Welcome back stinkers! Dear Billy, today I continue my Monster-Verse review series, with Kong: Skull Island. On my way to reviewing the recent Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. Make sure you go check out my previous review of Godzilla (2014).
Non-Spoiler Review
So, I really did end up enjoying this movie. I liked how in some ways they borrowed a bit from the Godzilla movie beforehand, but this movie also had its own vision and either did its own thing, or it improved upon some issues that Godzilla has. Like we did get a lot more Kong in here, and I enjoyed the action we got in here, and I don’t think that the final fight was rushed either. Something you’ll also see more from Kong than you would see from Godzilla is that he shows more emotion, and I’m well aware of the rules Legendary has to follow about Godzilla, and the fact that Kong is more of the main character in the Monster-Verse. But I only didn’t have time to connect with the humans, I had time to connect with Kong. So, in a lot of ways this movie was able to one up Godzilla. Mostly just between the action and the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I still really liked that Godzilla movie, I just think it had a lot of potential and it kind of missed out a bit on that. This is also a movie with a stacked cast of actors and actresses. I’ll always love John Goodman no matter what he’s in. His human character probably ended up being my favorite, it feels like his character of BIll had a lot of depth to him. I also had fun watching Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson in here, I thought their chemistry was on point. Another stand out in here is Samuel L. Jackson, his character I think we could’ve explored just a little bit, kind of understand a little bit more of where he’s coming from, or why he does the stuff he does. One last thing I wanted to talk about in my overall thoughts is how the movie reminded me a lot about Jurassic Park. You have a big crew of soldiers, scientists, and reporters, and they get picked out one by one as they try to escape the island. Some stuff that happens in here does feel a little cliche, but I ended up really liking everything that has happened by the end of the movie.
Kong Action
With my general thoughts out of the way, I would now like to further elaborate on those thoughts, I’m going to talk about the movie more in depth, so I will be walking into spoiler territory, you have been warned. So, the first thing I would like to talk about is the action. Specifically how it was able to one up Godzilla (2014). I mean we got Kong right at the start! It took so long for us to get an actual shot of Godzilla. You also get a bit of a sense of emotion whenever Kong fights those Skull Crawlers. What I mean by that is, Kong is fighting them out of the goodness of his heart, so he could protect the people of the island, and protect the group of researchers that he liked. Now comparing it to Godzilla, Godzilla is partially doing it to protect the people of earth. But from what I took away from most of the movie, he was just fighting the Mutos for the sake of fighting the Mutos. Now by the end of the movie, he is the protector of the surface. Kong was the protector of the island for years and years. And he’s formed more of a personal bond with the tribe people by protecting them from the Skull Crawlers. Now let’s fast forward to the end. THe people that are left are about to leave the island, but the big one is awakened. And the last impression that Kong has on the humans, is defeating the big on, by ripping out its tongue. Now, it is a bit like the Godzilla finale. I had to think about it for a bit, but how easily solved the fight was, kind of proved how Godzilla is growing. Now coming back to Kong, he quickly solves it by ripping out the tongue. Now, he might not have grown as much as a person like Godzilla did, but it does prove something else. It proves that Kong isn’t just a monster. He proves that he has always had a human side to him. The two might have proven different things, but by the end, they got the trust of all the humans.
The Humans
Speaking of humans. I think this movie has the best cast of characters out of the whole Monster-Verse. You start with John Goodman and Houston Brooks trying to get permission to go to the island, and throughout the film you really see how much going to the island meant for Goodman’s character. You also had a bit of a feud with the scientist type characters, with Goodman, Hiddleston, and Larson. And they were basically against Samuel L. Jackson’s character and the rest of the army crew. Like I said, it reminded me a lot of the original Jurassic Park. You had each member get picked off one by one. And they honestly died in some of the most unique ways possible. But sometimes I found some moments a bit cliche. You had the guy that brought the whole crew together whether he had to trick them or not. You had the guy that didn’t want to be there, but he’s the one that ends up dying. There was the cool guy that people looked to on what to do. As well as the curious girl who has some chemistry with the cool guy. Then you just have the crazy comedic relief guy. I have got to say, I did not expect John C. Riley to show up here. He gave me quite the laugh, and truly brought even more of a good time to the movie. He might’ve been a comedic relief, but he installed a lot of emotion in the movie. I found myself cheering this guy on. Riley’s character, Hank, has been trapped on the island for twenty-nine years, and it is up in the air on whether he’ll see his wife and son or not. He delivered his dialogue in a funny way, for something that’s so sad and serious. This is another one of the cliche things this movie has, where he’ll think something’s still around, but the rest of the cast don’t know what he’s talking about, or say that thing is gone. But, once you ignore all of the cliche things that happen in the movie, it was super enjoyable, and even more of a re-watchable film. Hank was such a relatable character and gave me more of a connection to the movie.
Kong and Human Characters
So now that we’ve talked about Kong, and we’ve talked about the humans. Now we’re going to talk about Kong and the humans. Kong had the same amount of emotion, and actual character to him. He bult relations with Captain James, and Mason Weaver. They were able get me cheering for these characters and booing for the military squad. That’s how great some of these dynamics were. I do have to say that finale did feel a bit rushed, but again, the emotion with Kong and these characters almost made up for it.
