LTTP: Kong: Skull Island - “Is that a monkey?”

[SolidChamp]

Why yes. Yes it is.

This is one of the best "pure popcorn" movies I've seen in some time. In terms of scale and spectacle, nonstop excitement, sporting a robust cast of likable characters, with subtle themes that work exceedingly well in service of the plot...this movie has it all. It's humorous in all the right spots, and yet not overbearing and always adding to the flavor of the film ("Is that a monkey?" is one of my favorite lines; it's so fucking perfectly timed and delivered).

I seriously regret not seeing this in a theatre on the biggest screen possible. Talk about a missed opportunity for a truly great cinematic experience.

Kong is one of the few ensemble films that actually feels like it successfully gives its diverse cast of characters substance. I felt like I knew who each and every one of those characters was, and I cared about nearly all of them (poor Jing Tian though, being relegated to "token Chinese girl" because of that Chinese production money). There was ample build up and tension, every major set piece was awesome and well-crafted, and there were some jaw-dropping shots to boot; the cinematographer here was putting in some serious work. The homages to a wide variety of Vietnam war films (basically, Apocalypse Now) were actually quite brilliant. The movie has something to say without hitting you over the head with it.

John C. Reilly...just, yes. What inspired casting. And what a fantastic way to layer in some humor while having it work in tune with everything that's happening. How many big popcorn blockbusters do we get that are overstuffed with shitty, distracting "humor"? I laughed when I felt like the story was giving me a good moment to laugh, in a way that made me appreciate the story and character beats even more.

I know I'm just gushing here but this just hit Netflix here in Taiwan and I recommended it to my friend who had a bad taste in his mouth after seeing Godzilla II last week and even he said it was like night and day in comparing the quality of these two monster movies. I fucking love this movie.

Kong is King

 

[Jintor]

ook

for real i've been thinking about catching this after godzilla 2 (even though I really liked godzilla 2)

 

[Surface of Me]

I feel pretty much the exact opposite. Poor pacing, poor editing, poor writing, and I didn't give a shit about the dozen+ people the movie expected me to, somehow. I could literally go on and on, but I won't. Well, one more thing, really cool how the final fight was just a boss fight from God of War. Oh wait, nah.

Both new Godzilla movies are vastly superior to Skull Island.

 

[BDS]

It's an...ok movie. Some of the shots are really good, but the general plot and character arcs are sort of aimless. Cutting out the traditional "Kong goes back to America" and "Kong-and-lady" subplots mean that the film is left without any real direction or story beyond "We went to an island and now we have to turn around and leave." The characters are mostly one-dimensional and the plot basically descends into rooting for secondary character John C. Reilly to get home, I guess, because there's not really anything else to latch on to. The movie is basically just set dressing for Godzilla vs. Kong because they can't really do anything interesting with the Kong character and the period setting prevents them from reusing or doing anything with the human characters.

 

[shaneo632]

I thought this was film was aggressively mediocre and the critics were very generous with it.

Above all else I really hated the CGI and general aesthetic. Most of the VFX had this hideous blur to them, especially the helicopter sequence. So many good actors wasted. Hiddleston and Larson's characters were pure cardboard.

John C. Reilly was great though.

 

[WestEgg]

I actually adored this movie and thought it was a ton of fun.

 

[Gundam]

The characters are meh. Brie and Tom are the worst of the entire cast, but are somehow the main characters.

But the Kaiju Action is the best of the current MonsterVerse. I love Skull Island itself, it's so hostile and varied. The log bug, spider, octopus, and skull crawlers are all seriously cool.

 

[take_marsh]

I liked the movie too. Pretty fun adventure. Definitely could've been better, but I enjoyed it.

 

[Zodzilla]

Skull Island provided the scale and spectacle that I wanted from Jurassic World. Yes, it's a dumb silly movie and doesn't provide the substance to make it a classic.

But damn if that Kong reveal isn't nuts to see and hear.

The only thing that I really didn't enjoy was that bizarro ending with John C Reilly. Completely out of place.

