Kong: Skull Island (2017)

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Shortly after the successful release of 'Godzilla' in 2014, it was announced that Kong was gonna be brought into the picture, and the "MonsterVerse" was going to be put into motion. Once again, they did it right by introducing Godzilla in one movie, Kong in the next, and developing things from there. Growing up, I was always a little more partial to Kong as a bit more of a sympathetic monster, so when I heard this was happening, I was pretty excited for it, and thankfully, it was far from disappointing.

For this one, we go back to 1973 where new technology has been developed to capture imagery of areas of the world that have yet been unexplored. This unveils the mysterious-looking Skull Island, which until had only been a myth up to that point. This leads the head of Monarch (the organization mentioned in the 'Godzilla' review who study giant creatures), Bill Randa (John Goodman) to gather a team of professionals to head to the island with him in an attempt to study whatever primeval creatures may be on the island; an island said to be lost in time, and altogether prehistoric in nature.

For an experienced escort to get through dangerous conditions in order to get to Skull Island for this mission, Randa's recruits Vietnam soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), his subordinates, Major Jack Chapman (Toby Kebbell) and Captain Earl Cole (Shea Whigham), and his other "Sky Devils", Reg Slivko (Thomas Mann), Glenn Mills (Jason Mitchell) and Joe Reles (Eugene Cordero). In several ways, these guys provide the big bad "mankind" enemy of the film, but I'd probably also argue that, aside from Kong, himself, they are the more entertaining aspect of the film.

Further experts recruited to the team include former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), who's also an expert at tracking, and photographer, Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) who's main reason for being here is to represent the "beauty" that Kong is able to see as mankind's innocence, and be almost annoying with how many pictures she takes throughout the film. Perhaps a bit harsh, but there are scenes where she's in real danger and totally camera-ready. I don't mind Brie Larson, but this has to be one of her more mediocre roles when all said and done.

Upon their arrival, Packard's men drop seismic charges to map out the island, which eventually flushes out Kong, and results in a devastating (but cool to look at) attack on the team, ultimately separating them all from each other. From there, the motives vary as Packard wants to set his men up for revenge as well as a mission to get their men back, while Conrad and Weaver along with a few others stumble on the locals, and surprise World War II survivor, Hank Marlow (John C. Reilley) who has been trapped there for a couple of decades. Their main forcus is more about just surviving and getting off the island.

Really, the only big tie-in with 'Godzilla' ('14) here is the idea of Monarch, which also plays into a pretty cool post-credit scene in which we see a bit more of an 'Avengers'-like tease for what's to come (seemingly appropriate, considering how many 'Avengers' characters are in this). Otherwise, as a stand-alone, it makes for a pretty great survival adventure, reminscent of something like 'Jurassic Park', but with bigger, badder monsters and some pretty awesome fight scenes involving said monsters, paving the way for an eventual 'Godzilla vs. Kong', and every single one of us knew it.

Despite a little bit of rough acting, and cheesy dialogue throughout the film, I'm hard-pressed not to like it. There's a lot of CG in here that one may or may not take with a grain of salt, but I'd suggest that in order to appreciate the film, one has to lean into the action/adventure involved in the story to get the right effect. At the end of the day, Kong, like Godzilla, is here for some decent quality, albeit cheesy, box office adventure, and both movies pretty much live up to that. I'm just glad that there's much more Kong here, along with several other creative creatures as opposed to Godzilla's lack of appearance in his own movie.

4/5

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