I think PJ has taken a bit of a gamble making this film. On one hand it's a great story, remembered with fondness by many people from their childhood. The 1933 original was one of my favourite films when I was a kid. On the other hand, everyone has already seen it (and the remake from the 70's). In his usual style he has thrown obscene amounts of money at making it, a good bit of it his own. I'd like to think it will make loads, and PJ will be laughing all the way to the bank, but it's a lot of money to claw back.

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I went to see it last night. I'd read a review saying it was too long, but critics tend to say that of any film that exceeds two hours. I was surprised he'd managed to stretch it to over three hours though. To be honest, it could have been shorter. An hour had passed before you first saw the island, and it was an hour and half until you saw Kong. Maybe half an hour less at the start would prompt me to go and see it again tonight.

Once you reached the island, however, things started to rock. For those of you familiar with the original, everything is there...... but ON WHAT A GREAT SCALE. Expecting to see the old wooden wall, this new one blew me away. It was like, this is bigger than I expected. An the tribe were scary. Great make-up. Even lowering the sacrificial bride over the wall was done in style. And then we have..... KONG.

What can I say? He's a gorilla.... He's a bloody huge gorilla. He's not the man in monkey suit we are used to from the first film, but an Andy Sirkas (aka Smeagul) in a CGS gorilla suit. Fantastic, flawless. PJ has created a real 25 foot gorilla for us.

I had read somewhere that PJ had not put any dinosaurs in this film. How can you have King Kong without dinosaurs. Fortunately he had, and Jurasic Park eat your heart out. The brontosaurus stampede was something else, and Kong's scrap with the Tyranosaurs awesome (not one beastie but three). Some ugly moments with some giant insects too, including a particularly grizzly end to Andy Sirkas's other character as the cook.

The island was so beautiful I wasn't looking forward to going back to New York. By then Kong has been transformed from monster to something loveable. You want him to smash up New York and slay his tormentors, particularly after seeing a tender side of him playing on a frozen lake. And then there's the final stand off on the top of the Empire State building. It's sad. You know where its going to go, but you're just gunning for him to take down one more plane before he dies.

At the end of the day, if you're a shallow person like me, who can be bought for a shed-load of eye-candy, you'll love this film. If you are the type who looks beyond the special effects, I'm not sure... I didn't look beyond the special effects.

How ironic that with King Kong, PJ tried (and succeeded) to stay as faithful and close to the original film as possible.

I still think though, that instead of Naomi Watts, Jane Goodall should've been King Kong's love interest. You really can't find a bigger gorilla in the mist than PJ's one.

I really liked the movie. Although its only the quality of the special effects that have changed but still its really a treat to watch the movie all over again. And it still seems as good as new. Go watch it on the big screen, you'll love it. A theatre is the only place where King Kong's supposed to be seen.

I enjoyed KK. Not sure how comes the Ann character in PJ's version wasn't more scared of him though. Much preferred Fay Wrays portrayal - i.e. a LOT of screaming!