Kong: God Of Skull Island (Kong 2005) - Maniac
Empty headed blockbuster features performances by sponge brains or chunks of wood, and has a plot that might-could been penned by your grumpy cat. Not to fear, hard working Maniac trims half the movie, resulting in pedal to the metal mayhem and a fair dose of nonsense.
Video - 1280 X 720p AVC. Almost every boring bit has been pitched into Kong’s latrine, yet the jump shifts, dissolves, whatnot are all smooth and professional. As with most of Mr Maniac’s work, the filesize is large and the video rendering excellent.
Audio - 160 kbps AC-3. 2 Channel stereo. No subs, ha ha. Dialogue mostly clear, and if you missed some line here of there, I can assure you, you ain’t missed nothing. Explosions, screaming, howling, oh and Black Sabbath, too.
Narrative - Buckle up and hang tight! As far as being a coherent yarn, this is its own beast. Backstores are left out, the reasons for Goodman & Co presence is omitted, so the result is Kong, full throttle. What remains is an old B-film with no A-budget aspirations and pretensions. Loopholes, yeah, live with them.
Enjoyment - Wait, I’m still trying to catch my breath. This edit rockets, pounds, gallops with barely a lull. You want personal relationship drama, this ain’t it. Some lost kid who needs rescuing? No way. Instead, this is Action Junction! Don’t think about characters because they can’t think. EVERYONE is either cardboard or caricature with an IQ lower than Alien 3 jailer, 85. The original is an ugly, stupid mess but Maniac makes it a wild guilty pleasure. If you can relate with your fellow primates (aside from in-laws), you will appreciate this.