Monster-Verse Connection
Now although it isn’t all that direct, this is a prequel to the 2014 Godzilla movie. I really enjoyed how they were able to connect this to the overall universe but told years and years in the past. Godzilla (2014) flows right into Kong, then the post credit scene in here flows into King of the Monsters, and so on. I think most people could agree that the Monster-Verse is the most successful universe behind Marvel. This is a sort of connected universe that is a bit different, and fresh. So, I really hope they don’t lose any of that charm, because it has been said that they’re starting to cook up some spinoffs. What I appreciated about the Monster-Verse, especially Skull Island, is that you can watch any of these without any research, you can view them as one offs. But, then at the same time you can watch them all together, as one continuous story.
Skull Island
So of course, Skull Island was the reason why Bill Randa got into this in the first place. Skull Island was somehow able to further move mythology, and even character development. It’s just something about it. Of course, it was able to drive Bill Randa, which has to be my favorite character in here. Again, I love John Goodman! You know, he was pushing and pushing to get a crew to go to the island, just for him to be to be eaten by a Skull Crawler. That pain just sat there, as the monster was rampaging, and his camera just kept going off. I’m now very curious about those photos now. Anyways, this island had a sense of intrigue, and mystery, to where it was able to hook me in. I was hooked on the characters, and everything alike.
Monarch
Monarch is starting to get off the ground, we’re in the 70s, and we follow the two founders, BIll Randa, and Houston Brooks. I already mentioned how I loved John Goodman’s performance here, I just love this dude’s character. That’s when we get a bit of that conflict where at the beginning you see where he’s coming from, I found myself cheering for this dude. But, when we got to the island, and Kong obliterated those helicopters, I was like, awe man. This guy isn’t that good. That’s where you can say he did the wrong things for the right reasons. Those are some of the characters that I find most interesting. Cause you almost want to feel bad for them. When it’s revealed that he tricked them into coming on the island, I thought that he might’ve turned out to be the bad guy. But then as you go through, you start to realize, no… Samuel L. Jackson is the villain. Bill Randa also helps very much, connecting the universe. Monarch is something that has appeared in every Monster-Verse project. From the introduction at the beginning of the film, to the post credit scene.
Kong: Skull Island Post Credit Scene
So, the post credit scene. I thought it was pretty great, but it left one little thing that made me confused. Tom Hiddleston’s James Conrad, and Brie Larson’s Mason Weaver are brought into this investigation room. That’s where they show them pictures of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidora, teasing the next movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters. That’s the cool part. The part that is confusing to me, is a behind the scenes kind of thing. You have a star-studded cast, with characters that I think a lot of people really liked. At least I really liked them. The problem that I have is, why stop here? They’ve really made it seem like that they aren’t going to go on with these characters. I mean who knows? In Godzilla you introduced Dr. Ishiro (Ken Watanabe), and you brought him into Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In King of the Monsters you introduce Maddison (Milly Bobby Brown) and her dad, and you bring her into Godzilla V.S. Kong. In Godzilla V.S. Kong introduces Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry), Dr. Ilene (Rebeca Hall) and her daughter, and Dr. Nathan (Alexander Skarsgård), and you bring them into the most recent Godzilla X Kong. Where is Tom Hiddleston, where is Brie Larson? So, if you follow that pattern, then I would only hope that you make a Kong sequel, bringing those characters back, for at least one more time. Don’t set it in the present day, but maybe bring them back, and we can follow them collecting the shambles of Monarch, now that its creator is dead (Bill Randa). I know I might be rambling off the Kong path a little bit, but if you want to do this right, this is what I think you have to do to finish the Monster-Verse out well. I always say that if you are able to finish out with a trilogy, then you have certainly done something right. After the success of Godzilla X Kong, I’m not surprised if they want to hop into another Godzilla and Kong crossover. But, don’t get ahead of yourself. I think they should take a break from cross over movies, and go back to the individual films. There hasn’t even been anything that I didn’t like in here. I just about love all of the movies we’ve gotten so far. Do one more Godzilla movie to finish out that trilogy. Then bring two more Kong movies to finish out that trilogy. I would love to follow back up with these characters! The story is practically there, and I think it would be great to bring back these characters. We already got some descendants from these guys, at this point they’re just old. So whether or not you tell the story back then, or present day, I think it would be amazing. And then I think as an ultimate finale you could do a big crossover film. Of course there’s already going to be more spin offs, and you could put those in between the movies.
Kong: Skull Island Review Recap
So, kind of recapping my thoughts on this review, I thought this was a lot of fun. It was a movie full of sauce, and beautiful harry cheeks to look at. In some ways this movie felt unique, and new. But in some ways, it felt bland, and cliche. It was so easy for me to compare it to Jurassic Park. I love this movie, for the characters. The characters we grow with, and whenever they died, it just really sat with me.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read my review of Kong: Skull Island. Again, make sure you check out my review on the previous Godzilla (2014), and The Big Stinker Blog for more coverage on movies, TV, gaming, and everything alike. So, until next time stinkers! Bye bye.