Going On Adventure Night Part IV: Monsters Roam Free Night

Tonight's marathon marks the fourth week of the epic trend of going on an adventure night theme of movies. Ranging from the great fantasy films of the 1980's to the more modern day ones with breakthrough technology, we take a different turn with the theme of going to mysterious worlds and watching some of the greatest monsters who ever lived roam free and cause havoc. These iconic films range anywhere from the era of 1933 to one of this years summer blockbusters. We have on our menu for this evening:

             King Kong 1933, Congo 1995, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014, Jurassic Park 1993, and Mighty Joe Young 1998

Now this is a pure monster night of epic proportions. We begin the evening with the 1933 classic King Kong. For it's time, Kong was a breakthrough in technology and great storytelling. The film resonates with audiences today as you can never look at the Empire State Building without thinking about the climax of the film, or Fay Wray's epic scream. The film was so influential to modern day filmmakers it not only inspired Peter Jackson to become a filmmaker, but it also prompted him to do a equally great remake in 2005 that ran over three hours long. The plot for King Kong deals with a film crew going on a journey to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and comes across a colossal giant gorilla who takes a liking to their female blonde star. The difference between this film and the 2005 version is the running times. This movies much faster paced and scarier running only 108 minutes compared to the epic 188 minute running time that Peter Jackson's remake possesses. There is no love story between Kong and Ann in this one compared to the triangle between Naomi Watts and Kong. What better way to open up a great monster theme than playing one of the classic films that started it all. The next movie in the lineup is Congo, based off Michael Crichton's novel. Congo deals with an expedition to the African Congo ending in disaster, forcing a new team to assemble and find out what went wrong. What they find is a forest full of killer gorillas. While not as memorable as King Kong in the realm of film history, the film offers plenty of excitement and fun in it's plot. The next film after Congo that concludes the entire story arc involving killer apes is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the 2014 blockbuster sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Taking place ten years after the pandemic disease which erupted at the climax of the last film, the apes who have survived it are drawn into battle with a group of human survivors led by legendary actor Gary Oldman. The movie feels like the Empire Strikes Back of the new Planet of the Apes story arc and fits in perfectly with the whole theme of this marathon. It is an exciting, thought provoking, and totally feeling of awe experience that builds up the anticipation for the films that come next. What comes next is foreshadowed in King Kong during the film crews search to find their blonde movie star on skull Island. What they find during their journey is an island full of species that supposedly became extinct 65 million years ago but have somehow survived. The species I'm referring to is dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park remains the greatest dinosaur film to ever grace the big screen and challenges all filmmakers in the future to create an event spectacle that reaches the heights of that film in terms of pure cinematic magic. The plot for Jurassic Park takes place during a preview tour where the theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok. The film boasts a great all star cast among the likes of Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel Jackson, Wayne Knight, and Richard Attenborough in the roles of the people on the island who experience the magic, the wonder, and ultimately the terror of the dinosaurs coming back to life and roaming free throughout the park. The score by John Williams is one of the greatest ever recorded and dare I say, challenges the current national anthem for a worthy rival. The final film of the evening brings it all back to the scope of King Kong with RKO classic Mighty Joe Young. In this film, a legendary fifteen-foot tall mountain gorilla named Joe is taken to an animal sanctuary in California by a zoologist played by Bill Paxton and a young woman he grew up with played by Charlie Theron. However, a poacher from the past returns to seek vengeance on him. Not only was this a legendary gorilla story that emerged around the time King Kong came out in the 30s and 40s, but it bids the whole story arc of monsters roaming free an emotional farewell.