Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 10 Mar 2017

Kong:Skull Island’s setup is much more in line with Godzilla than the other Kong movies. It includes events from the Pacific battles of World War II, through to the movie’s main timeline which is the direct aftermath of the US pulling out of Vietnam.

This is still, of course, a movie about giant monsters and a big ape held together by a large cast of characters and their varying motivations. Samuel L. Jackson’s Packard wants a win after being pulled out of the war in Vietnam. John Goodman’s Randa spearheads the expedition to Skull Island. He’s the true believer who is less than forthright about what the group of scientists and their military escort may be running into. Brie Larson’s Weaver is a photojournalist and Tom Hiddleston’s Conrad is a mercenary with experience surviving deadly jungles.

The special effects are the real show, and they’re mostly great. Kong is much bigger in this movie, and seeing his nostrils flare in IMAX is good spectacle. The design of Kong’s main monster antagonists are the low point of the effects. They don’t seem physically possible given their anatomy of two short legs and a tail that looks heavier than the rest combined. The planned crossover with Godzilla will certainly be a better match, though Kong seems the weaker of the two based on the recent Godzilla reboot.

I was satisfied with the quality of the characters and motivations of the movie’s “glue” that held together the action scenes very well. If you’re a fan of giant monster movies, particularly The Lost World, this movie is for you.

Hannah, Aaron, Cal and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: