I went to see King Kong on Saturday night. (Well, technically, I saw “King Kon” because we were at the Three Penny Cinema and their screens are the size of t.v.s. Plus, the seats felt like telephone books. But they serve beer and wine and they’re not a giant corporate chain, so I cut them a lot of slack. I probably shouldn’t but I do.)

But, like I said, Notes on the Film about the Big Monkey:

A) I was completely in the mood to suspend disbelief and be taken for a ride. That’s why I went. But, even my complete desire to suspend disbelief was seriously challenged at times. Like when Naomi Watts has a sudden costume change in the middle of running for her life on Skull Island.

B) I thought Jack Black was done after Schoolhouse Rock. He was perfectly cast for that film, and seemed to blow his wad, so to speak. But, he eyebrows his way through this one and unearths something deliciously dasterdly.

C) The film was good fun and had a playful awareness of it’s own “movieness” with some throw away lines mocking films like itself.

D) I thought people would flock to this movie because really, only King Kong should be screwing with New York. It seemed to me like a natural, cinematic catharsis to 9/11 as in let’s go back to the days when only the big monkey might terrorize us. I’m surprised to hear that it had relatively modest opening box office receipts.

E) And, you know what? Well, I’ll tell you after the jump because I refer to the final scene, which you probably already know, but I am about to spoil here. . .

There was something truly poignant and powerful from a 9/11 point of view about the image of Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) standing atop the Empire State Building screaming “Don’t! Don’t!” at the top of her lungs at the two bi-planes about to attack the tower (and King Kong). Of course, they still attack and the monkey still dies, but at least the words were uttered. Really, go see it for that moment alone.

Image courtesy of US Inflatables.