I'll admit, I am not familiar with the King Kong mythos....besides maybe the video game where he is throwing barrels at Mario to keep him from Princess Peach. I have never seen any of the other King Kong movies, mostly because I always thought to myself, "How can a movie about a giant gorilla be interesting?" I was wrong, a movie about a giant gorilla can be totally interesting.
KONG: SKULL ISLAND is set in the 1970's and it is the beginning of King Kong.
Skull Island is an island "somewhere in the pacific" that is shaped like a skull, but there are other reasons this movie is titled skull island. A group of scientists, explorers, and soldiers who are to act as an escort to the scientists The explorers are off to the island to see what it has that might be developed into useful tools to save or help humanity. When they get there the audience sees that humanity is the monster.
The island is full of giant creatures that can tear a human limb from limb. From prehistoric birds to spiders that can kill you with one well placed foot. As soon as they reach the island terrible things start happening, from helicopter crashes to skull crushing monsters who will eat anything in their path. While there are several predictable scenes, and characters, this movie give the audience what it wants, a good King Kong movie.
The predictable characters were the military man who can't get past his own need for revenge, even after he sees that he shouldn't be seeking the revenge he desires. Another is the man who was lost several decades before who provides the comic relief. Another is a female character who not only gets through the movie unscathed (even though the helicopter she was in crashes and she is blown off of a cliff, not a single mark on her) but, as it was pointed out, is the one character who of course has to strip down to a tank top, even though all of the other characters continue to stay in their military uniforms, long sleeved science jumpsuits, or fancy button down shirts.
So, with all of this why do I think this movie was pretty good? It showed a monstrous side, but also a reason, for King Kong to be how he is. This not only adds a bunch of backstory to his character, but it adds depth to him. The island is stuck in time, and there are creatures and animals there that are probably genetically related to dinosaurs.
This movie also shows how inhuman man is when they are faced with things that they don't understand. Some people will try to understand the unknown, and others just want to bomb the hell out of it, in this movie there are both types of people. It rings true to me that often when humans are faced with things they don't understand or things that frighten them they seek to understand it by destroying it, or destroy it so it can't hurt them. This is something we, the entire human race, needs to think about. Often times to find a cure for something we destroy something else. If there is something we are faced with that we don't understand, we destroy it so we can understand it. If something frightens us the first reaction we have is to destroy it. Sometimes this is the answer, but often we need to look at what we can do keep the unknown intact to understand it.
A little problem I did have, besides the ones already mentioned, was that some things (like the inhabitants of the island) were not explored. Why were they there? How long were they there?
But, besides the issues I really did enjoy this movie. I look forward to what they might do with Godzilla in the future. If they treat Godzilla and Mothra as well as they treated King Kong, they will not be bad movies.
KONG: SKULL ISLAND is set in the 1970's and it is the beginning of King Kong.
Skull Island is an island "somewhere in the pacific" that is shaped like a skull, but there are other reasons this movie is titled skull island. A group of scientists, explorers, and soldiers who are to act as an escort to the scientists The explorers are off to the island to see what it has that might be developed into useful tools to save or help humanity. When they get there the audience sees that humanity is the monster.
The island is full of giant creatures that can tear a human limb from limb. From prehistoric birds to spiders that can kill you with one well placed foot. As soon as they reach the island terrible things start happening, from helicopter crashes to skull crushing monsters who will eat anything in their path. While there are several predictable scenes, and characters, this movie give the audience what it wants, a good King Kong movie.
The predictable characters were the military man who can't get past his own need for revenge, even after he sees that he shouldn't be seeking the revenge he desires. Another is the man who was lost several decades before who provides the comic relief. Another is a female character who not only gets through the movie unscathed (even though the helicopter she was in crashes and she is blown off of a cliff, not a single mark on her) but, as it was pointed out, is the one character who of course has to strip down to a tank top, even though all of the other characters continue to stay in their military uniforms, long sleeved science jumpsuits, or fancy button down shirts.
So, with all of this why do I think this movie was pretty good? It showed a monstrous side, but also a reason, for King Kong to be how he is. This not only adds a bunch of backstory to his character, but it adds depth to him. The island is stuck in time, and there are creatures and animals there that are probably genetically related to dinosaurs.
This movie also shows how inhuman man is when they are faced with things that they don't understand. Some people will try to understand the unknown, and others just want to bomb the hell out of it, in this movie there are both types of people. It rings true to me that often when humans are faced with things they don't understand or things that frighten them they seek to understand it by destroying it, or destroy it so it can't hurt them. This is something we, the entire human race, needs to think about. Often times to find a cure for something we destroy something else. If there is something we are faced with that we don't understand, we destroy it so we can understand it. If something frightens us the first reaction we have is to destroy it. Sometimes this is the answer, but often we need to look at what we can do keep the unknown intact to understand it.
A little problem I did have, besides the ones already mentioned, was that some things (like the inhabitants of the island) were not explored. Why were they there? How long were they there?
But, besides the issues I really did enjoy this movie. I look forward to what they might do with Godzilla in the future. If they treat Godzilla and Mothra as well as they treated King Kong, they will not be bad movies.
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