That's, frankly, an insanely good cast. Kong, as if directed by Coppola, just as he was going insane. Looks like a heck of a lot more fun that Godzilla '14 Hugo - bring the fun back to the monster mash
It does seem like they've put more effort into the characters this time. And presumably they won't kill off the best character actor in the first act like they did with Bryan Cranston.
Yeah, I love the retro design. I wish more movie posters actually took this kind of effort in their designs (not necessarily retro) instead of floating heads of boredom.
So, will this maintain continuity with the 2014 Godzilla, or are they planning another Godzilla reboot?
The former. There's actually a line in the trailer where John Goodman's character repeats the 2014 movie's revelation that the 1954 US nuclear tests (the same ones that displaced and irradiated Godzilla in the original film, as well as doing much the same to the giant octopus in Harryhausen's 1955 It Came from Beneath the Sea) were an attempt to kill "something" (i.e. Godzilla).
Shades of Apocalypse Now? Is this official, or fan-made? Either way, it's pretty cool. Why? What's wrong with that poster? I really wasn't planning on seeing this, as I don't like remakes of older things that change to a later setting (I love the 2005 King Kong movie). But this poster actually makes this new movie look somewhat interesting now. Kor
It's set in the 1970s, at least partly in 1971. That isn't contemporary. (Although it's pretty close to contemporary with the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis remake of King Kong.)
So that was a reference to Godzilla then. I thought that might have been a plot point from Godzilla, but I couldn't remember for sure. I believe some of the promotional stuff has also included Monarch Corporation, which was introduced in Godzilla. It looks like they're setting up Monarch as the thing that ties to movies together, kind of like S.H.I.E.L.D. in the early MCU movies.
I think it's the tentacles. They're obviously going for a vintage kaijū vibe, but with everything that's there, plus the tentacles too, it makes it look like they're trying to sell the idea that "more is better." I should add that it's not helped by the contrast with the poster just above it, which looks like King Kong Meets Apocalypse Now, with the helicopters in the sun. Both together, and it really looks all over the place to me, but in a way that never gets beyond "been there and done that." There's a theatrical poster on the wiki page that you can see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kong_Skull_Island_poster.jpg. It also has a weaker, but still noticeable, Apocalypse Now vibe, maybe with a helping from Platoon. I recently rewatched the original King Kong, and I enjoyed it very much. Of course, it has a lot of spectacle and long passages where it's really all about the giant monsters, but naturally there were other things going on, too. There were the Beauty and the Beast motifs, and there was the subtext of the exploitation of nature leading to disaster. A good Kong film doesn't necessarily have to include any of those elements, and I get that these are just posters playing up the film, but Kong originally had a greater dynamic range than simply being angry. I'd hope he does in this film, too, but I wouldn't hold my breath. YMMV.
Just not sure how this will play with a Kong vs. Godzilla movie.. We've established a sympathy with Godzilla since he destroyed the bad guy in the 2014 movie (even while destroying San Francisco doing it [also see Man of Steel]). If this movie sets up Kong also as a "good guy," how will that work for the audience's sympathies when they finally come together? Or will it be them fighting first, but then coming together to battle another, larger threat (also see B vs S)? Hmmmm...
I'm thinking it will probably be the latter. That is pretty much the standard for any kind of story like that. I wonder if any of the other monsters will appear in Godzilla vs King Kong? This looks to be introducing a whole ecosystem of monsters, we got the MUTOS in Godzilla, and we already know that Godzilla: King of Monsters (aka Godzilla 2) will have King Ghidora, Mothra, and Rodan. By the time GvsK comes out we'll have plenty of other monsters around beyond just the two big guys.