Spoilers Kong: Skull Island Review Thread With Spoilers

[JD]

Since the movie came out today I thought I would go ahead and start a spoiler review thread, since the other one specifically says no spoilers.
I really enjoyed it. It had some pretty interesting characters, nice action scenes, some funny scenes, and some awesome visuals. It was also a lot more fun than I was expecting.
One thing some of these kinds of movies often struggle with is giving us interesting human characters, but Kong actually did a pretty good job on that front. The heroic characters were pretty likeable and Sam Jackson was good as the human villain. Even if Packard did go to far, and had totally lost it by the end, they did at least give a easy to understand motivation. I love Packard's death, that was a great moment.
The big action scenes were really cool, with the first Kong attack and the big fight with Kong and "The Big One" being the standouts. The big fight at the end was especially good. After the dark night time fights in Pacific Rim and Godzilla, it was nice to get one in bright clear daylight. It had some moments in it that managed to be cool, but not so over the top as to be ridiculous. Well not any more ridiculous than the fact that it was a giant skull face lizard fighting a giant gorilla.
In an era where things seem to be going more and more often for the dark and gritty it was nice to get something that was actually fun, and wasn't Marvel. Most of the humor worked pretty well, with John C. Rielly's Marlow being a standout in that regard. I was surprised Marlow actually made it home, I figured the promises to get him home would end up being his death sentence.
It had some absolutely awesome visual moments, like the first sighting of Kong in the main body of the movie, and the scene of the soldiers setting off the napalm.
My Rating: A

 

[captainkirk]

There were a lot of things I liked about the movie. The cinematography in particular was amazing. But there were certain aspects I had problems with. The biggest one being the death of John Goodman's character. It just felt so random and more like a joke than the death of the character that gets the whole plot going. I suppose it did kind of make it feel like any character could die, but to me it was too much like the death of Bryan Cranston's character in Godzilla 2014.
I did however love the post-credits scene which sets up the next movie. I wonder if any of these characters will show up in any of the future movies.

 

[John Clark]

Thought it was pretty decent myself (I'd probably rewatch it more than the last version of Kong)

Thought the cinematography was well done, had a decent story and I liked the main cast. Speaking of which, one of the reviews mentioned that it had two Marvel actors in, though I noticed at least four (The two obvious ones, the announced Miss Marvel and Chief Dooley).

 

[captainkirk]

Thought it was pretty decent myself (I'd probably rewatch it more than the last version of Kong)

I watched a fan-edited version of Peter Jackson's Kong that was a vast improvement over the theatrical one. It basically cut half of it out and you'd never notice.

 

[JD]

I missed the post-credits scene and didn't find out about it until I saw a comment on an IGN story about movie monsters. I did read about on Wikipedia, and now I'm really wishing I had known to stay.
I have to wonder if Marlow's son might pop up in some of the modern movies. The during the credit scene seemed like a perfect set up for a legacy characters.

 

[captainkirk]

I always try to sit through the credits in movies just in case there's another scene. In this case I'd already heard there was one so I made sure to stay.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I thought it was a pretty decent movie. I liked it more than Peter Jackson's 2005 version, which itself was a rehash of the 1930s film.

I didn't think there was anything particularly epic about this movie, but maybe I've seen so many giant monster films I've gotten so jaded. While critics raved about this movie, the plot wasn't extraordinary: a group of explorers ventures on a mysterious island where a few gigantic creatures live, Kong being the dominant one revered by the natives. Upon arrival, the humans are attacked by the gargantuan ape, and the survivors are scattered throughout different parts of the island. More monsters attack, more people die, chaos ensues.

I liked the reference to Godzilla and look forward to the faceoff movie.

 

[marillion]

Arrgh! I didn't realize there was a post credit scene! Can someone describe it with a spoiler box?

I really enjoyed the movie.. Much more than Peter Jackson's version... I like that Kong was given a real back story.. Not just some random massive gorilla on an island who protects the people... They gave him motivation and character he needed..

My only issue, really, was Goodman's death.. He was the whole reason they were there in the first place.. I would have much preferred him going out with some meaning.. Taking one for the team or something like that... This did everything right, I felt, that Godzilla missed the mark on.. Hopefully that will translate in the next movie(s)...