 

[LakeEarth]

The characters are meh. Brie and Tom are the worst of the entire cast, but are somehow the main characters.

But the Kaiju Action is the best of the current MonsterVerse. I love Skull Island itself, it's so hostile and varied. The log bug, spider, octopus, and skull crawlers are all seriously cool.

Click to shrink...

Yeah the monster design is super solid, my favorite aspect of the movie.

 

[HeartlessNobody2134]

After watching all 3 monsterverse movies in one day, I think that Skull Island is the best one out of all 3.

Good visually and everything is clear. On the human aspect it's not close compared to Godzilla 2014 and KOTM.

 

[SeanBoocock]

Kong: Skull Island is an underappreciated gem of a "dumb" action movie. I went into it very skeptical but within five minutes was completely on board and grinning for the rest for the film.

 

[Hellwarden]

I think my biggest issue with the movie is the Skullcrawlers just aren't that interesting of an opponent for Kong. Even the big one doesn't really put up a good fight against Kong.

To compare, I feel like the two Muto from Godzilla 2014 were more threatening and interesting.

 

[Deleted member 4260]

It's ok. I like it more than the recent Godzilla movie at least.

 

[Window]

I thought this was film was aggressively mediocre and the critics were very generous with it.

Above all else I really hated the CGI and general aesthetic. Most of the VFX had this hideous blur to them, especially the helicopter sequence. So many good actors wasted. Hiddleston and Larson's characters were pure cardboard.

John C. Reilly was great though.

Click to shrink...

Agreed.

I didn't like this at all.

 

[StallionDan]

I enjoyed it.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

To me it's one of those movies I don't think was very good, and I certainly didn't care for the Characters or story all that much. However it was big (emphasis on BIG) dumb fun I find highly rewatchable and have a few times already.

 

[stillwrapped]

Really bad movie.
Cool cgi and 3d

 

[Deleted member 57378]

i honestly enjoyed it for the most part. its not spectacular in any way. the end with John Riley is my only complaint, it felt like it was an afterthought or rushed for some reason.

 

[Kapryov]

literally the only thing I know about this movie is that it has cool looking toys

I have no idea what that is but I want it

 

[sn00zer]

There is something so unfiltered about the art design in this movie. Feels like concept art leaping off the pages.

 

[ZackieChan]

I enjoyed it. Super dumb, but the characters are mostly fun and the atmosphere is great. I think I'll rewatch it today!

 

[Dark Ninja]

I really liked this movie it was entertaining. I was so happy to see alot of the monsters in the day time. Also glad there were more than just Kong and a villain monster. I really liked the Bamboo Spider thing scene. Im glad it didn't retell the same King Kong story can we move on.

 

[Lunchbox-]

"bitch please"

fav line of that year

 

[Van Bur3n]

He is actually an ape.

 

[DonMigs85]

Great movie and it was nice seeing Loki, Carol and Fury in it

 

[VaporSnake]

I wish Godzilla 2 was as fun as Skull Island, I feel like it did the fun "don't take this too seriously" campy romp far better. I thought it was a fantastic movie, and great for the numerous video game references, the best of which being the gray fox name drop.

There's even a shot in there that's meant to emulate the camera angle from the opening hangar scene in Metal Gear solid towards the beginning of the movie.

 

[Khanimus]

It's very stupid. I enjoyed it.

 

[Netherscourge]

EDIT - Tom Hiddleston

 

[RyougaSaotome]

Loved it. In terms of Hollwood kaiju flicks (Pacific Rim is a little different for me), I think it's leaps and bounds better than both Godzilla films, as much as it pains me to say.

It understands what it is and leans into it, the action is visible and looks great, and it has a really fabulous overall aesthetic to it. If Godzilla 2014 was trying to be closer to 54 or Return of Godzilla, and KotM was more like a Heisei era Godzilla film, Skull Island felt like a good Showa flick ala War of the Gargantuas and the like.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Probably my favorite of the monsterverse so far and I've seen them all

 

[SolidChamp]

Seeing all the love in this thread makes me glad it's not just me.

