Length: 187 minutes Peter Jackson has developed a nasty habit of padding out his "action-packed" movies with needless displays of computer-generated hysteria and a great deal of ambling around. He has a point--usually an enlightening one--it just takes him twice as long as it should to get there. King Kong was his most egregious example at the time of its release. (Yes, even more so than The Lord of the Rings). Stretching out a relatively faithful adaptation of 1933 classic by nearly an hour and a half proves a detriment to the simple story at the hart of King Kong, which was very much a product of its time. Much of this ballooning happens in the first act, where ancillary characters from the original film are expanded upon in greater detail, each given their own background and motivation. That's great and all, except the second half of the film largely abandons their individuality, or worse, leaves their story threads dangling in midair for eternity. What's the point in developing these characters if there's no follow-through? This was probably done because the filmmakers realized they were already three hours in and needed a swift exit. So instead, cut out that hour at the beginning that looks nice but accomplishes very little, and spend the rest of it on Skull Island and then back at New York, where all the best bits reside.
