| State of Body | A secret agent who while not even close to death, or even a fatal wounding, does have a very slight tell-tale whiff of silliness to come. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected many times. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Subject, despite minor flaws, will remain a classic Bond corpse. |
| State of Body | Looks a little more decrepit with each inspection. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected numerous times. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Bond was back! But not on screen long enough. |
| State of body | A little malnourished, occasionally beaten, but mostly healthy. Killed by a couple of ticks and an infestation of nits. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | Competently done, until the usual mess at the finale. Why do action movies so often fall apart at the end? |
| State of Body | Just a few minor blemishes on an otherwise adequetely preserved corpse |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | In its current state this body, while not on the nose, isn’t going to be a subject that garners much excitement. |
| State of body | Frankensteinian. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected repeatedly at long intervals. |
| Forensic Investigator | Keith Kelly |
| Comments | It seems improbable that this creature could ever have lived, but strangely the main handicaps developed after initial conception. |
It’s been a week since I’ve seen King Kong. Unfortunately what I’ve got to say, has been said on other boards, but since it hasn’t been said here at FF I thought I would in the hope it might get a little discussion of the film going.
I want to like King Kong, but its length really wore me out. A movie of over 3 hours needs pretty hefty character interactions and/or a lot of plot. But neither are required in the telling of Kong, and their addition to this film in fact hamper the film’s impact.
For plot, there is nothing that can be added to the original 1933 film version of King Kong without it appearing extraneous. Let’s face it, its a pretty simple story. Even when watching the original film, short though it is, some Skull Island scenes have the feel that they are there for no other reason than to show the wonder of stop-motion. And so too with action scenes in the new King Kong . Almost all go beyond a length that maintains interest. In a film of this length action scenes need to add something to the plot, in such a way that can only be provided through the action. But its not so.
The brontosaurus charge was the major offender; it added nothing to the movie except the CG. The upshot of the brontosaurus charge was to set up Baxter as a coward who leaves (to return with the rescue party). But this set up could have been done without this overly long scene. The insect pit too, falls into this set. Once Baxter has gone, then he has to come back and save them from another drawnout CG peril.
And so the plot becomes a slave to the minor characters that so much time was used on to introduce. If Baxter had been kept in the background, then he would never have had to been given something to do to justify the time spent on him.
King Kong would have been better spending more time on its leads, keeping eveyone else in the background, and so keeping its running time down. In this respect I think the 1976 version is far superior. Its length is right for what it has. Lest you should think I didn’t like this new version, there is actually much of it I did like. Still, sometimes less is more.
Well, I finally knocked off the “War of the Worlds” dissection, and yup, that’s one ugly alien (though not, perhaps, as ugly as it should have been). I’m not enormously happy with my analysis, so if you disagree with me or have better ideas of why you thought the film worked or didn’t work, why not post a reply?
Coming up in the next weeks: Dr. Winston analyses “The Terminal” and “Goldeneye”, guest Forensic Analyst Dr. Keith Kelly takes the Doctor Who serial “Arc of Infinity” for a spin, and I determine whether “Unleashed” has been a bad boy. As usual, if you have any suggestions or criticisms, feel free to email me or leave a comment on this post. Thanks for coming.
| State of body | Simple, small, greyish, and conical. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | A small-scale slice-of-life family drama was an interesting and nicely daring choice for an alien invasion film, but it falls perilously close to being “a bunch of stuff that happened”. |
| State of Body | Punished (Sorry, I couldn’t resist) |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected 3 times. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | This body was unable to survive the multiple cuts of budget and length. |
| State of Body | Not as bad as you’d expect, not as good as could be expected. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Why, oh why, wasn’t Joss Whedon asked to do a script edit? |
| State of body | Exquisitely preserved, apart from the fact that all the water in it had been instantaneously turned into steam. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | A tragic pity that the body ended up on the slab. It nearly escaped injury altogether, except for one fatal miscalculation regarding a microwave steam gun. |
| State of Body | Not so fresh, but not completely stale. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Could have had Hitchcock confusion, but instead ends up just a little Woozy. |
| State of body | Unseen. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Never inspected. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | I didn’t dare to view the body. Instead, in a radical and unethical departure from the usual procedure, I have reconstructed it from my vague memories of the first film. |
| State of body | Multiple organ failure. Apparent efforts had been made to surgically replace organs, which were rejected by the host. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | A Hollywood film about cloning. The irony will only be exceeded when they do the remake. |
| State of body | Both bodies had multiple gunshot wounds - none to vital organs, but enough to have caused blood loss and death. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | As with many of the subjects here, wounds appeared self-inflicted. |
| State of body | Subject ripped to shreds by wild mob. Curiously, exhibited no signs of fear whatsoever. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | Should have concentrated less on looking cool and more on building tension. |
| State of body | Killed by a bizarre mutation - partly normal, and partly something very, very strange. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected five times. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | Seems to be a normal comic-book movie that has been partially attacked by another Film Forensics reviewer who wanted to turn it into something infinitely stranger. More power to them. |
| State of body | Appeared to be gently suffocated with a wet towel. No, I am not going to say “Mostly Harmless”. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | After an enormous surge of relief that it did not embarass us, we were slightly disappointed to note that it was, nonetheless, dead. |
| State of Body | Secret agent assassinated by supporting cast. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected six times. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | As Moneypenny said, “Close, but no cigar.” |