A team of scientists, soldiers, adventurers and a photographer explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. The scientist want to test something on the ground so the soldiers bomb it from the helicopters. Shortly after they encounter something unlike anything they’ve ever seen before, a gigantic gorilla known as Kong.
Blaine: “Kong: Skull Island” is one of the movies I’ve really enjoyed watching in 2017. I really got into the relationship between Kong and these characters, James Conrad, Mason Weaver, Hank Marlow, Houston Brooks, San and Slivko and how they are on his side after Hank explains what Kong's purpose is and that is to protect everything that is good on the island from these giant lizard creatures called Skullcrawlers. They are called Skullcrawlers is because their faces look like they don’t have any skin and that it’s just all bone.
Jordan Vogt-Robertson wanted to make a film that was like “Jurassic Park” and other adventure movies involving giant creatures. He wasn’t all in favor of doing “King Kong” because the 1933 film is classic and a big part of movie history and he also thought Peter Jackson did an incredible job with his version. The question was why go back to it? But Warner Bros explained that they wanted something new and fresh and Jordan was ok with that. The idea was to have it take place in the early 70s on this island and Kong being this protector.
Tom Hiddleston said yes to project immediately because he wanted to be apart of an adventure film. Tom’s character James Conrad starts off as a mercenary who can guide troops through the jungle, but what he sees on Skull Island brings out something new in him especially when he witnesses how peaceful a giant creature like Kong can be if you don’t attack him or his land.
Preston Packard is a United States Army Lieutenant Colonel and Samuel L. Jackson described him as someone who feels the Vietnam war shouldn’t being ending because the United States has lost, but a new war starts once Kong kills a lot of his men. He has two feelings mixed inside him and that his honor for the men he is lost and revenge for their killer. Samuel L. Jackson thought it was cool that they asked him to be apart of a “King Kong” film. They had someone else in mind at first, but he didn’t want to be away for six months, so they went to Samuel and he didn’t mind being away that long.
Mason Weaver is not the damsel in distress, she is more of a fighter, but she does reason with Kong by showing him she means no harm and Kong shows a liking to her because of that. Brie Larson said her face doesn’t represent the damsel in distress, but something more stronger. What interested Brie about the part was them creating a female character who is more dynamic. Brie had some experience with photography after taking a class of it back in high school and she feels like with every movie you make it reminds you of piece of yourself that you have forgotten. Brie would take pictures of the locations they were at because she thought that would help bring herself closer to the character. While Kong fought the giant skull crawler during the last fight, he had Moson’s unconscious body in his hand and my thoughts were "don’t squeeze the grip of your hand or you’re going to crush her."
John C. Reilly’s character Hank Marlow has been stuck on that island since World War II, but being on that island has made him a different man after he first crashed there. I would say he is somewhat of an inspiration to James Conrad and Mason Weaver by showing them what an honorable man he is to Kong and a Chinese man who started off as an enemy he fought against in WW II, but then became a friend after being stuck on Skull Island with him.
The concept artists did some drawings of Kong walking on fours like a primate usually does, but director Jordan Vogt-Roberts wanted him to be more of an evolutionary offshoot between man and gorilla. His looks are based more on the 1933 version Kong. Kong has been described as a god on the Skull Island and Jordan wanted him to be 100 feet tall because he felt thats how big a god should look. Having Kong be 100 feet tall was a challenge for them to shoot these real life areas and add him into the shot and what position the camera should be in. ILM developed a program called sinter view where you can load Kong up on an iPad.
The locations they shot “Kong” were Hawaii, Australia and Northern Vietnam. Vietnam was a big part of this project because they shot in spots that no other film has shown before or have thought about traveling to before “Kong” and Jordan Vogt-Roberts feels lucky to have his movie be the first to have shown that location. The people there were very welcoming to the cast and crew being there to shoot a King Kong movie and they were really excited about it as well.
In the end it shows helicopters coming to pick up the last remaining survivors and Kong notices them. He’s not happy seeing helicopters because he sees them as a threat after they attacked the first time. I almost thought he was going to take those down, but then it showed Hank Marlow returning to his family so I knew they made it. The woman at the ticket booth informed me there was an after credit ending that could lead to a sequel and I’m glad she told me because I would have never known. I’m not entirely sure on sequels for some movies, but this one will be a mash up and at the post create scene it shows cave paintings of other iconic monsters, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and of course Godzilla. There was stuff online about there being a “Godzilla vs King Kong” before “Kong: Skull Island” was released.
My rating on “Kong: Skull Island” is five out of five stars.
Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson representing “Kong: Skull Island” at Comic-Con 2016
