No to Kong

I found King Kong tedious. The special effects were fantastic, acting solid but the plot weak and the whole thing far too drawn out. A few nice touches, such as Peter Jackson appearing to be the main character and LOTR-like glimpses of characters on the boat (skipper equals Aragorn, ship's boy as Frodo, etc). But it never goes anywhere, there is too much of an eye on the spin-off computer games, characters are dumped half way through the film (possibly to reappear on the DVD version?) , and the interest level wanes even further in the last third, when all that is left is the inevitable end and how long it will take Jackson to get there. Over the three LOTR films, the effects of the ring build up slowly to the climax: Frodo is a nascent Gollum, or will Sam help to keep him on the true path outlined at Rivendell? No such tension in KK (lacks a great book) -- at the end of the day, do you care enough about the ape? No in this case -- though I might have found the situation more poignant had the whole thing been one-third shorter.