Kong: Skull Island - Part 3

[Arachnerd]

Exactly the same here. It's a fun monster movie. Godzilla was better.

I love that both get their jaw dropping stand out moments. Godzilla with its atomic breath reveal and Kong with using [BLACKOUT]a ship propeller as a weapon[/BLACKOUT].

Spoiler

I LOVED when Kong whirled the propeller at the Big Boss Skullcrawler's face. He didn't hold back on the visceral combat.

 

[TeeKay]

 

[terry78]

I do like that the thing had three black characters that were somewhat fleshed out, regardless of the screen time they had. That was a rarity in itself.

 

[Pickleweasel]

John C Reilly was great in this, movie was pretty cool, action was fantastic

 

[The Big G]

Just got out of seeing it in IMAX...it was a fun rumble through the junle

It's camp on a bloated budget.

Camp films back in the day were small budget with very few (if any) notable actors. The problem to me is when you put together actors like Reilly, Goodman, Jackson, Larson, and Hiddleston in it. Square peg round hole. Well maybe not Jackson but you get the point. They could easily raise their game with character motivations/dialogue - they just choose not to when it's being fast tracked and more efforts are being devoted to the visuals.
.

SLJ and JCR gave pretty good performances, even if their characters were rather one note. Goodman, Hiddleston and Larson were wasted.

Hell i was more invested in Kebbel,Shea whigham & Thomas Mann's characters than i was for G, H and L

His parents didn't look that much bigger

Agreed

I was all over Shin Gojira for it's hard hitting look at Japanese beuracracy.

Same. It was a greated satire/critique.

 

[Arachnerd]

I felt a surprisingly amount of sympathy for Toby Kebbel's character. I figured from the trailers that he was just gonna be Packard's lackey and that would be it.

Boy, was I wrong.

 

[Drizzle]

I felt a surprisingly amount of sympathy for Toby Kebbel's character. I figured from the trailers that he was just gonna be Packard's lackey and that would be it.

Boy, was I wrong.

I did too, and at the same time I felt sympathy for Toby Kebbell himself. That guy just can't catch a break when it comes to roles.

 

[Arachnerd]

He needs to start picking better movies. Or fire his agent. Last thing I recall him being good in was in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, and that was a mo-cap performance.

But anyway, can we all raise a glass of wine for the one, and only...

Spoiler

We're getting this awesome bast*** in Godzilla 2 and I'm hyped as f***.

 

[Chris B]

I saw this today and liked it a lot. I liked Godzilla '14 too, but I thought this was an improvement over that in a few regards. And after seeing that end credits scene, I can't wait to see what they do for the next Godzilla film in two years.

 

[redhawk23]

Since when is that in demand to begin with? I understand trying to shake up the genre - but nobody is going to see this film for its foreign policy.

Movies can have themes. "Good writing" goes beyond just dialogue. This movie delivers greatly on the monster action but it does some interesting things in the process. There are people mad that it doesn't go for the same "Beauty and the Beast" story but it does have its own story to tell instead.

Its almost as if the giant monster genre has a long history of commenting on global events or something.

 

[rayc1971]

It really should have opened with 70+mil with that huge budget. 52+mil is only okay, it's going to need to leg it out to 150mil in order to have a decent North American total and that's an iffy proposition to say the least.

yeah with that hefty budget it needed 70 plus mill opening weekend i dont see 150mill domestic with beauty and the beast coming and power rangers this is gonna die quick at the boxoffice i say 120 domestic

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Kong increased on Saturday to 24.6 million according to a very reliable source I follow on BOT. If that number sticks than it's opening weekend is more than likely going to be closer to 60 million than 50 million which means it almost doubled it's tracking which most only had at 45 million. Warner Bros should be more than satisfied with this opening considering it seemed like nobody really gave a crap about this movie until the last minute push.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

yeah with that hefty budget it needed 70 plus mill opening weekend i dont see 150mill domestic with beauty and the beast coming and power rangers this is gonna die quick at the boxoffice i say 120 domestic

With a 60 million opening it would have to have BVS type legs to only end up finishing with 120 domestic and I don't see that happening. If anything Power Rangers looks to be in the most trouble since Kong and Beauty and the Beast will be sucking up all the family audiences.

 

[DACrowe]

Since when is that in demand to begin with? I understand trying to shake up the genre - but nobody is going to see this film for its foreign policy.

I think it is fine if it does try to say something about policy... if you really have something to say. Like I actually do think Logan despite being a superhero movie is ridiculously timely and very astutely dealing with political forces that dehumanize immigrants and refugees, as well as even the impact of social engineering through chemicals. It is actually taking a stab (heh) at very topical stuff, and several good articles have analyzed these elements that I've read.

