Refleksi Minda

You’ve done it again, Mr. Jackson.

Between 2001 to 2003, you gave me the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Three wonderful movies, each outing better than the last one. Those three movies, I can’t remember how many times I’ve watched them, both in the cinema as well as when they come out on DVDs. They were hugely entertaining, and are probably my most favorite movies of all time.

And now, you gave me King Kong.

Mr. Jackson, you truly understood what it means to create a cinematic experience. The action scenes in the movie is worth the price of admission alone. Dinosaurs, insects, seafearing and of course, a giant ape. You and your team of special effects designers have again made a movie that captures the meaning of watching cinema. If cinema is a form of escapism, whereby the viewer is transported into a world made possible only on the silver screen, then King Kong is one of the best examples of this notion.

Some people may complain about the length, but I say the length is needed, especially to establish the characters in King Kong. And this element is what makes the movie transcend from being good to being great; memorable characters. Almost every character, some even having one or two lines, are so well developed that I truly cared for them. And this is important, for the action scenes to work, one must care about the people in the scene. How is one able to fear for the life of the characters when a herd of dinosaurs stampede upon them, if one does not care for them? You understood this perfectly, which translates wonderfully onto the screen.

But the human characters pale in comparison with the star of the show, King Kong himself. This ape, this creation of computer graphics, have perhaps outacted nearly half of Malaysia’s mainstream actors with one movie alone. You have made Kong into such an endearing character that by the end of the movie, I actually rooted for the giant ape. That you are able to pour so much depth and humanity into something not even remotely human, and something which is created on a desktop, is a wonderful achievement in itself.

King Kong is the type of movie which underlines the whole notion of moviemaking. This is the reason, the primary reason, why I pay 3.50 pounds to watch a movie. For the romance, for the action, for the drama, for the comedy and most of all, for the entertainment.

Thank you, Peter Jackson. For understanding this.

Rapid-fire thoughts

• So, the nude squat-up woman wasn’t a China citizen. She was Malay. So what? I say this would be even worse, it goes to show that the human rights standard which we apply to our own citizens. Or the lack thereof.
• It seems that I am able, after all, to spend New Year’s Day with my girlfriend. Her BTN course has been pushed back a few days. The issues I have with the BTN itself, remains unchanged.
• I am completely immersed with the PS2 game Soul Calibur III. It is quite possibly the best fighting game I have ever played. And trust me, I have played a LOT. Seung Mi-Na rocks!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2005 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.