Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017) by Provconreviews — 30 May 2019

Kong: Skull Island PvC Review (5/30/19).

Pros Playing the prequel to 2014’s Godzilla; Kong: Skull Island takes a brighter and more stylized approach to kaiju action while also giving the human characters actual interest. The movie takes allKong: Skull Island PvC Review (5/30/19).

Pros.

Playing the prequel to 2014’s Godzilla; Kong: Skull Island takes a brighter and more stylized approach to kaiju action while also giving the human characters actual interest. The movie takes all that was wrong with the 2014 film and works to improve it, while also expanding a bit on the lore of their created Monsterverse. The pacing keeps me engaged, the beautiful visuals and shots keep me in awe, the vietnam soundtrack proves that you can never go wrong with classic rock, and the monster action is leagues beyond the last film. But what I appreciate the absolute most is the development and lore given to the monsters in the film, especially that of Kong. You actually learn to feel for the monster and his history, so that when the final fight inevitably does hit, it hits hard. The final fight in itself is genuinely amazing, one that I could watch for days due to its style and its cutting to the humans never takes away from it as they are actively involved in the smack down. There is a lot of love and passion bleeding into this film for the B-movie spectacle of some of the classics, but most importantly the director just knows to have actual fun instead of trying to maintain a gritty realism. It rewards the viewer time and time again with a CGI spectacle not worth missing. Of course I am going to dive into cons now, but just know that these cons are small and that this film doesn’t suffer nearly as bad from them as its predecessor.

+ CGI Spectacle.

+ Humans are entertaining and don’t take away from the film.

+ Monsters are developed and have emotion behind them.

+ The style is pure bliss.

+ The soundtrack of vietnam is always amazing.

+ Expands upon the lore of the Monsterverse especially with it’s after credits scene.

+ The action is fantastic with the final fight being just awesome.

+ Environment is beautiful.

+ Wonderfully shot.

+ Rewarding.

Cons.

Kong: Skull Island does have some genuine problems, all of which never hold it back from being a good time or take away from being B-movie excellence. But first let us get the biggest problem of the whole film out of the way, the impact of death. While the humans in this film are entertaining, a lot of them feel like they are just there for the ride rather than contributing anything and most of these characters are what the movie chooses to be its victims. The deaths are quick and swift with no time to mourn which the film is quite self-aware about, but at the same time there is just no feeling of loss for any of the characters. There are only one or two characters that have a bit of an impact when they go, but the rest is very, “oh well that happened!” But while the impact of the deaths were lackluster, the deaths themselves genuinely are perfectly gruesome. That’s my biggest complaint overall honestly, the impact of the deaths. I do have smaller ones; such as some of the writing just not landing, wish there was even more Kong fights (just a me thing honestly) and just somethings just not making logical sense (ex. The amount of helicopters compared to the single ship). But those all are very small and again never take away from my enjoyment of the film. - Little to no impact from characters being killed off.

- Some characters didn’t contribute.

- Writing can be a miss at times.

- Somethings don’t make sense.

Overall.

Kong: Skull Island is a B-movie through and through but I genuinely believe that is where these movies shine their absolute best, as it’s this B-movie style that give these movies their charm. They’re creature features, kaiju films, a genre that was once thought dead but thanks to Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. we have a whole universe of them to look forward to. And this universe honestly has me feeling like a child again to when I found that old VHS in my house labeled “King Kong vs. Godzilla” and I looked past all the blatant flaws to find a world that I always wished to be apart of. Kong: Skull Island does the exact same thing for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way.