Advice to Peter Jacobson – Less Is More

I just finished watching the King Kong. Nope, not the classic with famed screamer Fay Wray, this was the recent re-make staring Naomi Watts as the screaming babe.

I remember the original. It was a classic love story with the now famous tragic twist. A beautiful babe falls in love with a grotesque scary monster.

Peter Jacobson directed this re-make – you probably know him from his other major theatrical releases, the Lord of the Rings movies.

Jacobson did a wonderful job turning a classic into a Jurassic Park-like monster movie. The monster effects were even more realistic, with a full range of dinosaurs on the island where King Kong called home. The effects were amazing to watch, and the way they were incorporated with real-life actors was stunning.

Naomi Watts is hot – she can be my screaming babe any day.

Problem with this movie – as with the Lord of the Rings movies – was length. I was never a big fan ‘the rings.’ But I saw one of the movies, and afterwards I felt it was four hours of my life wasted.

Jacobson suffers the same fate with King Kong – the movie was over three hours long. I enjoyed watching the movie, it kept my attention throughout and I enjoyed comparing it to the original.

BUT, if I hadn’t been watching at home, from the Movienetwork onDemand, I’d probably not have enjoyed it. I probably wouldn’t have sat through all three hours straight. As it was, being onDemand, I paused it several times to get up, stretch, grab a snack, make dinner and other distractions which kept me coming back.

Less is more Jacobson. Less is more. Give us all the effects, the screaming babes, the love story with the tragic twist, but leave us wanting more. By creating mammoth length movies, I seriously question your story-telling abilities.

The best story tellers know how to edit something down into interesting and manageable bits – why don’t you?