A Snow Bomb, A Dot-Com, and King Kong

Reno woke up to a surprise 6-8 inches of snow today. The mountains got pounded even harder; Sierra summits may get up to three feet. Up at Mt. Rose today the snow was somewhat heavy but still powdery. It would have been a perfect day if my equipment had cooperated (which it didn't, but I don't want to go into that now).

Not to change the subject, but I wanted to issue a pre-emptive apology to about forty-five people across America who will be receiving very poorly wrapped Christmas presents from Amazon.com this year. Saturday I went with a few members of the Reno chapter of the 20-30 Club out to Fernley, Nevada where Amazon has a huge shipping facility. Amazon lets charitable groups come in and raise funds by wraping presents during the Christmas rush, paying these charities 60 cents a package. I was glad to be able to help, but I have to admit that I cannot wrap presents to save my life, and the few minutes of training Amazon gives you did not do much good. If there's a "present wrapping" gene, I don't have it. So if you ordered a present from Amazon this year and it arrives very poorly wrapped, blame me.

And while we're at it, how about a third radical subject shift in one posting:

I went to see King Kong last night. Someone I know has been clamoring for me to talk about that movie, but rather than do a full-on review I'm just going to list what I liked and didn't like and see which list is longer.

What I Liked About King Kong:

1. Kong himself is an amazing creation. Because he's a computer generated beast based on the movements of actor Andy Serkis (who also helped create Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies), he's completely without that "guy in a monkey-suit" hokeyness that has plagued previous Kong incarnations. He looks and moves like an animal--rushing around at lightning speed on all fours rather than trudging on two legs, something else that has always bothered me about previous Kongs--and even his facial expressions are extremely convincing. Plus, although he's certainly giant-sized, director Peter Jackson made the smart decision to make him 'big but not ridiculously big'. He's about 25 or 30 feet tall, and keeping his size within reasonable limits sort of adds to his believability. Plus it's nice that his size remains consistent throughout the movie, again unlike previous Kongs.
2. Laughable as this may sound, the connection in the film between Kong and Naomi Watts is almost believable. Gone is the strange sexual tension and subtle racial undertones from the relationship between the hot blonde and giant ape that we've seen in previous outings. In this version, Kong and Watts just sort of seem like kindred spirits, and that makes a lot more sense.
3. The scene where Kong fights not one, not two, but THREE T-Rexes absolutely has to be seen to be believed. Jackson is the undisputed king of big-time CGI (just don't fall too much in love with the stuff, Pete; look what it did to George Lucas).
4. The dinosaur stampede scene was also pretty neat. If I really sit and think about it, I have a hard time buying anyone punching and kicking velociraptors at a full sprint as they dodge stamping sauropod limbs, but that's why it's best not to think too much about things like that.
5. I liked that the movie gives an indication that Kong is actually the last of a breed of giant gorilla. Past movies always left me wondering where exactly he came from.
6. The scenery is astounding, and Naomi Watts is not hard to look at either.

So that's about it for the positives. Now it's on to What I Didn't Like about King Kong:

1. Jack Black. I know daniel doesn't want to hear this, but he's completely wrong for the part of the renegade filmmaker. What is his character supposed to be, exactly? A Machiavellian schemer? An Orson Wells-style misunderstood genius? A monomaniacle eccentric? A buffoon? After watching the film I have no idea, and apparently Jack Black didn't have any idea either. Stick to School of Rock-style comedies, Jack.
2. Pretty much the whole first hour of the movie was useless.
3. Am I the only one who looks at a movie like this and thinks, "Hey, a giant ape is pretty neat, but there are dinosaurs on this island!" Isn't that really the more amazing fact? I mean, we still have apes, albeit very few 25-foot tall apes. How come no one seems terribly impressed by the dinos?
4. That scene with the giant bugs was waaaaaaay too creepy for my taste.
5. I don't care what anyone says, that Adrien Brody is one weird looking dude. Plus, Jackson gives him very little to do besides run around and look concerned.
6. You just knew the black guy was going to die. I guess we should be glad that at least he didn't die first.
7. The guy who plays the lead actor in the film that Jack Black's character is trying to make (I don't know his name, but he sort of makes me think of a more effeminate Russell Crowe) starts out as a preening, self-possessed jerk, then at a key point in the movie he inexplicably reverses a decision he has made and acts in a way that is extremely selfless and heroic. Then he apparently goes back to being a jerk again. None of this is explained.
8. Just how the hell did they get Kong back to New York? Certainly not on the rinky-dink tugboat that got them out to Skull Island in the first place.
9. Peter Jackson is way too fond of cheesy slow motion shots.
10. The bug scene was so over-the-top grotesque that it needs to be mentioned twice.

So there you go--six good things, about 9 and a half bad. Do with that what you will.