 

[JD]

Here's Wikipedia's description of the scene:

Spoiler: Kong: Skull Island post credits scene

In a post-credits scene, Conrad and Weaver are detained and interrogated by Monarch and Skull Island expedition survivors Brooks and Lin. They inform them that Kong is not the only monster to roam the world. They are then shown archive footage of cave paintings depicting Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. As the scene closes, Kong's roar is heard with Godzilla's..... hinting an eventual encounter between them. So, for those of you who saw it, does it give us any idea what the Monsterverse versions of Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidora will look like? Or are they more abstract?

EDIT: I just found out the other day through an article about him being cast in Avengers: Infinity War, that Terry Notary, who plays Rocket in the current Planet of the Apes movies, played Kong in Skull Island.

 

[marillion]

Very cool. Thanks! Kicking myself now. D'oh!

 

[Hugo Rune]

Moderately entertaining monster mash, filled with fun fights, 1-D characters, vibrant colour scheme, thin-as-can-be-stretched "plot", endearing John C Reilly and some fair visual panache.

If you're going in looking for Kong-Smash, I'm sure you were served well.

Otherwise, threadbare storytelling and, as much as I love "period" pieces, this could have been set at any time and not dropped a beat. Ahab-slash-I've-only-got-war villain and all.

5/10

Hugo - did enjoy seeing Toby Kebbel's half dissolved head getting upchucked by the monster like an owl Pellet

 

[Beagleman]

Fun, thin plot but monsters fighting in the jungle, solid B. Did anyone else grow tired of the extremely overused insta-slow-mow, "sword!", "grenade", "punch", "chopper". #thanksbullettime

 

[kitik]

Liked the movie, more entertaining than I thought it would be.

Speaking of which, one of the reviews mentioned that it had two Marvel actors in, though I noticed at least four (The two obvious ones, the announced Miss Marvel and Chief Dooley).

Assuming the 4 you're talking about are Hiddleston, SLJ, Brie, and Shea Whigham (who was easily one of my favorite parts of the movie), you're missing the easily forgotten John C Reilly, who was of course in GOTG. And then there was Toby Kebbell (Chapman, the pilot that SLJ wanted to go find, since his helicopter was loaded with explosives). In case you erased it from your memory, Toby played Doom in the most recent FF.

If you include Terry Notary, that would be 7.

And according to imdb, Corey Hawkins, who played the scientist who made it to the end (John Goodman's right hand man), had a bit part in Iron Man 3. Tough to count that though. Corey was good in this movie though, and was also good in Straight Outta Compton, so he may earn a legit Marvel role in the future.

But yeah, this was basically a Marvel movie. John Goodman was pretty much the only notable character that wasn't a Marvel guy.

 

[John Clark]

Liked the movie, more entertaining than I thought it would be.
Assuming the 4 you're talking about are Hiddleston, SLJ, Brie, and Shea Whigham (who was easily one of my favorite parts of the movie), you're missing the easily forgotten John C Reilly, who was of course in GOTG. And then there was Toby Kebbell (Chapman, the pilot that SLJ wanted to go find, since his helicopter was loaded with explosives). In case you erased it from your memory, Toby played Doom in the most recent FF.

If you include Terry Notary, that would be 7.

And according to imdb, Corey Hawkins, who played the scientist who made it to the end (John Goodman's right hand man), had a bit part in Iron Man 3. Tough to count that though. Corey was good in this movie though, and was also good in Straight Outta Compton, so he may earn a legit Marvel role in the future.

But yeah, this was basically a Marvel movie. John Goodman was pretty much the only notable character that wasn't a Marvel guy.

Doh. I had forgotten Reilly in Guardians (though I'm not sure how). The new FF film I've only seen once so yeah, Toby Kebbell was missed. I thought the reason I remembered his name was the Apes series of films.

I hadn't heard about Terry Notary yet (mostly knew his name from the Apes films too). Corey Hawkins was bugging me til about half way through the film until I remembered 24.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I'm quite impressed by this film. It's not just a fun monster movie, but it actually has some heart.

Most of the major characters were well-written who largely behaved for their own sake's instead of the sake of the movie (i.e. doing stupid shit so cool things happen), although traversing into the Kong Family Graveyard was the one glaring exception. I especially enjoyed Shea Whigham's Earl Cole, Brie Larson's Mason Weaver (but I'm biased as a photographer), and John C. Reilly's Hank Marlow, and I loved denouement for Marlow's character.

