Kong: Skull Island-An Unconventional Encounter

This is the second joint review of Cody and I’s six part March movie marathon. At the end of the month we will go more in-depth and recap all the movies we saw in a podcast. Last week was Logan, this week we move on to Kong: Skull Island.

Sam: As Legendary kicks its Monster-Verse into gear, how does Kong: Skull Island compare to its most recent Kaiju predecessors: King Kong (2005), Pacific Rim and Godzilla (2014)?

Cody: Skull Island shied away from making their Kong similar towards Peter Jackson’s version. I was pretty surprised. This Kong is bigger, stronger, meaner and more aggressive (he’s also bipedal). With that being said, there are elements that are still classic Kong. He’s still worshiped as a god, and he still has the same nurturing side towards Brie Larson’s character reminiscent of old Kong.

I think Skull Island is more like Pacific Rim and Godzilla. More 2014 Godzilla than anything. It has similar plot points in which the humans have to decide what beast they will help. They’re stuck choosing the lesser of two evils.

Sam: Yeah, this Kong is freaking huge. I love that they added the fact that he is still growing too. They clearly used that as a set-up for his showdown with Godzilla in 2020. I thought for the most part he was classic Kong. Defensive of his territory but also showed plenty of empathy throughout the movie. He did some brutal things, but it’s not like they were uncalled for. He reacted accordingly to the situation at hand as the protector of Skull Island.

So out of the four Kaiju movies mentioned, where does this rank? What worked in this? What didn’t?

Cody: I haven’t seen Peter Jackson’s King Kong in a really long time so I’d probably have to check it out again before ranking. But I’d have this movie over Godzilla (just slightly) with Pacific Rim ranked last. Skull Island did a good job making this their own Kong film. One thing I always found ridiculous was Kong being dragged back to New York, so I’m really glad they didn’t do that.

Skull Island had decent dialog, with some cheesy moments (‘Dear Billy’) and a great soundtrack (although it’s hard to mess up a 70’s era soundtrack). John C. Reilly carried the film as far as humor went.

There were a few things that didn’t work. One thing people complained about with Godzilla is how you don’t see him enough. In Skull Island, you see Kong within the first few minutes. The scene itself was pretty outlandish and silly so it wasn’t that great of an intro for him.There was also far too many scenes that were shot in slow-mo. It almost makes me wonder if they were enticing people to see it in 3D. A lot of CGI seemed like it could’ve perhaps been better if viewing in 3D as well.

As far as the characters go, it seemed like some were just filler. John Goodman didn’t do much and Tom Hiddleston, who I thought was supposed to be this badass mercenary, didn’t really bring anything to the table either. Samuel L. Jackson, of course, just played Samuel L. Jackson.

Sam: I think this is the complete opposite of Logan. I have more bad things to say than good but I really enjoyed the movie. The acting for the most part was pretty weak. One character in particular looked like they weren’t even trying the first half of the movie. The use of the characters was odd too. Hiddleston and Goodman were misused. You almost forgot they were even there on multiple occasions. Goodman’s arc never really went anywhere either. There were a bunch of scenes that felt out of place, especially the opening…which was bizarre, and like you said the amount of slow-mo was freaking ridiculous.

The thing I may have disliked the most was that it had comedy lighting. You know how movies tones are partly decipherable by the lighting? This should've been a lot darker and it really bugged me. Everything that happened would have felt so much more important if the lighting had been done correctly.

Unlike Logan, I thought this hit all the right notes that made it more of a spectacle to watch. It was true over-the-top fun to watch action. Nothing about this movie bored me. The fighting was absolutely brutal and the fodder deaths were insane. They did an incredible job of making the island feel terrifying despite the misuse of lighting. In the 2005 version they made the island the last place I would ever want to go and they were able to recreate that feeling here.

You can tell that John C. Reilly was not the original person cast for his role based off of what the character did but I thought he did an excellent job of making it work. His action scenes didn’t feel out of place which shocked me. The story was pretty meh but I think it hit all the right blockbuster notes to make this movie enjoyable for anyone who sees it. I’d still rank it below 2005’s Kong, Godzilla and Pacific Rim, but I really enjoyed all three of those movies too.

How about that after-credit scene though?

Cody: I thought it was pretty cool. I don’t know too much about the Godzilla mythos but it’s fun to see other movies taking the marvel path in hyping these movies up.

Sam: You can attest to the fact that I freaked out. Coolest after-credit scene I’ve ever watched. Anyways, any final thoughts what are you giving this? I’ll give it a 7.7.

Cody: Overall, I thought Kong: Skull Island was pretty entertaining. I did like the new story, but nothing wow’ed me I suppose. But I’m guessing the goal of the film was to introduce you to this new hyped up version of Kong, so the studio can get audiences excited for Godzilla v. Kong. I’d give this one a 7.6.

Next week we’ll move on to Beauty and the Beast and The Belko Experiment.