Welcome to our little corner of monster-based cyberspace!

We are a very spurt-ish group here for the most part. No activity for
lengths of time, then a flurry for a short bit, then back to flatline
for days (usually weeks)... but that's okay. This is, after all, a
hobby, not an obsession or way of life. At least for me. The other
regulars here can (and do!) speak up for themselves.

I liked the recent PJ film, but felt it was WAY over-hyped. In many
ways, it has as many flaws as the '76 version. What it lacks in some
areas, it makes up for with the over-the-top CGI battles and a
truer-to-the-'33 original plotline. But then even that isn't all it's
cracked up to be.

The decision to adapt the story to fit the times in the DeLaurentis
version was well done - in its way. It turned off and just plain
outraged a LOT of die-hards of the '33 film, simply because they felt
it was sacreligious to muck with (and steer so far from) the original.
Perhaps, but PJ took many liberties of his own. Several of which I
would have steered clear of. For instance, the pit sequence was
simply Jackson's hard-on "dream" sequence that he and other
Kong-crazed fanboys had openly pined for ad nauseum in the '33
version. Jackson was so obsessed with the 'lost' spider pit sequence
in the original that he and his posse at WETA painstakingly re-created
the entire thing from scratch in old-skool stop-motion! Now that's
obsessed! But what the hey, if you have the time, talent, and
money... why not?? Then he re-did and over-the-top filmed a new
variation for his remake and got to keep it in, (and even expand on it
in the
"Director's Cut" version of the DVD). He got to finally have his cake
and eat it, too.

But you know what? I honestly think the original editors/censors were
right: The sequence IS an un-necessary show-stopper. It does
absolutely nothing to advance the main narrative. It's just there
because PJ insisted on it and the studio had given him carte blanche
with his remake. Moreover, it's just plain gross.

I honestly like the '76 Kong. Sure, its got plenty of faults. But it
never claimed to be perfect. Actually, if Dino had released the film
without all of his typical assinine overblown showmanship b.s.
tactics, it might have been far more well-recieved. Or maybe not.
We'll never know. Certainly would've been more fun if he'd just
thrown in some dinosaurs. The T-Rex suit used in Richard Boone's "The
Last Dinosaur" would've been a good match, if it just had a few tweaks
and additional musculature padding here and there. Not convincing
really, but then neither was that goofy giant rattlesnake. ;)

Now if someone would get on the ball and get a remake of King
Kong vs. Godzilla going!

-JN