So, for my first official movie review
on my blog I am choosing to do a new film. Kong: Skull Island the
second installment of what is now being referred to as the
‘Monsterverse’ (The first being the 2014 Godzilla). I will keep
this as spoiler free as possible. This is (at least) the third
remake of the original 1933 cinematic marvel that was King Kong, and
this time, the story is completely different. This also happens to
be my favorite remake of the character. The original will always
hold a special place in my heart as well as in cinematic history, but
this version is truly trying to be its own thing. There are a few
references to the original in the film, but they are relatively few
and far between with a story focused on its own narrative and style
instead of trying to recapture the original. It is fun, face paced,
and entertaining.
The basic story is that a group of
scientists, led by Bill Randa (John Goodman) discover an island
hidden from the world by a perpetual storm system. A rare window
appears allowing them to be able to get to the island under the
pretext of geological study with the true intention of searching for
what they refer to as ‘M.U.T.O.s (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial
Organisms). They are taken under military escort led by Preston
Packard (Sam Jackson), a bitter, angry man that leads a group of
extremely likable soldiers. Along with them is a war photographer
played by Brie Larson and an ex-British Special Forces soldier, James
Conrad (Tom Hiddleston). Very quickly all hell breaks loose and the
movie picks up the pace with some incredible action scenes while
still having some time for character development and storytelling.
Along the way they meet a marooned WWII Pilot played by John C.
Reilly.
I don’t want to give too much away,
and since this is my first review I am going to err on the side of
caution, but basically, a group of nasty monsters called Skull
Crawlers (named by Reilly cause he thought it sounded cool) show up
and the Kaiju battles begin. And through it all, the humans are
trying to reach their extraction point in order to be able to escape
the island, as the storm will soon be back up to full strength and be
impenetrable.
All in all, this is a really fun, and
quite good movie. King looks great, and his new design (not a
surprise cause it’s in most of the advertisements) lends itself
well to some very fast and brutal action scenes that are a lot of fun
to watch. For those who don’t know, I am a big fan of Kaiju films,
and this is one of the best I have seen in a long time. It may be
one of the best ever made by the U.S. The acting is solid, the
action is great, and Kong looks fantastic. I highly recommend it.
Here is the link to the IMDB page for
the film in case you want to look up more about it:
Well, there is it, my first review.
Let me know what you guys thought of the movie. Also, let me know
what you thought of the review, and maybe some ideas on how I can
make future ones better.
