Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Here is the jaw-dropping, eye-popping, heart-stopping movie epic we've been waiting for all year.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

One of the wonders of the holiday season.

New York Daily News by Jack Mathews

What a movie! This is how the medium seduced us originally.

Washington Post by Stephen Hunter

Jackson's big monkey picture show is certainly the best popular entertainment of the year. The film is a wondrous blend of then and now: It honors its mythic predecessor of 1933 while using sophisticated movie technology to seamlessly manipulate the fantastic.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold

Not only does it recapture -- and enhance -- the subtle emotional core that has made the film so beloved for the past three-quarters of a century, it delivers the most eye-boggling, hair-raising movie thrill ride since 1993's "Jurassic Park."

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

But overall, Jackson goes for the magic by sidestepping every error of judgment and failure of imagination that brought the ponderous 1976 remake thudding to Earth before Kong ever did. He delivers three solid hours of breathless, enchanting entertainment.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

A magnificent entertainment. It is like the flowering of all the possibilities in the original classic film.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

The rapport between Ms. Watts and Mr. Serkis is extraordinary, even though it is mediated by fur, latex, optical illusions and complicated effects. Mr. Serkis, who also played Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, is redefining screen acting for the digital age, while Ms. Watts incarnates the glamour and emotional directness of classical Hollywood.

Empire by Dan Jolin

Unlike its newly trim director, Kong does boast some flab around the middle but by the final reel there’s little doubt that what could have been Jackson’s folly is a triumph, the kind of romantic action spectacle that makes the big screen silver and provides box-office gold. Puts the prime in primate.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

Break out the popcorn and prepare to be blown away. King Kong is the most pulse- pounding and heart-stirring romantic adventure since "Titanic."

Los Angeles Times by Carina Chocano

King Kong is an homage not just to the original but to the history of movies themselves.

Variety by Todd McCarthy

Almost too much of a good thing, Peter Jackson's remake of the film that made him want to make movies is a super-sized version of a yarn that was big to begin with, a stupendous adventure that maximizes, and sometimes oversells, its dazzling wares.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

The gorilla is great, the girl terrific, sets are out of this world, creatures icky as hell, and the director clearly does not believe in the word "enough."

Newsweek

A surprisingly tender, even heartbreaking, film. Like the original, it's a tragic tale of beauty and the beast.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

I say this as someone for whom the very idea of a Kong remake is sacrilege, Jackson's straitened conception yields up a pretty damn good popcorn movie.

The New Yorker by David Denby

This Kong is high-powered entertainment, but Jackson pushes too hard and loses momentum over the more than three hours of the movie. The story was always a goofy fable--that was its charm--and a well-told fable knows when to stop.

Time by Richard Schickel

Our response to the ape's doom, once touched by authentic tragedy, is now marked by relief that this wretchedly excessive movie is finally over.