King Kong – Prelude to a Review

Years ago, when video tapes were first available, the movie industry was in an uproar. Not because of people taping things off the air, but because they felt if people could rent or buy movies, they wouldn’t go see them in the theatre. At that time, the movie industry had been in a slump.

To their surprise, video rentals actually reinvigorated the movie industry. People still wanted to see films on the big screen.

All these years later, I wonder now if perhaps their original dire predictions might have been correct.

I just watched King Kong. Not the unequaled classic 1933 version, but the 2005 Peter Jackson version. Actually, that’s not true either, this is the 2006 Peter Jackson super-enhanced, mega-long, “I don’t know when to stop” version.

I was never a Lord of the Rings fan. I don’t really care for that type fantasy and never read the books. Consequently, I never went to see the first movie. When it came out on DVD, a friend loaned me the ultra-extended version. What a great film! My wife and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I decided that I wanted to own them myself, and so I bought the extended version of the first film and the second, which came out about that time.

Now, here’s where my tale begins. I could have seen the third film in the theatre, but I didn’t. I could have seen the original version on DVD, but I held out. I knew that the complete version would be held back many months to bilk the DVD buying public as much as possible. But I was there the first day it was available as the extended edition.

King Kong was the same. While I was eagerly awaiting a worthy remake of one of my all-time favorite films, I knew that there would be more. Why should I waste my time on half-finished versions? I decided to wait for the extended DVD.

And that’s why I think that the movie business may be shooting themselves in the foot. They lost my theatre ticket sale and all that popcorn and Dr. Pepper. Is the day coming when people realize they’re being cheated at the initial release of a movie or DVD?

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