March 10, 2017
An expedition to the uncharted, newly discovered Skull Island is interrupted by the presence of the island's ancient guardian, an enormous ape-like creature named Kong. As the survivors motives differ from escape to revenge, they must contend with the many, many dangers of the island.
It's been quite a journey since the release of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla reboot in 2014. In addition to making a sequel, Legendary Pictures had another brilliant idea: have Godzilla fight King Kong again. But first, give Kong his own movie to be included in a series of films now dubbed the "MonsterVerse".
I don't think every modern film series should attempt to be the next Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I'm all for the MonsterVerse. Giant monsters have been crossing over into each other's movies since the 60's. If anyone could pull it off just as well, I believe Legendary Pictures is capable of it.
For Kong's 8th cinematic outing, Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts decided not to repeat the usual Beauty and the Beast story from past films. After Peter Jackson's masterfully done remake, there really is no point in doing so. He instead pitched the idea of setting his film in the post-Vietnam War era. After a well done opening credits sequence, you are instantly transported to that era. Everything from the sets, the costumes and the songs that play throughout the film feel very authentic. Even when you get to Skull Island, you're never free of that vibe.
The cinematography of this film is nothing short of beautiful, nearly every shot feels like a painting you could hang on your wall. Much of the filming took place in Vietnam and it gives this version of Skull Island a more exotic, mysterious and threatening feel than past iterations.
Also, Jordan Vogt-Roberts loves anime and video games so this movie contains a ton of references to a number of them. Some are obvious and some are a bit more subtle, so keep an eye out
Another area this movie does well in is the human cast, who are all played by solid actors like Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson and John Goodman.
Larson plays a photojournalist reminiscent of the archetypal reporter characters from earlier monster movies. Personally, I wish we could see more journalists in modern monster films.
But John C. Reilly is the one who completely steals the show.
I'd most seen Reilly in comedy roles, and I was a bit worried his comedic talent would overpower the film. But he manages to shift the tone from funny to dramatic surprisingly well.
I even loved the minor soldier characters. Usually the army guys in movies like this are just there to be generic army guys, but some of these guys have great personalities and endearing moments that you'll probably want to see them live through this. The only characters I felt were a bit sidelined were the 2 Monarch scientists played by Corey Hawkins and Jing Tian.
Now for the big guy himself. Skull Island is the second film in which Kong is brought to life through Motion Capture CGI preformed by both Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell. Notary has had plenty of experience as a stunt performer and animal movement coach on several films, including the Planet of the Apes reboot series in which he plays the Chimpanzee 'Rocket'. Toby Kebbell, who also plays the character Chapman in the movie, provides the facial references for Kong AND he played 'Koba' in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. Talk about playing to your strengths.
Both actors excel at giving Kong an incredibly demanding presence. The moment you first see him, you know he is a GOD. But Kong also has his fair share of sympathetic moments that show he's not just a mindless monster, but an actual character.
The CGI for Kong and the creatures of Skull Island are great. While this Skull Island may not have Dinosaurs (or rather, used to), it does have it's own unique set of creatures. In fact, the main predators of the island are inspired by a creature from the original King Kong that only appeared briefly. The Skull Crawlers are wickedly cool and seeing Kong fight these things are the highlights of the film. There's no jaw breaking here or kisses of death like in Godzilla 2014, but there is a finishing move that is just as awesome.
Speaking of which, I know it's inevitable that people are going to compare this movie to Godzilla 2014, and I will admit this movie is a bit more exciting and Kong has more screen time than Godzilla did in his movie. But if you were to compare the past Kong movies to the past Godzilla films, that's kind of been the norm since day one. Most Kong films have always been exciting, adventure films, while Godzilla's (The original and everything pre-1960's and past 1975 at least) are more serious, disaster-drama films with cool monster fights in them.
I went into Kong: Skull Island expecting a fun adventure movie and an awesome reinvention of Kong and I got that and more in spades! I really don't have anything bad to say about the movie, it is a fantastic Kong movie, a great monster movie and a fun time at the movies overall.
You wanna know how good this movie is? My Mom enjoyed it and she doesn't care for monster movies! Unless it has Dwayne Johnson in it, but that's beside the point.
It is definitely an amazing inclusion to Legendary Picture's MonsterVerse. And be sure to stay after the credits for a very special surprise!
A surprise I wish wasn't ruined by copyright information.
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
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