everything Jurassic Park 2 wanted to be except it's 100 times better. Peter Jackson figured everything out with using CG special effects. Usually, when you watch CG action, there's no sense of danger. It's just there. In Kong, Jackson develops Kong as a multidimensional character. All the emotions you can think of, Kong expresses them without thinking to yourself, "This is stupid." So when Kong fights with prehistoric enemies, you feel moved and not bored.

So I highly recommend the movie. Second best movie of the year. Right behind Batman Begins.