King Kong DVD Review (Peter Jackson) Empire Movies

KING KONG DVD REVIEW

King Kong (Deluxe Extended Edition)
(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

4/10

6/10

Liam

Do we really need a longer "King Kong"...

If anything, last year's big budget/big release/big disappointment, "King Kong", divided fans into two distinct categories. You either loved it or you hated it. Well, I didn't love it. In fact, it was one of the more disappointing movies I have seen in a very long time. It was well-acted and the effects were better than 98% of movies made today, but the movie was long and self-indulgent. Earlier this year, we saw two releases of the film. The first was a bare-bones edition with the film and a promo spot for Volkswagen. The other edition boasted an extra disc containing an introduction to the film and several production diaries. The movie originally ran a long 187 minutes.

Well, now just 8 months later, consumers are getting a new 3-disc "extended" edition with not only new special features but also an additional 14 minutes of footage. How do you add 14 minutes on to an already unbearably long movie?! And to top it off, we have another 38 minutes worth of deleted/extended material spread over 16 scenes. You read correctly -- 38 minutes... Ouch!! Some scenes are completed. Some aren't. And although they are presented separately from the movie, they make the movie that much longer.

I think I've done enough complaining about "King Kong". So, onto the rest of the DVD...

More special features on this DVD set begin on Disc One with a feature commentary by director/writer/producer Peter Jackson along with writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens. If you can stand to sit through the movie again, email me and let me know if this commentary is worth the time. I couldn't bring myself to do it. More features include "The Eighth Blunder of the World" which doesn't examine what a mistake this movie was, but instead is a 19-minute gag reel. (Which, coincidentally enough, is much longer than your average gag reel.) Next, there's a Missing Production Diary focusing on "Monitor Watching Syndrome" which is kinda funny but it doesn't redeem the rest of the movie. This is followed by "A Night in Vaudeville" which looks at the choreography from the opening of the movie. Disc One features are completed by a "King Kong Homage" which looks at some of the nods to the original 1933 movie that Peter Jackson sprinkled throughout this remake.

Moving to Disc Two, we continue the film as well as the feature commentary. More features on this disc include "The King Kong Archives" which offers four Pre-Visualization Animatics, a feature titled "The Present" about a film the cast made for Peter Jackson's birthday, a few trailers for the movie and finally a "Weta Collectibles" feature showcasing some of the high-end collectibles created for the release of the movie. There are also the 1995 and 2005 versions of the script available for DVD-ROM users.

Rounding out the features on Disc Three, we get more from the King Kong Archives including an introduction by Peter Jackson, a 3-hour, 8-part making-of feature and finally five conceptual design videos. (Did I mention the 3-hour documentary?! Well, if I didn't, it was 3 hours. Actually a little over 3 hours -- just like the movie.)

I feel like I've really complained enough about how long this movie was. Maybe I'll watch it again in a few years and find that it really wasn't all that long. After all, I enjoyed the LOTR movies - and they were each 3+ hours. Maybe there's hope for me. And maybe there's really a giant-sized ape hidden on an island somewhere here on Earth. Yeah - I didn't think so either.

Features
38 Minutes of Deleted Scenes
Feature Commentary with Peter Jackson
"The Eighth Blunder of the World" - The Must-See Outtaker and Gag Reel
"Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong" - Fascinating Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
"Return to Skull Island" - Creating the Mythical World of Skull Island
"The Present" - An Original Short Film Made by the Cast of King Kong
Original Computer-Animated Storyboards of Kong's Exciting Action Sequences
The Video Galleries - Hundreds of Works of Brilliant Conceptual King Kong Artwork
ROM Scripts - Includes the 2005 and 1996 Scripts for King Kong
And So Much More!

Video
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH
Spanish
French

Release Date
November 14, 2006

Rating
Not Rated

Length
201 mins.

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