King Kong Review

My Review on King Kong 1933

The special effects in this movie were spectacular, mixing stop motion with reality and making in blend together very well. The painted backgrounds used for various jungle scenes were done well, you couldn't tell the difference between painting and reality. This is mentioned in a review by Film4, 'Using then state-of-the-art special effects - rear projection and stop-motion animation, overseen by effects maestro Willis O'Brien - the film creates a wholly integrated world where the appearance of magical creatures makes absolute sense.' (Film4)

There is quite a few fight and chase scenes in this film with many monstrous testosterone pumped herbivorous dinosaurs. Why were these dinosaurs crazy? A rampaging sauropod and an insane stegosaurus. The tyrannosaurus was also very deformed and stood with an upright strait posture and dragging its tail across the ground, opposed to what they really walked like by today's standards, using their tail for balance in a horizontal posture. These dinosaurs were depicted in this way because not much was known about them in 1933, especially the upright posture of the tyrannosaurus. They probably wanted to make all the monsters in the film scary and would kill anyone who intrudes on their island. As Roger Ebert agrees in his 2002 review in Chicago Sun-Times. 'In "King Kong" you are looking at an idea of a dinosaur, created by hand by technicians who are working with their imaginations.' (Chicago Sun-Times)

King Kong is a giant gorilla and is seen in this film as a giant monster, but really in comparison with the many other monsters on the island King Kong is smaller than them. He is also seen as an evil monster, but really is he just lonely and always bullied by the bigger dinosaurs? This could be why he takes a liking to the girl, seeing as he has no other of his kind on the island. Kim Newman also believes King Kong is a lover under all that monstrosity in his review from Empire. 'The ape may be a monster, but he's also an innocent in love.' (Empire)