Kong: Skull Island

Don't let the title and promotional material fool you: Kong Skull Island is more military commentary and homage to Apocalypse Now than simply another King Kong movie. In that sense it brings something new and fresh to the series, and is also very much a period piece--a period that all too recently seemed to be contemporary history, not the distant and unfamiliar past in which the film takes place.

After a prologue set during WWII, the current setting of the film opens in the waning days of the Vietnam War. While plenty of films have explored the war in Vietnam, Kong eschewed using combat or anti-war demonstrations on the homefront as the focal point. The Draft, flag burnings, use of the term "Charlie," etc are all absent from the film. Instead, it takes the unique perspective of war from an elite group of soldiers contemplating going home--back to "The World." While some characters look forward to reuniting with friends and family, the contempt for the army and the war that is seen in other Vietnam movies is also absent. These guys are soldiers and they are proud of that; it means something. Their commander is portrayed as an old war horse who is contemplating a future with no war to fight.

In the midst of all this, two scientists named Bill Randa (John Goodman) and Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins), lobby to have a military escort assist them in exploring an uncharted island. Randa and Brooks assemble their team which consists of tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddelston) photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) a geologist San (Jin Tian) and a few other scientists not fleshed out enough to even remember.

They meet up with Lt. Col. Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) and the the soldiers we met earlier in the film. With all these convenient characters in place, the movie really begins.

The film shifts gears from being a period piece that goes out of its way--sometimes with distracting effect--to showcase outdated technology (a scene in which the camera pans to a tab...

Thought that Peter Jackson's King Kong movie could have done without the entire first act? Though that the Godzilla movie set in the same universe should have shown their big beastie a whole lot more? Well Skull Island fixes those problems, and replaces them with a whole bunch of new ones!

I had a lot of fun though. So it passes into the realm of a positive review by the skin of its octopus-riddled teeth.

Final rating:★★★ - I personally recommend you give it a go.

I really wanted to give this movie a better score but I just could not bring myself to overlook the stupid and crappy story.

Okay, let’s start with the bad. The movie is about a group of explorers exploring this Skull Island. No surprise there. They are accompanied by a military detachment. Somewhat okay still, there is a half decent explanation for that. One of the main characters in the movie is Lieutenant Colonel Packard. At first, I quite liked him, especially when he told off the journalist informing her that they did not loose the war, it was abandoned by the politicians.

However, from then on it goes really bad. Warning, spoilers ahead!

Once on the island Kong is revealed rather quickly. Something that I felt was a bit of a shame. There was no suspense building up for the reveal of the mighty ape. Okay, I could live with that. What I cannot live with is that these total dumb-asses, having discovered a scientific find of unprecedented magnitude, goes straight on to shooting off their guns. What the fuck? Not only that, they just keep shooting and circling around him while he trashes them one by one. That scene, while sporting some impressive action and CGI, was just so fucked up that one wondered if the author deliberately wanted to insult the audience.

From then on I just cringed every time Colonel Packard was in the picture. He was clearly mentally unstable. He doggedly continued to want to kill Kong and used retrieving his men as a poor excuse. This is just the kind of shitty, overused and cliche’d Hollywood script that drives me nuts.

Now, with that over with, the movie was technically quite good. The actors are doing a decent enough job of their roles. The story, excluding the Vietnam references and general let’s make the military look bad old bullshit, was actually not to bad. It was a different take on the King Kong history for sure.

The CGI, the action and the various monsters were very cool. Not surprisingly King Kong was not the onl...

Yeah. That was an unconventional encounter.

So here we have it, part two of the franchise reinvention of the beloved iconic creatures of cinema lore. After the 2014 redux of Godzilla was something of a tonal misstep, it's unsurprising to find this version of the King Kong legacy going all out blockbuster popcorner, and with that it succeeds - kinda.

Plot is wafer thin, bunch of humans from various professions rock up at the uncharted Skull Island, each with differing levels of interest as to what might be there. Of which they quickly find out is a whole heap of trouble - big trouble!

It's clear that the makers, fronted by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, are trying to blend crowd pleasing mayhem with thoughtful observations of not only the period the pic is set (1973), but also of man's inherent propensity for stupidity. On the surface, the battles and creature feature carnage in general, are wholly entertaining, but it's sometimes just too ridiculous for its own good. Even worse is that it's shallow, with no real substance of note, particularly where the characters are concerned, rendering a very admirable cast as one note players in the monkey maze.

However, irritants aside, the pic is great fun, with enough excitement and quippy dialogue to make the time spent on Skull Island worthwhile. Be it man versus beasties and the alien terrain they traverse, a popcorn muncher it be. There's some sly humour within (Tricky Dicky Nixon going down), and the nods towards Coppola and Cameron et al are pleasing as punch. You may have to lower expectation levels to not let the problems it has drag you down, and for sure it's not hard to understand why a lot of folk hate it, but it's not a disaster, far from it.

