King Kong 4K UHD (2005) (Ultimate Edition)

[Geoff D]

I caught a smidgen of banding but nothing like as bad as what was reported by other folks.

[Mierzwiak]

Geoff, I bet you enabled anti-banding "Smooth gradation" option on your TV. From what I've read it's a great feature on Sony TVs.

[Geoff D]

No, I keep all such things off for critical viewing. But the TV has genuine 10-bit depth thanks to its oversampled processing so it's as kind to these tricky gradients as can be, some sources still fall short however.

[mrjr101]

I noticed this was the brightest UHD i had in the collection. Bright to the point that it bothered me a bit and felt that the colors were washed out, specially the whites.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Snagged for $14, haven’t seen it in over 10 years.

[JosieWales]

I picked this one up during the BF sales. BB had it on for $15 in Canada. I have the regular blu ray but haven't seen it in years. Well, we watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Some scenes are quite spectacular, while others not so much. Overall, good purchase.
Some folks didn't like this movie, but I must say, I think it still holds up and is quite fun to watch. The scene with the T-Rex's is my favorite. When Kong hears Anne scream, and he pops into action is like a superhero movie climax.

[levcore]

Watched this yesterday, one of my favourite movies. It blew me away on UHD. It looks so spectacular, fantastic detail and colour. Very impressed.

I still maintain that the vast majority of fx in this are amazing. This movie was ahead of its time in terms of scale.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Excited to watch this now with the positive feedback.

[Geoff D]

Bring your sunglasses, this is mucho bright. I'm sure even brightness junkies in other threads would approve of this one.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Bring your sunglasses, this is mucho bright. I'm sure even brightness junkies in other threads would approve of this one.

Oh baby...

[wozman]

Originally Posted by JosieWales

I picked this one up during the BF sales. BB had it on for $15 in Canada. I have the regular blu ray but haven't seen it in years. Well, we watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Some scenes are quite spectacular, while others not so much. Overall, good purchase.
Some folks didn't like this movie, but I must say, I think it still holds up and is quite fun to watch. The scene with the T-Rex's is my favorite. When Kong hears Anne scream, and he pops into action is like a superhero movie climax.

Fellow Canuck here skipped the BF sale on this release, now see all this positive feedback and reviews, hope to see the $15 price tag again during Boxing Week....... This time I will jump on it.

Thanks

[zeze]

Originally Posted by JosieWales

I picked this one up during the BF sales. BB had it on for $15 in Canada. I have the regular blu ray but haven't seen it in years. Well, we watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Some scenes are quite spectacular, while others not so much. Overall, good purchase.
Some folks didn't like this movie, but I must say, I think it still holds up and is quite fun to watch. The scene with the T-Rex's is my favorite. When Kong hears Anne scream, and he pops into action is like a superhero movie climax.

I am not a fan of the movie but I bought it for $15 just to see the scene with the T-Rex in 4K. I'm sure it will look awesome.

[Mierzwiak]

Some vfx in this movie has not aged well (green screen is bad in most of the scenes, and raptors (?) are awfuly animated), but mix of miniatures, studio sets and CGI is still pretty impressive to me, and Kong himself is a masterpiece. WETA's work is as brilliant as Andy's acting.

T-Rexes are also great, and their fight with Kong is one of my favourite scenes ever! I love how they don't care about Kong and just try to eat Watts. And after they all fell from the rock... WOW. The choreography, the scale, the ideas - look how Kong uses lianes to stop T-Rex from closing his mouth when poor Naomi hangs on for dear life holding his giant teeth. Crazy!

[levcore]

A few FX haven't aged well sure, mostly compositing fx like you say. I maintain though that the vast majority of fx are terrific. I think all the creatures look incredible, the 4K really brings out the textures and skin on them. I couldn't believe how great so many of them still look.

This movie was so far ahead of its time in terms of what it was trying to achieve and what it was putting on screen. People can say what they want about it being over indulgent but that middle hour and forty minutes on Skull Island is the greatest stuff I've ever seen in a movie pretty much. Skull Island feels like such a real and tangible place, it is totally believable and not once am I thinking about how not one single second was actually filmed on a real island or in a real jungle or on real cliffs etc. It's just spectacular.

I love this movie from beginning to end and I prefer the extended cut for the added creature sequences. The only thing I think it could benefit from is a shortening of the finale, particularly the Empire State building sequence as that just goes on and on and its painful seeing Kong's suffering drawn out in such a way.

[irascian]

Originally Posted by levcore

A few FX haven't aged well sure, mostly compositing fx like you say. I maintain though that the vast majority of fx are terrific. I think all the creatures look incredible, the 4K really brings out the textures and skin on them. I couldn't believe how great so many of them still look.

This movie was so far ahead of its time in terms of what it was trying to achieve and what it was putting on screen. People can say what they want about it being over indulgent but that middle hour and forty minutes on Skull Island is the greatest stuff I've ever seen in a movie pretty much. Skull Island feels like such a real and tangible place, it is totally believable and not once am I thinking about how not one single second was actually filmed on a real island or in a real jungle or on real cliffs etc. It's just spectacular.

I love this movie from beginning to end and I prefer the extended cut for the added creature sequences. The only thing I think it could benefit from is a shortening of the finale, particularly the Empire State building sequence as that just goes on and on and its painful seeing Kong's suffering drawn out in such a way.

For me it's just far too long and self-indulgent.

Jackson's ego had got completely out of control after the success of LOTR and nobody could tell him to shorten the damned thing. I laugh every time I see the scene with Howard Shore conducting the orchestra in the film. Shore got fired about six weeks before the film was released for refusing to just copy the original score in places because Jackson was so in love with the original and wanted a soundtrack as much like the original as possible.

[levcore]

It is too long and self indulgent yes, but it's still spectacular and pure cinema and escapism. If you're a fan of adventure, monsters, secret islands, then it's a tough one to beat as PJ's King Kong has it all and then some. It is guilty of a lot of things but lack of ambition is not one of them.

[kong73]

Originally Posted by levcore

It is too long and self indulgent yes, but it's still spectacular and pure cinema and escapism. If you're a fan of adventure, monsters, secret islands, then it's a tough one to beat as PJ's King Kong has it all and then some. It is guilty of a lot of things but lack of ambition is not one of them.

I always felt like Kongs story should be a 3hr+ Epic so I love that it is 3hr:20mins. it could be longer if you ask me

[gwsat]

Originally Posted by levcore

I love this movie from beginning to end and I prefer the extended cut for the added creature sequences. The only thing I think it could benefit from is a shortening of the finale, particularly the Empire State building sequence as that just goes on and on and its painful seeing Kong's suffering drawn out in such a way.

Like you, I enjoyed the Extended Cut of the film from end to end. I even loved the final scenes showing the doomed Kong atop the Empire State building while the sun rose over the East River and Army Air Corps biplanes attacked him. The UHD HDR treatment made all of that particularly beautiful. I thought its poignancy worked. It moved me.

[WorkShed]

I remember my wife crying in the theater at the end. It was a movie that got better as it went along. I do feel that the first act should have been trimmed up quite a bit. It takes far too long to get to Kong.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by kong73

I always felt like Kongs story should be a 3hr+ Epic so I love that it is 3hr:20mins. it could be longer if you ask me

yes its pretty much in 3 one-hour parts, and each part deserves one-hour IMO

1. getting to island
2. on the island
3. back in NY