As a kid growing up in the 1950s, "King Kong" was my all-time favorite flick on the weekly show "Million Dollar Movie". My brothers and I would look forward to Kong's annual repeat performance on our tiny BW TV. We would try to memorize the dialog:

"Have you heard of. . . Kong?" (wink-wink)

For us, young men eventually to become an engineer, a scientist and a businessman, the fascination of seeing Skull Island, its creatures and dangers realized on screen, was immense when compared to the pulp fiction and comic books that we read.

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I found Peter Jackson's remake to be turgid and Jack Black's limitations as an lead actor readily apparent. I was not pleased that some of my favorite scenes were absent from the remake:

1) The negotiations with the natives 2) The attack of the stegosaurus 3) The lake scene with the brontosaurus 4) Kong's rampage through the native village 5) so many others

Instead, the director has substituted silly and unbelievable scenes like "running with the brontosaurus's" "shoot the bugs with your Tommy gun" and "battle three Trex's while holding Naomi in your left hand".

In summary, neither the best nor the worst that I have seen this year, and certainly not on my list of all-time favorites.

Just want to comment on some of the jungle scenes where the crew gets attacked by insects: These scenes make Alien look like sesame street! I'm not prissy, but that was truly repulsive and had nothing to add to the movie.

In Germany, this movie is rated suitable for children age 12 or older - I don't want to know how many of them had (or still have) nightmares.

Apart from that, it really was a nice movie...

But I still can't see why this much of violence and gore had to find its way into the movie.

Next time I'd like to see either less gore or a clearer rating.

WETA has once again raised the bar in CGI. With the arrival of Peter Jackson's King Kong, we've come to a point where CGI can be 100% believable throughout the film. During the action-packed 3 hours you don't even stop to think "wow, that's some good CGI", but instead you recognize Kong as a personality.

I'm talking about the real star of the movie, and that should not come as a surprise. Naomi Watts is indeed an excellent Ann Darrow, Jack Black fits in Carl Denham's boots superbly, and Adrien Brody isn't half bad as Jack Driscoll. But, the star is Kong himself... and of course the man 'behind the mask', Andy Serkis. The realization of this giant gorilla is nothing short of perfect. In fact, the only CGI in the movie that's not amazing hasn't got to do with Kong.

Peter Jackson has turned this classic story into a slam-bang spectacle, with more action than many could've predicted. King Kong is also way more emotional than I personally expected. Ann Darrow's relationship with Kong is depicted in a superior way to the original movie. Despite the unbelievable stop-motion effects in the original, I always thought Kong lacked in persona. Well, that has changed. The audiences will have no trouble seeing what Kong's going through, and those eyes of his are probably the saddest sight in any movie this holiday season.

While being a loud and big popcorn-movie, King Kong succeeds in reinstating the original magic related to this tale, and is surely going to be a huge worldwide hit, that's best viewed on silver screen. I don't think many people could expect anything more from this movie than what it is : a professionally crafted, impressive piece of commercial cinema.