apollak

Yes, it has been some time, but since that last entry about my Kong-sized anticipation and nostalgia, I have both seen Peter Jackson's King Kong and played the video game on Xbox (on a demo disc) and PSP (rental from Gamefly) and I have more thoughts. Actually it has taken me this long to say anything because I thought I would see the film again before writing anything up. But I'm lucky to get the movies at all these days much less see a film twice. So did it all live up to the hype? Did it live up to the nostalgic remembrances? Bottom line question, as it always is for me and R & R media: did I have a good time? Read on...

The Movie

I bought it. I bought the heightened dialogue of another time that set the stage for the exploration of another world: Peter Jackson's nineteen-thirties.  I bought the characters and their struggles and strengths exemplified by one of my favorite lines/moments of the movie: "If you really loved [the theater], you would've jumped." I bought the unquestionable realism of every creature revelling in every moment Kong graced the screen, whether wrestling dinosaurs or playing games with Naomi Watts's beautiful and authentic Anne.

I enjoyed the experience wholeheartedly and look forward to buying the King Kong 2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition DVD that comes out at the end of this month. The commentaries and extras will only serve to make this rollicking time at the movies that much better.

The Game

I must admit being intrigued by the notion of a no-UI game, no health bars or stats to keep track of, just pure cinematic action. The idea of it moves gaming in the direction of the fully immersive holodeck holy grail of gaming. However we still live in a controler and monitor based gaming universe for the most part, and for me, the best games make the best use of what we have to work with. Control is where it all fell apart for me both on the Xbox and even more so on the PSP. Generally too few moves in the big draw Kong fights and a completely pointless and repetitive set of Jack Driscol FPS segments depressed my interest very quickly. The PSP suffers from control problems to begin with and I have not tried nor read about any FPS for the PSP that doesn't have particularly unsatisfying controls.

The funny thing is that I played the Xbox demo before seeing the movie and it just fueled my interest in the games and movie that much more. After seeing the film and its argument-for-a-parallell-universe realism, the Xbox and PSP graphics just paled in comparison. Even the stills and clips from the Xbox 360 edition of the game don't compare and seem to cheapen the very thing that makes the film such an achievement.

All in all I'm still holding out for the fully immersive, fully realistic holodeck edition of King Kong that Peter Jackson, no doubt already has plans for producing once the technology catches up with his vision.