Thought I'd posted post-viewing...apparently not...
Didn't get to see it on my birthday but the next weekend afterwards. Both I and my friend were sick, different causes...
Spoiler alert. But then again, probably everyone who wanted to see it has done so by now. So here goes.
Anyway, gotta say this. LOVED IT, hated the worms. The fight with the T Rexes rocked but the worms made me scream and want to be sick. I've been telling people to go see the movie but "when the worms come up out of the mud, close your eyes and DON'T open them until the screaming and gunfire stops!"
I just have this...thing about being engulfed by mindless creatures...
I did love how they made Kong intelligent. Anthony Sirkis did a fantastic job. My favourite part of the movie is when Kong did that victory dance in the jungle not long after grabbing Anne. Second favourite scene was him playing in the snow in Central Park. That wasn't in the original, as I remember; there was definitely a lot more character-building and it wasn't just a big monkey: Kong was a working character. Kong was scary but he turned out to be the nicest guy on the island. You just look at all the icky creatures and dinosaurs and pitfalls on that island and think, ye gods, he's the last of his kind, it's amazing he's survived at all! That and his intelligence were what really made Kong so sympathetic.
I also like the reference to "Heart of Darkness" made in the earlier part of the film. The tribe on the island made me think, "This is what Merridew's Tribe from <i>Lord of the Flies</i> would have grown up to be like if nobody came to rescue them." Those guys were flat-out scary.
Did anyone else catch the Sumatran Rat-Monkey in-joke?