One of the most anticipated movies of 2017 was Kong:Skull Island which stars Tom Hiddleston(Who’s breaking the Loki chain), Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly and of course Kong himself.
The movie begins in 1944 during World War II where an young american pilot and young japanese pilot crash land on Skull Island and are having a two person war trying to kill the other when Kong appears, which makes both men stop what they are doing and realize how small they truly are in the grand scheme of things.
Fastforward 29 years to 1973, the vietnam war is ending, but protests are at an all time high, we are introduced to scientist Bill Randa(Goodman) and Houston Brooks(Corey Hawkins) who are in Washington D.C. convincing Senator Willis(Richard Jenkins) to go too an uncharted island for research purposes, and to do so before the Russians or anybody else discovers this Island.
Since the war is over and the U.S. Military forces are leaving and going home, we meet a group of soldiers led by Col. Preston Packard(Jackson) who are mere moments before flying home and assigned the mission of escorting the scientist to the Island.
Randa wants to add an expert tracker to lead the mission which he finds James Conrad(Hiddleston) who signs up for more than he was expecting, also at the same time photojournalist Mason Weaver(Larson) gives herself added to the mission to document whatever might be out there.
Skull Island is a very good movie for multiple reasons, It never takes itself to seriously or to lightly either it does a great job of blending the two, sometimes all at the same time.
All of the characters are interesting for our big names of course but I felt myself drawn to more of the supporting roles mainly standouts Mills(Jason Mitchell) who brings humor and enough seriousness to the role that doesnt make it seem over the top.
And Cole(Shea Wingham) who just might be the coolest character in an of these monster type movies, through out the course of the movie he seems to be the only one who truly gets how the world is and has accepted it and his place in it.
John C. Reilly does a fantastic job as stranded pilot from the opening who has been on the island all those years and gives the new arrivals some knowledge about the Island and Kong, another character that could’ve possibly been mishandled if another actor played the role, but Reilly makes it work and we are given a very touching close to his story in the end.
The action is very well planned and timed throughout the movie, this is a monster movie of course so we have to see enough of the creature action here(looking at you Godzilla 2014).
Now let’s talk about the main man himself, Kong, he looks great here and his is larger than life in more ways than one but he has to be for what’s to come next for him but before you get there let’s focus on him and his Island, which is filled with a lot of creatures that are shown through out the movie some good and some not so good, Kong takes care of the bad ones all the while protecting the good ones.
I liked that Kong is more of a rounded character here oppose to what we have seen of him in past films, but there are a few nods and homages to the previous films for King Kong fans you should notice the nods right away.
At almost 2 hours the movie moves rather fast which is a good thing and everything in the movie is important and there aren’t any dull moments, I enjoyed the soundtrack an lot as well as this is also a vietnam war movie so the music fit with the times that this movie is set in as well the biggest homage that Kong Skull Island pays tribute to is Apocalypse Now, which I enjoyed a lot and this movie really does drive into the Heart of Darkness.
So all in all if you are a fan of these movies or arent really I highly recommend checking this one out on the big screen, and also there is a scene after the credits which just let’s you know what exactly is next for Kong.