Kong: Skull Island pays lip service to the idea of war is bad, and it all goes through redundant cycles. But as much as I enjoy the idea of Reilly and his Japanese enemy becoming dear friends, it is all window dressing. It has little concern with actually unpacking these elements. So unlike Logan, I do not feel like they make Kong stronger. It gave Reilly a few nice moments and that is about it.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Kong increased on Saturday to 24.6 million according to a very reliable source I follow on BOT. If that number sticks than it's opening weekend is more than likely going to be closer to 60 million than 50 million which means it almost doubled it's tracking which most only had at 45 million. Warner Bros should be more than satisfied with this opening considering it seemed like nobody really gave a crap about this movie until the last minute push.

Wow, that's an awesome Saturday increase for Kong. Go Kong.

 

[redhawk23]

I think it is fine if it does try to say something about policy... if you really have something to say. Like I actually do think Logan despite being a superhero movie is ridiculously timely and very astutely dealing with political forces that dehumanize immigrants and refugees, as well as even the impact of social engineering through chemicals. It is actually taking a stab (heh) at very topical stuff, and several good articles have analyzed these elements that I've read.

Kong: Skull Island pays lip service to the idea of war is bad, and it all goes through redundant cycles. But as much as I enjoy the idea of Reilly and his Japanese enemy becoming dear friends, it is all window dressing. It has little concern with actually unpacking these elements. So unlike Logan, I do not feel like they make Kong stronger. It gave Reilly a few nice moments and that is about it.

This is worth reading. http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/03/11/kong-skull-island-a-big-awesome-anti-war-movie

The anti-war themes are quite a bit more well established than just the few dialogue bits they throw at it. Just visually, the US military dropping bombs and napalm on the jungle is sledge-hammer subtle.

The hoo-rah rock fueled enjoyment of military might immediately turns into a complete cluster****. The dialogue does pay lip service to the way enemies can be created by going out to look for them but then also Packard's going out looking for a fight leads to many needless and ultimately meaningless deaths. The story actively resists and subverts any attempt at sacrifice or a noble death. While this movie riffs on a particular era, on Apocalypse Now in particular, it applies to many of America's misadventures, and to a lot of conflicts in general.


With Logan, Kong and even Get Out in theaters, genre filmmaking is in a good place right now.

 

[Darepool]

Sounds like someone hid some broccoli in my Sunday sundae. Or just drenched it in chocolate sauce.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

With a 60 million opening it would have to have BVS type legs to only end up finishing with 120 domestic and I don't see that happening. If anything Power Rangers looks to be in the most trouble since Kong and Beauty and the Beast will be sucking up all the family audiences.

Skull Island pulled in a good Saturday number. I think Power Rangers is going to flop and won't be really much competition but Beauty and the Beast will be competition for every film.

 

[Zant]

So Logan, Kong and obviously Beauty and the Beast will exceed original tracking numbers.
I certainly won't underestimate Power Rangers and Ghost in the Shell now. Its looking like a record breaking March.

WB epic marketing is at it again. I think that King Arthur film won't do so bad.

 

[brandeezy89]

Wow, WB's late push with this film helped a lot OW it seems

 

[Enriquespy]

I enjoyed it a lot. but yeah, it's not great.

There are good bits:
John C Reilly's character.

Goodman and Jackson hamming it up.

Some of the Kong moments. he needed much more Character developement, but there where some hints of his ark and intelligence like when [BLACKOUT]he was clearly pretending to be dead after being napalmed, just as a ruse to bait the big skullcrawler out to the surface and avenge his parents, or his brainy use of weapons.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I got a huge laugh with John Goodman's opening line about Washington.

I liked Godzilla a lot more but thought this movie was a good popcorn flick. The callbacks to Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness were pretty neat and I loved some of its video game moments (ADS shots).

I definitely am hyped up about this Kaiju universe but have zero idea how they will match up this Kong to the Legendary Goji.

 

[smallville fan]

Saw the movie. Thought it was okay. I liked John C. Reily's character the most. And everyone else was kinda meh.

The visual effects that went into the monsters are good. I honestly thought Kong had more personality than some of the humans.

 

[summerteeth]

Kong: Skull Island pays lip service to the idea of war is bad, and it all goes through redundant cycles. But as much as I enjoy the idea of Reilly and his Japanese enemy becoming dear friends, it is all window dressing. It has little concern with actually unpacking these elements. So unlike Logan, I do not feel like they make Kong stronger. It gave Reilly a few nice moments and that is about it.

Yeah, I didn't really understand what it was trying to say about the U.S. and its use of military besides like you said "war is bad". I was trying to think if it was sort of pro-strong man dictator i.e. Kong is the dictator of the island keeping other worse forces at bay and the U.S. coming in and involving themselves in what ostensibly is a civil war to destroy one monster only to create or open the door for another. I do think it was saying there is blowback when we intervene militarily.

 

[summerteeth]

I got a huge laugh with John Goodman's opening line about Washington.

I liked Godzilla a lot more but thought this movie was a good popcorn flick. The callbacks to Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness were pretty neat and I loved some of its video game moments (ADS shots).

I definitely am hyped up about this Kaiju universe but have zero idea how they will match up this Kong to the Legendary Goji.

I thought the video game moments were the worst...like the gas scene was the worst scene in the movie.