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Night at the movies - King Kong


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OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!!

'nuff said. Just. Go. See. It.

11/10

When you realize just how long 3hrs is, you won't believe just fast it goes with this movie.

The Kong vs T-Rex battle has to be seen to be believed.

This movie leaves you both happy and sad, all at once.

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Guest Hellbinder[CE]

I saw the movie last night.

King Kong was pulled off very well. Very life like, well animated, great emotional range.

There is about 45 minuets of footage that was totally unnecessary in the first 1/3 of the movie.

The natives on the island just rocked and were down right creepy.

One of the dinosaur set pieces was simply way to fake. The Brontos's Charge scene was simply done very badly. There comes a point when you simply need to have some models and other tricks in there to get the best effect. CGI is just not up to snuff yet for some of this.

Some of the movement animations on the people scattered throughout the movie were just plain amateurish at times. How hard could it be to get a decent animator from Valve or any decent game studio to create life like body movements?

The scene with Kong-on-ice Was just cheesy and I felt like I was watching a coke commercial.

The "bug" set piece was one of the most terrifying things i have ever seen on the screen. I actually curled my feet up, tensing about every muscle and closed one eye. That's never happened before.

The whole 1930's New York was pulled off brilliantly. It was almost all CGI but looked warm (even in winter) and inviting.

Oh, and It was not "Beauty killed the beast" you jerk. It was You. Who for greed took the beast from his home, abused him for money, and got him killed.

Overall, a Great Movie. Now Jackson needs to make us a decent big Budget American Godzilla Flick.

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Going to see this tomorrow night. It sounds like the perfect balance of spectacle and storytelling. If I'm happy with the storytelling it should score highly, but as Hellbinder pointed out, I'll probably have to dock points for technical reasons. Also, I want to crack open my Production Diaries box set, but won't until after I've seen the finished movie.

Note to film-makers, use CG to augment practical effects. Going full-CG does not yet yield acceptibly beleivable results.

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I used to think that studio-enforced cuts were a bad thing ...but the only thing bad about it in this instance is how BADLY King Kong needed them. I don't know if it was the Tyranasuruses on the trapeze or the nonstop barrage of monster swarms... but somewhere in the middle of the Skull Island jungle I just didn't feel like watching this movie any more.

It was just too goddamned long. It's not a matter of too much content, either, like the LOTR movies - it's a matter of having 60 more minutes of film than content. The fight scenes get repetitive and predictable, and drag out the film while no real plot progression is happening. That gets tedious fast, but it keeps on going like that for the whole 3 hours. PJ needs a better editor - or at least someone capable of talking some sense into him. There's a good film in there somewhere. What I just saw was not it.

4/10

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Guest Hellbinder[CE]

What i really cant understand is how, 13 yars after Jurrasic park and all the advancements in Technology, and having 207M budget, You cant make dinos that look ultra real. All the Dinos looked like CGI video game specials. I kept thinking "Wow what nice shader effects, but they look like shader effects".

You would think that at this time you could make a totally life like CGI animal. Meaning that it looks litterally like its in the real world with natural skin tones and movements.

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just saw this tonight and came away mixed. They did good in an over arching sense but got caught up on minutia. About 50% of the events leading up to ann's escape from Kong could have been cut without affecting the plot.

In all actuality I was expecting to see the return voyage too... kindly that was skipped but we all figured it out.

5/10 (kong was pretty impressive bit of rendering)

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The movie never seems to drag so for me the length was not an issue.

The conclusion of the brontosaurus charge was a nicely done comic relief. Overall it was not a bad movie. Only thing I wish they would do is when Kong takes the plunge off the Empire State building, Carl Denham needs to be there to try and "catch" him.

7/10

Wonder if we are going to see the sequel Son of Kong?

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They were saying what a "disappointing" opening week that Kong had. I'm not sure what past history has shown about opening the week of Christmas, but it would seem to me that with people being as busy as they are during that week, that seems like a questionable time to release a blockbuster film.

Case in point, my son and I are going to see it (at least once) this week, as we felt it undoable, not to mention a tad incongruous in keeping with the season, to see it Christmas week. I expect the same reverence to the source material as with LOTR from Jackson, as well as the sweeping epic feel he has the uncanny ability to bestow upon his films.

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Guest Hellbinder[CE]

quote:

Originally posted by Joel Schultz:

quote:

You cant make dinos that look ultra real

Oh please. Does ANYONE know what a "real" dinosaur looks like? For all we know real dinosaurs look like CGI.

Must...see...Kong...


well, I am pretty sure they were not "shiny" and slightly "Glossy". I am also prety sure they didnt have slightly "Aliased" looking skin either.
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well since digital cameflague is just now coming into style for humans, isn't it possible that the dinisaurs had it too?

In all actuality I really didn't notice the shinyness that much and I could forgive it as being part of the dense tropical rainforrest ideal.

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A lot of PJs stuff, while obviously CG, at least fits into a kind of visual "style" that makes it believable. It's almost hyper-real, if that makes sense. The Bronto chase, however, did not fit into that category. It looked sloppy - but most apparently near the end... and it was already way over the top that the not-quite-there CG really made it more of a sore spot than it would have otherwise been. Still, when I get my hands on the DVD I'm recutting my own personal viewing version sans a lot of the unneccessary absurdity.

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quote:


Originally posted by Hellbinder:

quote:

Originally posted by Joel Schultz:

quote:

You cant make dinos that look ultra real

Oh please. Does ANYONE know what a "real" dinosaur looks like? For all we know real dinosaurs look like CGI.

Must...see...Kong...


well, I am pretty sure they were not "shiny" and slightly "Glossy". I am also prety sure they didnt have slightly "Aliased" looking skin either.
I was only half-serious . End-of-year brain-rot has been setting in.
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quote:

Originally posted by Race Bannon IV:

how are you recutting a dvd? details man give me details!

I rip them to my hard drive in MPEG2 format, transcode them to lossless AVI, recut to my hearts content. The movies I feel most inclined to recut usually end up 10 to 15 minutes shorter than the originals. I also sometimes cut in deleted scenes (as was the case with Donnie Darko before the Directors Cut was ever announced). Deleted scenes usually require some soundwork so I do a lot of that too. I have a huge collection of movie soundtracks too, so whenever I feel the need I'll redo a soundtrack. It's amazing how many 80s movies with terrible synthesized soundtracks are actually really good when you put in decent orchestral scores... it's something I wish studios would do themselves every so often.

Anyhoo, I have a small stack of movies that I've modified to varying degrees (all movies I legitimately own). So any time someone wants to watch something from my collection that I've "restored" I give them my personal edit instead.

As a side note, I think amateur recuts are something more studios should support. Editing can change a movie in subtle but drastic ways... especially when you have a fans perspective and aren't as attached to the material.

It's like a model kit analogy. A kid gets a model airplane kit and puts it together. It looks like an airplane, not bad. A professional model builder gets the same set, his airplane looks like the real deal. What did the pro do differently? A detailed paint job, he also notices that the model kit neglected some details (like a pilot) and so used parts from a GI Joe to make that pilot.

Anyhoo, you need a DVD Decrypter and a copy of Premiere or Avid Xpress (PC) or Final Cut (Mac) to get started. It helps to have some sound and soundtrack libraries (although you can "borrow" things from other DVDs when needed), but if you're creative enough you should be up and running in no time.

Quick Edit: If you are just getting started on video editing - learn Avid Xpress. It's the industry standard and also the most detailed of the editing programs.

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