While I recognize this is a monster movie so some ridiculous stuff are bound to happen (although thankfully nothing as bad as the dinosaur stampede in PJ's version), there were a few over-the-top moments that were a little to ridiculous, particularly Col. Packarad's first stare off with Kong (especially flames flying everywhere and he's just standing there not afraid that Kong could just stomp him) and Conrad's sword fighting during the graveyard battle.

Otherwise, the directing and especially the cinematography was very good. The whole film had a strong photographic sense and made great use of the colors around them (particularly green and orange).

I loved how the film subverted the heroic sacrifice trope when Cole tried to slow down the big Skullcrawler and the Skullcrawler just whacks him away before he can release the grenades' pins.

I also loved how the film took the effort to show Conrad recovering Weaver's camera. That made me very happy to see.

I did however love the post-credits scene which sets up the next movie. I wonder if any of these characters will show up in any of the future movies.

Damn, I missed the post-credits scene, too! Normally, I check ahead of time to see if there's one for a film like this but I simply didn't even think of the possibility.

The biggest one being the death of John Goodman's character. It just felt so random and more like a joke than the death of the character that gets the whole plot going. I suppose it did kind of make it feel like any character could die, but to me it was too much like the death of Bryan Cranston's character in Godzilla 2014.

My only issue, really, was Goodman's death.. He was the whole reason they were there in the first place.. I would have much preferred him going out with some meaning.. Taking one for the team or something like that... This did everything right, I felt, that Godzilla missed the mark on.. Hopefully that will translate in the next movie(s)...

I was bugged by his sudden death, too (although I was amused by the case of his death), but I think his death works better than Cranston's. At least Goodman had plenty to do, whereas Cranston was well utilized for the first third and was abruptly killed off. I think that really hurt Godzilla because I didn't really care about any of the other characters (except Ken Watanabe's).

 

[captainkirk]

I also loved how the film took the effort to show Conrad recovering Weaver's camera. That made me very happy to see.

As a collector of vintage cameras that part also made me happy.

I was bugged by his sudden death, too (although I was amused by the case of his death), but I think his death works better than Cranston's. At least Goodman had plenty to do, whereas Cranston was well utilized for the first third and was abruptly killed off. I think that really hurt Godzilla because I didn't really care about any of the other characters (except Ken Watanabe's).

There's an earlier draft of the Godzilla script floating around the web which I actually preferred to the final draft. The main differences were that Cranston survived, and the main guy didn't have a wife but had a sister instead.
If this pattern continues I'm betting that Kyle Chandler's character is going to die in the next Godzilla movie.

 

[Greg Cox]

I missed the post-credits scene and didn't find out about it until I saw a comment on an IGN story about movie monsters. I did read about on Wikipedia, and now I'm really wishing I had known to stay.
I have to wonder if Marlow's son might pop up in some of the modern movies. The during the credit scene seemed like a perfect set up for a legacy characters.

Believe it or not, I was literally the ONLY person in the theater who sat through the closing credits to see the final scene. I sitting by myself in a empty theater by the time the coda run.

Anyway, finally saw the movie today and loved it. I'm so glad I made the effort to see it on a big screen. It looked gorgeous, the human characters all had their own quirks, and the monster-on-monster fights were worthy of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. All in all, it was more fun than a barrel of giant monkeys.

I'd be tempted to see it again, actually, if it didn't mean a forty-minute drive to another state . . .

 

[John Clark]

Believe it or not, I was literally the ONLY person in the theater who sat through the closing credits to see the final scene. I sitting by myself in a empty theater by the time the coda run.

Anyway, finally saw the movie today and loved it. I'm so glad I made the effort to see it on a big screen. It looked gorgeous, the human characters all had their own quirks, and the monster-on-monster fights were worthy of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. All in all, it was more fun than a barrel of giant monkeys.

I'd be tempted to see it again, actually, if it didn't mean a forty-minute drive to another state . . .

I think everyone stayed in our screening. Normally at least half or more have filed out long before (even when coda scenes are a given)

 

[Jedi Marso]

I watched a fan-edited version of Peter Jackson's Kong that was a vast improvement over the theatrical one. It basically cut half of it out and you'd never notice.

Fan edited versions of The Hobbit achieve a similar winning effect.

 

[captainkirk]

Believe it or not, I was literally the ONLY person in the theater who sat through the closing credits to see the final scene. I sitting by myself in a empty theater by the time the coda run.

Same for me. They'd already turned the lights back on and brought the cleaners in before the credits had finished.