Kong: Skull Island

Stoo

Well-known member
curmedgeon said:
Hrm. The comedy stuff with John C. Reilly is falling a little flat for me, but his character strikes me as an homage to Nestor Paiva's character from the Black Lagoon movies, which is something I do appreciate.
Wow! Someone else knows who Nestor Paiva is? Hats off, Curmudgeon. :hat: (Agreed, that 'comedy' bit is groan-inducing.:sick:)
Attila the Professor said:
Not Dennis Hopper's character from <I>Apocalypse Now</I>?
There's definitely some "Apocalypse Now" imagery going on.

Le Sabo said:
Final trailer for what may be the movie of the summer.
Y'know, I'm probably the biggest Kong fan at The Raven (yes, BIGGER than kongisking*) but this new trailer has lowered my expectations, drastically. It will be fun but, yeesh, this trailer indicates a rootin'-tootin' & shootin' pile of sh*t (which I'll eventually buy because I'm a Kong collector).

The 8th Wonder of the World will probably save the day and become a friend at the end.

A cool thing, though, is that the makers have mined the obscure parts of the '33 original for some of the creatures. Those 2-legged-snake things ("skull crawlers" in the trailer) are obviously based on the one that Driscoll cuts off the cliffside...and the spider is undoubtedly an homage to the deleted, bottom-of-the-chasm scene.

* Where is he, anyway?:confused:

Kong2017_Creatures_small_zpsaxqzs91o.jpg
 

Stoo

Well-known member
It?s Dyno-mite!

Just saw it tonight and must say, I was EXTREMELY impressed! It has loads of spectacular sequences, filled with fantastic action, adventure & violence and is miles above what I had expected. Of the 8 (live action) Kong movies made so far, this one might rank as my top 3rd.

Story: Typical stranded-on-island-with-monsters flick.(y)

Photography: This film looks freaking fantastic. The composition of the shots, the juicy colours and immersive 3-D were first rate. It?s gorgeous all around. Do yourselves a favour and see it in 3D rather than a regular print.

Production: Superb set design and costumes. Not only do the island and its natives look good but also the civilized world. This is one of the few modern movies that manages to recreate the ?70s really well, right down to the props and clothes/hairstyles of background extras. (My only quibble here is some computer graphics that, while primitive-looking by today?s standards, are a little too sophisticated for 1973.)

Effects: Exceptional realism. The splashing water & flying dust are quite simply the best CG particle animation that I?ve seen to date, especially the water, which really gives a sense of scale for how big the creatures are. ILM did the bulk but there seem to be about 8 or 9 FX houses that worked on this. Nice to see John Dykstra?s name in the credits!

Soundtrack: Very generous use of early ?70s rock music. Never thought I?d hear The Stooges (!), Black Sabbath and Bowie in a Kong movie but they work nicely.

Kong: His head is somewhat similar to the ?33 Kong (the miniature model, not the full-scale head) but his body is more like the ?62 Kong who fought Godzilla; super tall and walking upright. He is ENORMOUS and too big, in my opinion, but no doubt this is because he?ll be fighting Godzilla again in the upcoming remake.

There are only a couple of nods to earlier Kong movies but one that I particularly liked was a scene onboard ship which was reminiscent of the ?76 version. Other scenes appear to have been homages to ?Hell in the Pacific? (1968) and ?Valley of Gwangi? (1969).

The climax was exactly as I predicted but the closing scene, just before the end credits, put a little tear in my eye.

NOTE: Stay until after the end credits because there?s a teaser for the next movie!

Now I just can?t wait to see it in English next month in Canada with my friends. :)
 

roundshort

Active member
As a hater of CGI - your review Stoo is going to make me see this in the theater. With or without the wife. I am actually looking forward to this. THank you for the great write up
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Stoo said:
Y'know, I'm probably the biggest Kong fan at The Raven (yes, BIGGER than kongisking*) but this new trailer has lowered my expectations, drastically. It will be fun but, yeesh, this trailer indicates a rootin'-tootin' & shootin' pile of sh*t (which I'll eventually buy because I'm a Kong collector).

Stoo said:
Just saw it tonight and must say, I was EXTREMELY impressed! It has loads of spectacular sequences, filled with fantastic action, adventure & violence and is miles above what I had expected. Of the 8 (live action) Kong movies made so far, this one might rank as my top 3rd.

HowK5AK.gif


I stopped reading after the first paragraph, but I thought I would point this out. I'll be back after I see it this weekend.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
I liked this a lot. A straight ahead monster movie that makes little time for BS and focuses on serving up its large cast to gnarly creatures. This had a very Joe Johnston vibe to it. It's better and more bloodthirsty than JP3, but that's a pretty good reference point for the kind of movie this is.
 

