I caught it at a THX Certified Megaplex this evening. In my opinion, it's far from flawless. It was certainly WAY too long, thanks in great part to padded action scenes and jungle chases that were nothing more than a showcase for WETA, which was quite frankly somewhat sloppy at times. My other major gripe was in making King Kong into the Frankenstein monster in the way of compassion and understanding. It was just too heavy handed, the whole "gorillas have feelings, too" message.
To its credit, it was cast accordingly, filmed beautifully, and Naomi Watts certainly held her own in recalling Faye Wray. Had it been condensed, which in turn would have made it more effective, Jackson dropping the predisposition to making LOTR length films, it probably would have kept me more entrigued.
Having said that, it was still a great movie, even if it did feel like a summer blockbuster with an unnecessarily epic run time.
