Kong Skull Island
Ever wonder what would have happened if Jane Goodall were in “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid”? No, me neither. But if she were, I would imagine something like Kong being the end result.
Admittedly, I have not seen the original 1933 King Kong film, or the 1976 version, or the 1962 version where he fights Godzilla. BUT I did see Peter Jackson’s 2005 retelling, which was fine, I guess. So I went into Kong: Skull Island, not as a Kong fan, but just looking for a good action/adventure movie, and I was not disappointed.
Kong: Skull Island transports us back to the 1970s (featuring a pretty great classic rock sound track) and the hunt to explore the last uncharted island on earth. Needless to say this island is home to Kong, a giant gorilla with a heart of gold, and about a dozen other remarkably deadly creatures. A wild adventure ensues as the robust cast of A-listers gets stranded on the island and tries to escape in one piece.
Visually this movie is pretty amazing. When we first travel to and see Skull Island, I was reminded of that awe feeling I got when first watching Jurassic Park as a kid. It was an amazing scene and set the bar visually for the rest of the film.
Now the story does feel a little like a color-by-number action adventure movie: watching people who haven’t had any dialog get picked off one by one, the cast making obviously poor decisions, you know the drill. And yes, the characters are all a bit one dimensional, with no back-stories or real motivations driving them besides not getting eaten. But it is still a badass, popcorn action flick.
The actors in this movie, and there are a lot of great ones, all did the best with what they were given. Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson played leads with little story actually centered on them. So as a result, they were definitely outshined by the supporting cast. Samuel L Jackson and John Goodman were both, not surprisingly, very solid. Seeing John. C Reilly in a much more serious, yet still comical role was refreshing and I think he was terrific.
But let’s be honest, this was Kong’s movie, and he was the standout by far. I was surprised how much expression and emotion they were able to get out of a giant CGI monkey. And that’s great and all, but who needs emotions when you get to watch Kong beat the crap out of a huge lizard dragon or an enormous octopus with 20+ tentacles. I was even found myself rooting for Kong faced off against a dozen helicopters full of humans (but it’s ok because the ones who died didn’t have any dialog). Kong is king and he showed us why throughout the film.
So, you should see this movie if…
- You always play as DK in Mario Kart
- You want to see Samuel L. Jackson say “hold onto your butts” in another movie (yea he really says it again!)
OR
- You’re looking for a wildly entertaining, action/adventure movie with some incredible visuals and a badass Monsters vs. monster fight
Rating: 3.5/5
