King Kong: see it? only once.

Last night, I went to see King Kong on opening day. This surprised even me, since every time I saw the preview for it I turned to Daniel and said, “I have no desire to see that movie.”

But I went anyway, because he wanted to and that’s the kind of girl I am. I had a day of high emotions and figured the three hours of distraction had to be a good thing.

I know that many, including Mr. Moviefone (“MF”) and the guys at the Morning Edge, gave this movie a resounding endorsement, so I was hoping that it was going to actually be a good movie.

Of the three hours I sat through, I will say that somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the movie was endurable, perhaps even enjoyable. Those were, of course, the parts they cleverly put together for the trailer aimed at women. Unfortunately, these were pieces of the movie most assuredly in the minority.

When it comes to movies (or TV, really), I react negatively (in a physical sense) at two things: prolonged suspense and unnecessarily gory violence. I don’t want to see the insides of man, woman or beast, and I don’t want to spend the majority of a movie in a state of nervous tension.

This is where my tastes run counter to Daniel’s, because if a movie doesn’t have some of both of those qualities, he’s probably not that impressed.

King Kong was definitely a Daniel kind of movie. At least half of the 3 hours of film, I was in a state of progressively less comfortable anxiety. More than that, I was totally stressed out. Three hours of that movie was equal parts exhausting and frustrating. Do we really need to see dinosaurs falling for TEN WHOLE MINUTES? Seriously?

So what did I think of it? I will summarize thusly:

• I understand why others loved it.
• I managed to make it through the whole movie.
• I thought the lead actress, Naomi Watts, did a fantastic job.
• I will never, ever, ever watch it again. Never.