One does hope, though, that the next instalment in this series goes up another couple of notches, for Kong, Zilla and the other monster gods deserve it. 7/10

A new dawn. The King has arrived.

Seems I'm the only one who did not know it was not a sequel to the 2005 film. The Kong was over a 100 feet tall in this, compared to 25 feet from a decade ago. Being a big fan of that film and Peter Jackson, I hated this idea, especially for totally a fresh cast and crew. So I was not expecting it. Only while watching it, I came to know it was a new version. With a new cinematic, a new set of actors, timeline, completely a different kind of tone for a King Kong film that I have ever seen.

They wanted it to be a badass action film than a value added storyline. That does not mean I loved it. It was average. I only enjoyed the nice action-adventures. But the visuals were a more commercialised. I even confused whether did I watched a Hollywood film or an Rajamouli film. You know those terrible methods used for stunt sequences.

The most boring part of this film was the same old formula, which is a set of people enter in a dangerous enclosure and only a few come back alive. A couple of scientist escorted by a military to a mystery island hidden in the mists of the South Pacific to do some scientific research. Soon they come to realise they are in a dangerous place where giant monsters live. After losing some of the soldiers, now it becomes a survival game. But the general is obsessed with a revenge. How the rest of the story folds were told with a battle of the film.

Basically, this film was created to merge two franchises, the rebooted 'Godzilla' with this one. The post end-credit scene gave some important hint about the future of the franchise. But I thought it was too similar to the comedy flick, 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'. Usually spoof films were made out of greatest hit films. But it looks like here a reverse case. Though all the actors were good. Nice direction, visuals, music, particularly the sound effects. This film is simply enjoyable and forgettable.

There are many things I did not like. The Peter Ja...

Alright. So i like action movies. I like King Kong. So when you have this idea of having the traditional king kong story made into a action movie about monsters in the skulk island, that sounds like a fcking great idea. The best part of King Kong was all this other monsters in the island. But this film is the first one to tell the story of kong completely from that perspective. What i also really liked was that it was still very human even though its a monster movie. I personally enjoyed it very much like with any other Kong film there is the love angle which is done with brie larson character which i thought was really sweet to put into a movie that concentrates on being a fun movie. And it achieves being a fun movie. I had a lot of fun watching this film. The plot is simple. The vfx is really done well. The action sequences where good. Is it forgettable? Kinda. You have that nice 70s nostalgia around it but it doesn't stay there because after all its all in the island of the world. It was a very fun experience and very satisfying. I didn't get bored with it. It had my attention. It was good. So overall, should you see it? Yes, if you have the time and you are in the mood for an action movie go watch it. It will entertain you for most of its run-time.

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After a pleasant revisit to Godzilla (2014), now comes the time for Kong: Skull Island, the second installment in Warner Bros. and Legendary’s shared cinematic universe. I watched this film at its original release date and never saw it again. Not because I deeply disliked it or anything of that level, but I never felt a strong desire to rewatch it. I remember feeling indifferent towards the movie since it didn't really surprise me in any aspect. If there's one thing no one can complain about MonsterVerse, it's the jaw-dropping visuals that would evolve beyond the wildest expectations as years went by, but even these didn't blow me away completely in this film. Nevertheless, a small part of me had high hopes for this rewatch…

The screenplays of these first two movies are pretty similar concerning their narrative structure. Naturally, most of the runtime is spent with human characters who, in this case, wander around an uncharted land supposedly to perform geologic studies. This time, more monsters are displayed on-screen besides Kong and his main adversary, leading to more action sequences, most in broad daylight, which is a major plus. Basically, any viewer is able to follow every fight, even the ones that happen at night since they're beautifully shot by Larry Fong (DP), who uses fire as a lighting device to produce some wallpaper-worthy images. Kong looks incredible, and the monster fights are utterly riveting.

The monsters' visuals hold up strong for most of the runtime, except when humans get involved. Despite a fantastic scene between Kong and Samuel L. Jackson's character, some of the humans vs. monsters sequences are way too weird. Several feature too noticeable green screen, mixing humans and monsters in close proximity, which didn't work as seamlessly as intended. Still, viewers who complained about the lack of Godzilla in his own flick will be more sa...

Really good movie!

Some editing and musical (same-y tracks, exact same utilization each time) choices aside, 'Kong: Skull Island' is entertaining. Kong looks great, Skull Island is brought to life pretty neatly. The action sequences and visual effects are done to a positive standard. The near 2hr run time is paced well too.

Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson are a strong match, with John C. Reilly the best of the rest. Samuel L. Jackson's character is a little underwhelming, though Jackson manages to make Preston Packard more memorable than most others actors would've. Elsewhere, John Goodman is his usually reliable self.

The second movie of the "Monsterverse". I watched 2014's 'Godzilla' many years ago without knowing it was part of a wider universe. I didn't actually like that film all that much, looking back at clips etc. to refresh my memory I can see why. Thankfully, this 2017 entry to the franchise is a lot more enjoyable.