Director: Jordan
Vogt-Roberts
Notable Cast: Tom
Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby
Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Tomas Mann,
Eugene Gordero, John C. Reilly
There are essentially two kind of King Kong movies. You have the more serious adventure ones that
mean to paint Kong as a kind of tragic figure who is betrayed by humanity which
is represented by the original 30s version and Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake. Then
you have the silly Kong films, best
represented by the Toho versions (King
Kong vs Godzilla and King Kong
Escapes) and to a lesser extent King
Kong Lives. While the initial trailers made out the latest Kong film, the second in Legendary’s new
expanded Monsterverse that includes 2014’s Godzilla,
to be something more serious and drawing on plenty of Vietnam war imagery, this
film is far more akin to the latter films than the previous. This is not a
remake. This is not some kind of morality tale outside of the subtext. This is
a giant monster film. This is pure kaiju cinema worship and it never takes a
breather from its intent as being an entertaining popcorn flick. Don’t expect
to be blown away by thoughtful characters, dynamic plotting, or even logical
progression because that is not what Kong:
Skull Island is about. This film is about big monster fights and giving the
audience their money’s worth in outrageous entertainment.