King Kong (Vintage Edition)
by geKKoWhat is it about? This gives CG Kong a classic look while improving the overall pace of the movie. The plot focuses now on the three D’s (Denham, Darrow, Driscoll).
member ratings:
(6 votes, average: 7.33 out of 10, rated)
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tagline: A classic take on the eighth wonder of the world.
original film name : King Kong
new film name : King Kong (Vintage Edition)
film studio name : Universal
edit crew name : geKKo
Date Original Film Was Released : December 14, 2005
Date Edit Was Released : July 18, 2007
Original Runtime : 2h 57m (without credits)
New Runtime : 2h 19m
Amount of time Cut/Added : 38m
Cuts removed/added/extended :
- – Removed Vaudeville and great depression scenes.
- – Trimmed dialogue between minor characters.
- – Denham is less slapstick, more serious.
- – Less sailing around in circles.
- – Removed choppy slow-motion shots.
- – Removed voiceover by Hayes.
- – Shortened dinosaur stampede scene. No raptors.
- – Removed falling rock that hits Kong.
- – Deleted attack of the giant bugs.
- – Removed CG juggling for Kong, who looked just as unimpressed by it as I was.
- – Shortened scene with Kong on ice pond.
- – Lots of other minor cuts to improve pacing. In total, over 90 cuts!
- + Converted to black and white. (Oddly enough the DP at one point suggested to PJ that they shoot the film in black-and-white.)
- + Added hair, dust, scratches to simulate old film.
- + Added “Vintage Edition” under the main title, and re-editor credit at the end.
- + Universal logo changes from color to b&w
- + Added chapter markers and annotation info for Quicktime/iTunes/AppleTV.
Fanedit details:
Video: 854 x 480 (16:9). H.264, 1900kbps
Audio: 48kHz, AAC, 128kbps, Stereo
Your intention for this fanedit:
Give CG Kong a classic look while improving the overall pace of the movie.
Your way to achieve your intention:
Get to Skull Island quicker, reduce distracting CG sequences, and keep the plot focused on the three D’s (Denham, Darrow, Driscoll).
Hardware and software information:
Final Cut Pro 6
Additional Comment:
I actually like Peter Jackson’s King Kong a lot. But at nearly 3 hours long, the plot feels laborious at times. By cutting out a lot of exposition about the island before they find it, it actually makes the island more mysterious once they arrive. And although the CG animation to bring Kong to life is impressive, the green screen visual effects of people running with the dinosaurs looked a bit subpar. Not only that, it was really hard to believe that people could run around underneath dinosaurs and not get trampled upon. Furthermore, having raptors in the movie just made it feel too much like Jurassic Park, so that entire chase sequence was trimmed down considerably.
The other big CG sequence that was cut is when the giant bugs start attacking. This scene was actually supposed to be in the original King Kong movie (1933) but was cut for being too scary. In the 2005 version, the purpose of this scene was to kill off some minor characters, give Jamie Bell something to do, and make Baxter look heroic by having him swoop down on a rope shooting giant arachnids with his machine gun. But in the end, it did nothing to move the story forward. We really don’t care if Baxter is a hero or not because his story doesn’t go anywhere from there. Also the bug attack came right after the big Kong vs T-rex battle, so it seemed like an undercard fight right after the main event. Basically, I think WETA wanted to show off their CG skills by having a giant weta bug suck on Adrien Brody’s face.
Overall, King Kong is quite the visual effects achievement and a pretty good movie overall. It’s got a solid cast, dramatic moments, a poetic score, intense action sequences, and a little bit of comedy. I would not have re-edited it if it wasn’t a movie I liked. I have to give Peter Jackson a lot of credit for re-making this classic and for introducing the eigth wonder of the world to a new generation.
Time needed for the edition:
3 days
persons involved:
geKKO
Buy the original DVD and support FANEDIT.ORG:
IMAGES:
cover art by boon23 (download here):
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FYI, I did not author the DVD.
Review by geKKo — July 29, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
Excellent! i wanted to do this myself. but youv beeten me to it.
Only gripe i had, was that some shots near the beginning, mostly talking shots, were still a bit too sharp looking to look old. Quality was a bit too high, and a few more dust n scratches could have helped. Aside from that it was excellent.
And well worth the download.
Review by bat-fink — January 26, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
I like the intent of your edit and I think for the most part you carried it off well. This cut gets rid of most of the stuff that bugged me about the movie (I could have done without the dinosaur stampede altogether) and it does have a better pace. And I like it in black and white. That worked better than I would have imagined.
There were two things I didn’t care for. The video is overly compressed. There are major artifacts throughout the video. This is very distracting. Maybe a higher bit rate would have helped. The DVD was only about three and a half Gig, which means a Gig of space on the disc was wasted. Less compression would make a big difference. And, personally, I could have done with less simulated dirt and scratches. It is very common to find B&W films with none of these and even films that have had no restoration normally only have noticable dirt and scratches on the first part of the first reel. A film has to have been abused to have dirt and scratches all the way through. I know the intent was to create the impression of a vintage film, but look at the DVD of the actual 1933 KING KONG. It doesn’t look this bad by a long shot.
Those issues aside, it’s an impressive job.
Review by Blackhawk — July 5, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
In this review, when I make references to the “original version” etc of this movie, I mean the 2005 original movie. If I mean the 1933 version, I will state it as such.
I decided to watch this edit because I just didn’t like the original movie that much. Too long, too bloated and a too meandering plot. I wanted to give the movie another go in the form of a fan edit.
I agree with Blackhawk’s review. I liked the idea behind the edit and it is definitely carried off well.
The edit excised all the stuff that irked me about the original, but doesn’t go far enough, for me. I realize, however, I have never liked this movie and edit doesn’t improve my personal opinion about “King Kong”. I’m not faulting Gekko or his edit, but the original movie is just one of those movies that disappoints me, in whatever format/version.
I absolutely loved this edit in B&W and helped improve my dismal opinion of the original.
I noticed the artifacts in this edit as well, and am not sure if this was intentional to create a more old-time B&W movie feel or if is due to the over-compressed video. In the long run, it bothered me. The DVD does have a Gb of used space and could have well serve this edit.
Like a few other edits I have watched from here, it seemed like the “dust” and “scratched” film effects were a bit too overused here. I want them there, but less than presented in this edit.
Again, fans of the original (i.e. the 2005) movie will more than likely appreciate this edit and like it more than I.
Review by flyboy707 — July 7, 2010 @ 8:49 pm