YMMV / King Kong (2005)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did the Skull Islanders start an unprovoked attack on the filming crew, or did they misinterpret Carl trying to feed chocolate to the native child as an offensive tactic and attacked defensively?
  • Did Bruce Baxter insist on Englehorn rescuing Jack and co, assisting in said rescue, out of pure altruism? Or was it simply to prove Driscoll wrong after he'd, more or less, labelled Bruce a pussy when Baxter was asking others to bail with him earlier?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Not only are wetas real, but they do actually grow to be quite large by insect standards, though nowhere near as big as the ones in the film, nor are they particularly aggressive.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Until the new Kong in Kong: Skull Island twelve years later, almost every fan-depiction of Kong copied nearly exclusively from this film as a scarred quadruped. Crossing over with Newer Than They Think, this is actually the only time Kong has been a quadruped that just resembles a scaled-up gorilla, and the first time he's ever been depicted with prominent scars. All prior (and later) versions are primarily, if not exclusively bipeds that were more like gorilla-like ape-men than straight-up gorillas.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Eighth Wonder of the World", also used "Jungle Dance" from the original as the background music.
  • Practically the entire official soundtrack is great, but it omitted a few songs deserving of mention. The sacrifice music played on fictional Skull Islander percussion instruments is particularly good, if more than a bit frightening considering what it signifies in the movie, slowly building in intensity as Ann is lifted across the ravine to be claimed by Kong.
  • "It's Deserted" brings on a lot of different feelings over the course of seven minutes: first, the mysterious leitmotif of Skull Island which is tracked to Denham and company rowing to the island; then the somber music that follows Englehorn's rescue of the now-smaller film crew from the islanders; a loud, tense portion as the crew of the Venture do everything within their power to get the hell away from the island as Carl, Jack, and Anne all recover from their encounter with the islanders; a frightening string and horn section as it becomes apparent that the islanders have come to kidnap Anne; and a heroic piece as the Venture is finally dislodged from the rock—which is reused later when Englehorn rescues the characters from the ravine—and becomes more frightening as Anne is dragged off by the islanders and Jack tells them that they have to go back and rescue her.
• Base-Breaking Character: Jack Black's take on Carl Denham was rather divisive. Some like how Denham is shown as a more eccentric figure very much like a real life Prima Donna Director. Others, especially long-time Kong fans, felt that Black's version of Denham was unrealistic and more obviously untrustworthy, meaning that characters would subsequently appear more idiotic to listen to him.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Near the end of the film, Kong and Ann are being chased through the streets of New York by the NYPD and U.S. Army, only to stop in Central Park—for about 5 minutes of ice skating on a frozen lake. During this time, neither the Army or the police are anywhere to be seen, until the Army starts shelling the area. It is both bizarre and ruins the pace of the climax.
• Designated Villain: More like designated minor antagonist, but the film tries to paint the actor Bruce who refuses to go into the dinosaur and giant monster infested island to go look for Ann as a coward instead of just being pragmatic. They have absolutely no way to navigate themselves around the island to search for her, are on a deadline to get back to the boat, are low on weapons and ammo, and by that point in the story, several members of the group have already been killed. It's not cowardly; it's practical that he refuses to be part of the rescue mission when nearly every odd is against them. And he's proven right when the rest of them go get Ann and most of them do in fact die. And some of them quite horribly too. See the nightmare-inducing bug sequence and then see if you agree with the movie calling this guy a coward.
  Bruce: I'm just an actor with a gun who's lost his motivation. Be seeing you. (cue prompt exit)
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Captain Englehorn. Let's just say he Took a Level in Badass and leave it at that. Not to mention he's played by Thomas Kretschmann and he helps save Kong in the alternate ending of the game.
  • Kyle Chandler as Bruce Baxter is also very well liked for being a prima donna actor who shows that he’s Jerk with a Heart of Gold, thanks to his Big Damn Heroes moment after the insect pit.
  • Although they probably aren’t as popular as the two characters above, Action Survivor Preston, cameraman Herb (for his professionalism and kind, loyal nature), Lumpy (for being one of the more colorful members of the rescue party), Hayes, and Jimmy all have their fans.
