Yep, that’s pretty locked in at this point. It’s too bad that they are so far away, but at least we got Shin Godzilla and have another Pacific Rim movie coming - not the biggest fan of the first, but the monster/fight scenes were decent.
I enjoyed the movie. It was a lot less cheesy than the last Kong movie, and for a monster movie not too bad at all. It won’t win any awards or anything, the visuals were stunning so maybe there… not sure, but if you’re looking for a pretty good monster movie, I don’t think it would lead astray.
I’m last to see this probably. I agree with you @Nesrie, in everything you said. My girlfriend loved it and cried. She cries as facebook animal videos for comparison.
It was a good monster movie, I thought. Plenty of action, plenty of fight scenes, and an absolutely stunning amount of fantastic looking creatures, etc.
I loved, LOVED John C. Reilly. He was the lone thing keeping the movie from taking itself too seriously, and I’m glad that part was in the movie.
I disliked Tom Hiddleson (Former SAS who takes the role of a guide.) The part seemed miscast if you ask me. I understand they wanted something of a leading man to contrast Brie Larson, but it just didn’t fit with me.
I can’t wait for more Kong. He was a badass.
Hideo loves this movie: http://www.glixel.com/news/kojima-on-how-kong-skull-island-reinvigorates-monster-movies-w471620
In other news, it’s passed $500m world wide, which is good news for fans.
I recently saw this, and I totally agree! Overall the movie was actually decent / pretty enjoyable. And I am glad I rented it and didn’t write it off. It has also made me pretty hyped for Jumanji later this year.
Same here. I was very amazed at the effects in Kong, I’m hoping Jumanji proves more of the same.
I don’t know where else to put this, but the story is insane and worth reading. I haven’t seen Skull Island but now I kind of want to.
That was a great article–thanks for sharing!
You should see Skull Island. It’s a far better than average giant monster flick.
Yes I recently added it to my long list of “movies that I thought would be crap so didn’t see it on the big screen but having seen it on tv now wish I had seen it on the big screen” list.
It would have been worth the admission price anyway.
I watched about the first 30 minutes of this movie last night.
First, let’s go over my expectations and pre-conceived notions about Kong. I watched Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and that actually got good reviews from a lot of critics, which I completely don’t understand. It was the most confoundingly bad movie I’ve ever seen, I think? It’s hard to judge bad movies against one another, but it was certainly one of the worst.
So much so that despite knowing that Kong: Skull Island got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, my experience with Peter Jackson’s Kong led me to be completely dismissive of this movie in my head. I know nothing about it except that it somehow got good reviews, and that it features King Kong and has Samuel L Jackson. After the last Kong movie, my brain is suffering from a lack of imagination about how they could possibly do a Kong movie that I would find entertaining.
Ok, so those were my expectations and biases.
And the beginning of this movie seemed to confirm that. An American and a Japanese pilot crash land on the island during WW2. They have a ridiculous fight and then both get killed by Kong, I think.
But then, a new movie starts. It’s the 70s and Nixon has announced Americans are pulling out of Vietnam. We meet some likeable soldiers looking forward to going home. Back in America we meet John Goodman(!!!) who is trying to get an expedition out to this island. In a great scene we meet Samuel L Jackson, who is thinking of killing himself after the war is over. We meet Tom Hiddleston(!!!) who is recruited by John Goodman to go to the island with them. We meed Brie Larson (!!!), a photographer who finds a way onto the expedition. Holy shit, all these great actors!
I’ve talked repeatedly on this forum about how certain movies about the 70s don’t have that certain something to really make it feel like this 70s. It’s an almost a magical feeling that’s created with the combination of hair and makeup and fashion and music and … something. Well this movie has it. Whatever that is. The hair and makeup and fashion and music and whatever else, it just feels right, it feels so spot on. The sound of the blackhawk helicopters, Brie Larson’s hair as they take off from the ship and fly towards the island, it’s all so exquisite. It feels epic and like a period piece, and just authentic.
And right in the middle of this authentic period movie about Vietnam and the 70s, suddenly a tree flies at one of the helicopters. The resulting action sequence immediately had me leaning forward and gripping the couch cushion beside me. Unlike Peter Jackson’s Kong which spent its first hour not doing much of anything besides confounding the audience with weirdness, this movie has spent its build up getting me to like each of these characters and when the helicopters hit the fan, I care about these people. I love that Samuel L Jackson’s character is not the plain boring guy he is in Marvel’s Nick Fury or in Star Wars. He’s a “brilliant” general who is beligerent, a bit of an asshole who thinks we could have won in Vietnam if we hadn’t been ordered to leave. And at the end of the helicopter mayhem, we see him eyeing Kong with hate in his eyes. He is taking this personally and he is going to relish taking him down.
Booya! Holy shit this movie rocks. Why was I not told about this? Granted, maybe the rest of the movie goes South from here, I don’t know, but so far, this kind of reminds me of John McTiernan’s action movies. It feels like a throwback to classic action movies from the 80s. I love it so far.
Since Godzilla vs Kong I’ve been trying to remember if I’ve seen this one, and I’m just not sure.
Gonna have to get around to it soon, sounds like.
I think it’s the best of the latest crop of giant monster movies.
Man, that’s a great story. Selfishly speaking, I hope Vogt-Roberts makes more big budget blockbusters. He’s clearly really good at it. I wonder if his filming Kong in Vietnam is what leads to it feeling so authentic to me?
He’s rumored to be helming a Gundam movie
Even allowing for the fact I set the bar pretty low, I was also more than a little surprised at how much I enjoyed this.
More than a rumor as of today!
You didn’t read my review.
And yes, Jackson’s King Kong was an indulgent mess.
I’ve been slowly making my way through this movie, but there’s some kind of bug in the HBO Max app only for this movie (as far as I know) where every time I resume the movie, it starts from the beginning again, and I have to spend a few minutes fast forwarding to where I remember leaving off last time. It’s very annoying.
Interface troubles aside, I really love how this is all going down. With John C Reilly’s character telling us Kong is a good guy protecting the humans against the evil creature, but the Kong vs Jackson rivalry still hurtling towards a confrontation, I can’t wait to see where this is going. God, both Jackson and Kong are larger than life in this movie, I just love all their scenes so far.
This movie really should have been called Jackson vs Kong.
Finished it this morning. Great movie. I was a little disappointed that the script didn’t have Jackson vs Kong as the final confrontation. I was hoping they would team up to beat the common enemy and then resume their fight. But hey, it was good this way too.
And the very very end after the credits, all they did was setup Godzilla: King of Monsters. Oops, I guess I watched the two movies in the wrong order.
Now finally time for Godzilla vs Kong.