Dr.Sartorius

New member
Udvarnoky said:
I liked this a lot. A straight ahead monster movie that makes little time for BS and focuses on serving up its large cast to gnarly creatures. This had a very Joe Johnston vibe to it. It's better and more bloodthirsty than JP3, but that's a pretty good reference point for the kind of movie this is.

Better than JP3 isn't really setting the benchmark too high.
 

AndyLGR

Active member
For as long as I can remember I've loved the original King movie and the 1950's and 1960s hidden prehistoric world movies. The idea of an isolated island or valley or inner earth inhabited by prehistoric animals, giant apes and scary tribes was genius to me. Yet now I watch these modern monster movies and find them to be hollow. I went to see his with mrs and I heard her afterward telling a friend it's just like Jurassic world, but with a monkey and in a way she's right.

One of my pet hates with monster movies like this is that usually they focus on the action and big effects and forget about characters and story. Because let's face it the lead isn't human and they need everything around that to be engaging otherwise it's boring. Something like the original Kong or Jaws are exceptions off the top of my head. In that regard the characters aren't particularly memorable. Does that matter? Maybe not and maybe I've got grumpier in old age because I could sit down now and watch Journey to the Centre of the Earth or At the Earths Core and not bat an eyelid at their chracterisation. Exceptions were Samuel L Jackson and John C Reilly (who I really enjoyed). Tom Hiddlestone and Brie Larson look fantastic but there's not much meat in their roles, they're just there. Which is a pity because this could have been Tom Hidlestones break out role as an action star. In a similar way that Chris Pratts career is potentially going. Maybe it will be for him but here he doesn't seem to have the chance to display any charisma. The rest of the characters are your stereotypical war movie band of brothers, there to be eaten or killed in any way possible. Alongside them are the deceptive scientists, and thery're on the island for an alternate reason than the official geological survey they claim. Much like JP3 in that regard. Speaking of which theres a characters death that leads to them being able to see when a monster is coming, just like the mobile phone in JP3.

To me it was an odd mix of Vietnam war movie and Jurassic Park. Some of the shots they used were a bit jarring at times, like a sudden slow mo section in the middle of an action scene that seems to be used too often throughout. Or a hazy shot of their approach to Kong, which again was used more than once. Also throw in the inclusion of early 70s rock tracks and I thought it was trying too hard to be cool. Overall the genres and the styles of shot composition they used didn't quite mesh or got a bit repetitive for me, and the Vietnam war movie traits used a lot of their cliches, such as SLJ playing the Colonel going mad and obsessed with bringing down Kong and the relationships between the soldiers too.

I really liked the design of the monsters (in particular the Bison type beasts, the giant spider and of course Kong, but not much the skull crawlers which I thought were like something out of Temple Run.

The islands imnhabitants looked fantastic too and I also liked the switch in roles for them to be protected by Kong as opposed to being savages who offer up sacrifices to him.

Also the Skull Island setting looked amazing at times, not sure where this was filmed, but it looked really good. A really cool looking world.

The effects were great as usual. Although there looked to be a couple of dodgy green screen backgrounds when they were enveloped by fire and gas in 2 pivotal action parts of the movie. But apart from that they were excellent. As mentioned elsewhere (by Stoo I think) you get a real sense of scale with some of the effects.

I've criticised it a lot, but overall it was a very easy way to pass 2 hours, but thinking about it afterwards and it all seems a bit vacant. I don't think it would stand up to repeated viewings if it was in my blu ray collection.
 
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AttyOzzy

New member
Jackson's character and Kong

What was up with the close ups, and back and forth camera cuts from SLJackson's cahracter and Kong?

Was there supposed to be a subtle message I didn't get? Was SLJackson extra pissed at Kong for reasons not explained on screen? His character just seemed extra angry.

It seemed like the film tried very hard to give them some common element - without doing so.

Did I miss something? Happy to hear your thoughts.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
AttyOzzy said:
Was there supposed to be a subtle message I didn't get? Was SLJackson extra pissed at Kong for reasons not explained on screen? His character just seemed extra angry.
My take on it is that Jackson's character (Lt. Packard) is a career soldier & a warmonger, to boot, frustrated that the war in Vietnam is coming to an end without a victory on his side. He needs a new enemy and finds one in Kong, who kills many of his men. Unable to accept the fact that he's losing a fight (again), Packard takes the 'leave-no-man-behind' mantra very seriously. He can't handle 2 defeats in a row so his ego is severely damaged and, thus, consumes him with intense anger & hate.

The back'n'forth closeups seem to convey that Packard is looking Kong straight in the eye because he despises the beast on a personal level...as personal as one can get with a giant ape! (I don't think Kong is staring into a tiny human's eyes at such a distance.)
 
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