• Genius Bonus: If you're familiar with Morse code, you might recognize a hidden joke: Denham's crew receives a Morse code message, which if interpreted right, actually reads "SHOW ME THE MONKEY."
• Ho Yay: Lumpy and Choy get hit with a fair bit of this by the fandom.
• Hype Backlash: The film gained a lot of positive praise from professional film critics and Kong fans alike for being a respectful remake to the original and expanding on elements not previously touched upon. It’s also got a noticeable Vocal Minority of viewers who see it as an overrated movie, taking potshots at it for being too long, questionable acting choices (most notable Carl Denham) and for overstaying its welcome before the climax.
• Memetic Loser: The three V-rexes that Kong fights are often at the receiving end of mockery for getting themselves killed by Kong just because they were trying to eat Ann, who is often said to be the equivalent to a chicken nugget to them.
• Moral Event Horizon: Downplayed. While he does appear to show remorse for using Jack and Ann to lure Kong into a trap set by the crew, Denham still has no issue with putting their lives at stake just to ensure that the creature keeps up with the duo and is very much willing to sacrifice the entire crew to ensure Kong's capture. Ultimately, he is the indirect cause of Kong's rampage in New York.
• Narm: The film builds up to Skull Island being an absolutely evil and cursed place so much it becomes silly. First you have Carl whispering the name to Jack, who types out 'S-K-U-L-L' in extra slow motion, letter by letter, with the camera lingering on the word being formed while Preston looks on worriedly. Then Lumpy tells of a man who landed on the island's shores and killed himself by stabbing a knife in his heart the day after returning. Then Carl notices a screaming ape face on the crude map he has of the island, which magically flies out of his hands just as they crash into the island's coastline.
• Newer Than They Think: Aside from the above-mentioned depiction of Kong resembling a perfectly scaled-up gorilla (rather than an ape-man) being unique to this film, this is also the first time his home is actually called Skull Island onscreen.^note In the original duology, it's called "Kong's Island", the '76 remake did not give the island a name, King Kong vs. Godzilla names it Faro Island, and The King Kong Show and King Kong Escapes calls it Mondo Island, although some supplementary material did refer to it as Skull Island beforehand.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The movie's official tie-in game, Peter Jackson's King Kong, is considered to be one of the best movie licensed games out there, a perfectly solid and enjoyable FPS which recreates Skull Island with frightening accuracy, and also has 3rd person brawler sequences where you get to play as Kong himself. Pity about the DS version, though.
• Padding: One of the major problems many have cited of the film was that many scenes went on for far too long, and its running time of over three hours wasn't really warranted.
• Questionable Casting: Jack Black, an almost exclusively comedic actor, in the serious role of Carl Denham, though his performance is enjoyed by some.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: It takes over an hour before we see the titular ape. To be brutally honest, the movie's entire first hour can literally be skipped. If you turn it on at the scene where Ann is kidnapped by Kong, you will understand the rest of the film just fine despite not watching the entire first hour; that's how superfluous it is to the overall story itself. It's nice to have backstory and motivations leading into the island expedition, but it's just excessive to a point that anyone with a short attention span really ought to simply start the film when they land on the island for the best viewing experience.
• Special Effect Failure: While the film has amazing effects for the most part, the Brontosaurus chase sequence is quite obvious green screen, and the actors look incredibly out of place when running alongside the dinosaurs. Some of the interactions between the CGI and real world elements, like Kong during his rampage in New York and picking up the Ann lookalikes, have also not held up well to scrutiny over the years.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • Lumpy the cook, played by Andy Serkis. What's worse is the method he dies. He gets devoured by Carnictis—large worms that eat him limb by limb, suffocating and digesting him in a slow and painful manner.
  • The One-Scene Wonder sergeant in a deleted scene, too. Killed off in the middle of a Rousing Speech, no less, with Curse Cut Short thrown in for good measure.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The 2005 film has amazing CGI/motion capture effects. It rightfully won the Oscar for Visual Effects (it also won for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing and was also nominated for Art Direction).
  • And it's not just the CGI. The film actually used extensive miniatures, almost as many if not more so then Jackson's previous work. They were then blended with or digitally extended with CG. The result is nothing short of breathtaking.

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