 

[kurahador]

Yeah...it's alot of fun and still the best in the Monsterverse. I remember ppl complaining about it being too MCU upon release.

 

[CloseTalker]

It's miles ahead of both recent Godzilla movies, that's for sure.

 

[CloudWolf]

I must say, the choice to frame a Vietnam war movie like a zany, colourful action film was an interesting one and the scene where Kong attacks those helicopters was actually pretty neat. But that was about it for me, honestly, I found it a completely vapid and empty movie that has zero interesting characters, a weak plot and no real reason for me to care about anything happening in it.

Honestly, it felt like a video game movie. Lots of neat setpieces for our heroes to do action-y stuff, but almost no narrative thread holding it all together. Tom Hiddleston mowing down dino-monsters with a katana is one of the more hilariously silly things I've seen in a movie. I have no doubt it's better than King of the Monsters which seems aggressively bad if I read the reviews and hear the WoM, but it's also nowhere near as good as Godzilla 2014.

EDIT: Also, it kinda annoyed me how obvious the movie is with its references. I get it, writers, you like Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness, but did you really have to literally call two of your characters Marlow and Conrad?

 

[Sgt. Demblant]

I enjoyed it a lot. A good example of a modern high budget b-movie that did not take itself seriously but was still well-crafted.

 

[Disco]

You cant get blander characters than Hiddleston and Larson in here, such freaking dull performances

Jackson and Jon C Reilly tried their best to carry the slack tho. Pretty mediocre movie, even the Godzilla '14 movie was better, because despite the disappointing lack of monster scenes it had a grander sense of scale

I liked the Peter Jackson movie far more as well

 

[Barn]

As a popcorn flick and giant monster movie, I thought it was super straightforward and really satisfying. None of the self-reverent pomp that these types of movies sometimes fall victim to -- just Saturday matinee entertainment that moves at a clip (fitting, as the original King Kong is what I would call the first popcorn movie; it was incredibly fast-paced for its time), and some glorious subversion of little tropes to keep things interesting, like

Spoiler: Skull Island spoilers

the one soldier's cliched self-sacrifice moment just getting straight nope'd by Kong

Disagree on the characters, though. It was kind of amazing how such a solid cast was so bland (how do you waste John Goodman like that?). The leads were absolute white bread and aside from the conclusion of Jackson's arc, John C. Reilly was the only notable character in the bunch, I felt. Still, I definitely look forward to how this director handles Godzilla vs. Kong.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Tom Hiddlestons character really had nothing to do the whole movie except "being that Indiana Jonesy guy" that these kind of movies need, it seems.

I liked the movie for the spectacle, but it felt very very hollow, story and pacing wise.

 

[Dan Thunder]

I tried to like it, I really did, but I just found it just bland on every level.

I think Tom Hiddleston can be a great actor but he just seemed miscast in this film. However, no-one in the film really stood out apart from John C Reilly who seemed to get the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

 

[Osahi]

Eh, it was a cool movie to watch on the plane (especially as I was flying back from Vietnam, where I unknowingly visited one of the locations), and I liked the idea of turning it onto a Vietnam War era spectacle. But it's all style over substance, and it had a very 'videogame cutscene' like direction in places, where the need for a cool shot or move outweighed the need for meaningful storytelling.

And today I can't remember much about the whole thing. It was so empty, it was quickly forgotten.

 

[SilentSoldier]

I watched it expecting a scene as raw as the ravine scene in the Peter Jackson version. Was disappointed. Still unconvinced on how theyre going to do Kong vs Godzilla.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

Way more enjoyable than KOTM. Over the top and it knows it.

 

[astro]

Tried watching it a few times, I get about half way through at most.

Found it really boring and the characters not engaging at all despite the great cast.

 

[DeltaRed]

The Godzilla movies could benefit from being a bit cheesy and fun like Kong. I'm looking forward to him changing the fight scenes up and adding a bit of humour to GvK.

 

[Box]

Amazing film. Naomi Watts is glorious.