Kong: Skull Island

B movie monster flicks have been around for more than half a century. The genre is filled to the brim with cliches such as stereotyped human characters, cool monsters, predictable stories, awesome action, and other goofy shenanigans. The ones I'm familiar with include Pacific Rim, Jurassic Park, and King Kong (2005). A few iconic franchises from this genre are Godzilla and King Kong. While I haven't seen most of those entries, they have been around for a long time. In 2014, the beginnings of a MonsterVerse franchise started with a reboot of Godzilla. It had plenty of issues such as story, minimal exposure of the iconic character, and bland characters but good things such as Bryan Cranston's characters, Godzilla, and the entire third act. I thought it was okay with the aforementioned pros and cons considered, which demonstrated the potential the franchise could offers. Recently in the past few months, trailers have brought up the excitement with the second entry in the franchise, Kong Skull Island, with some big stars attached to the project along with the iconic gorilla, King Kong. I went into the theater ready to see if it will satisfy my monster movie itch better than Godzilla did and I left the auditorium having had good time with this fun but flawed reboot.

Plot: The story takes place in 1973, following a group of scientists and Vietnam War soldiers on an expedition to an uncharted island, where they attract the attention of Kong's fury. From there it gets predictable as the survivors are trying to make their way to an evacuation location on the island while trying not to get killed by the huge creatures spread throughout the area. Every type of cliche you can associate with monster flicks exist in the story but it doesn't get too bothersome with it. What works with the story is that it doesn't try to re-enact traditional King Kong stories like the Peter Jackson did. It's an action adventure with Kong having enough screen time while expanding on the mythos and environment the franchise is building itself on. There are plenty of action scenes spread at points where things are starting to get a little too relaxed or building on the tension of the situation. Motivations of certain stereotyped character kind of creates little mini stories throughout the plot that might get in the way but not enough to ruin the enjoyment. Overall Kong: Skull Island carries plenty of B monster flick cliches into its predictable but enjoyable plot without following the classic King Kong story.

Characters: The characters to focus on are Kong, Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), William Randa (John Goodman), and Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly). Kong is our enormous iconic gorilla monster on Skull Island. There's basically one rule to note with him mentioned in the movie: Kong is king here. You mess with his home and he'll mess with you. Anytime he's on screen, it's awesome whether he's in a fight, just walking around, or even looking incredibly intimidating with fire in front or behind him. One thing to keep in mind is that, with one exception, every human character involved in the plot is given minimal development. Preston is a lieutenant colonel who fulfills the stereotype of someone witnessing what Kong is capable of and viewing it in a way you would expect one to feel considering the first encounter. Samuel Jackson does a great job with carrying those emotions, especially considering his view on the end of the Vietnam War and sometimes can go over the top in his signature style fans of him will recognize. William is the government official leading the expedition and is in charge of some of the expedition details. John fulfills the kind of stereotype you would expect of this archetype and does a fine job with the role. Hank is an unconventional lieutenant stranded on Skull Island for 28 years and is the aforementioned exception to the character development issues. John C Reilly makes the movie enjoyable to watch (aside from Kong and the action) through his goofy strangeness with some fun comedy and is great with the growth his role allows, showing some potential improvements with characters in the franchise. Dishonorable mentions go to James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and Mason Weaver (Brie Larson). Both of them suffer the most with the previously mentioned issue, even though the actors are doing their best with the limited script. But they don't have much to do and do some dumb silly things, particularly the James has one incredibly ridiculous action scene during an attack that just comes out of nowhere. Out of the big named actors involved, Hiddleston and Larson are pretty much wasted in this movie while looking good simultaneously. Overall character development problems affect most of the characters that fulfill stereotypes you would expect in a monster flick while letting Kong and John C Reilly become great highlights in Kong Skull Island.

Action: An indicator on how the action will escalate can sampled in the first encounter with Kong. Any kind of situation you can imagine between Kong and a creature, the humans and Kong, or the humans and the creatures plays out very well with the scope of the attack and environment. As mentioned earlier, any scene with Kong is awesome and his fights are no exception to that statement. Half of creatures encountered most of the time will try to kill anyone or anything nearby and it can get intense depending on the monster and the prey. The amount of punishment Kong can endure throughout all of the fights is very impressive and this is takes place in the 1970s. When you witness him engage in gorilla warfare, you can try to imagine how powerful he will be decades later when he will inevitably get into Kaiju sized fight against a certain King of the Monsters. Overall Kong Skull Island knows how to create impressive intense fights with a variety of fights that showcase Kong's incredible strength and pain endurance that make him godlike.

Overall Consensus: Kong Skull Island is a fun but flawed monster movie with enormous monsters, awesome action, cliched characters, and a great expansion of the MonsterVerse that rewards the enjoyable experience after the end credits. ⭑⭑⭑1/2

Reasons to watch it: You like Samuel L Jackson, John C Reilly, and/or King Kong. You like B movie monster flicks. You like watching giant monsters fight each other. You don't mind movies having plenty of cliches involved. You want to see the goodies hidden in the post end credits scene. You want to see Kong engage in gorilla warfare and see what he's capable of.

Reasons to avoid it: You don't like Samuel L Jackson, John C Reilly, and/or King Kong. You don't like B movie monster flicks. You are bored with giant monsters fighting each other. You don't like movies with plenty of cliches involved.

Coming up next: We have reached the halfway point in March Mayhem pretty entertained with satisfied emotions and plenty of action. Next time will be yet another live action movie based on another beloved fairy tale that's been retold too many times but this time it's Disney at the helm. Will Disney oversell the success of their live action interpretation to fans both old and new? Or will there be enough substance involved to match the style they are going with that will satisfy their fanbase? I will find out next weekend with the next entry in Disney's quest to turn their classic animation movies from the Disney Renaissance into live action with Beauty and the Beast!!!