Wednesday 5 April 2017

Kong - Skull Island - Film Review



Hi guys

Went to see the new remake of King Kong and glad I did.

Unlike it's predecessors it doesn't follow the same story as much.
Which is - Go to Skull Island.  Meet Kong who kidnaps the girl.  Capture Kong.   Take him to New York.  Kong escapes then gets shot down from Empire States Building (Two Towers 1976 version).  Kong dies.

I never saw why they kept remaking it that way and even Peter Jacksons recent version suffered because of it.

Anyway this time scientists led by Bill Randa (John Goodman) who works for Monarch (the monster chasing Company from the last Godzilla movie) set up an excursion to an island found by satellite.

As the Vietnam war has just ended war veteran General Packard (Samuel L Jackson) jumps to the chance for one last mission for his men to escort the science team.  Randa also enlists the help of SAS mercenary James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) who is the expedition photographer.

Once on Skull Island they run into Kong who wipes out most of the squad and the team are separated as Packard seeks revenge on Kong and the other group find the native village.
In this version the native villagers are friendly and been sharing their village with Hank Marlow  (John C Reilly).  A World War two pilot who landed on the island in the forties.

It turns out Kong defends the villagers from other evil monsters on the island including Skullcrawlers and is needed.

The group help Kong defeat Packard and the Skullcrawlers and eventually return home.

The set pieces are great plus Kong is now a lot bigger than previous incarnations.  This is probably because he will eventually be facing off against Godzilla in a future Monsterverse film.
There is a post credit scene highlighting this.

Overall a great reboot for Kong which is a different kind of beast from previous Kong.   The acting is spot on and the action is from the go so a great rollicking adventure.


Score   -    9/10

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