Kong: Skull Island

An abridged version of this movie with all the “wow moments” can be found in the video section. It’s called “Trailer”. A five-dollar script. Whereas Godzilla was dark and stylish, Kong is a mass of colorful gelatin without a single emotion or a hint of tension. The great ape’s entrance is fast and furious, but the moment of surprise is killed by the knowledge already imparted by the trailers. The same goes for the astonishment over the cool monster, which had already been revealed beforehand. And that’s a pity, as there is an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the lost worlds of the 1950s and 1960s, Hiddleston’s tracker is good (he and Brie Larson would’ve had great chemistry with a better script) and John C. Reilly is the highlight of the film. Only Samuel L. Jackson does not know what to do with his militant lunatic character; a butcher like the one played by Stephen Lang in Avatar would have been better here. (07/03/2017)

A very well made but increasingly worse film as time passes. Alas. I was looking forward to it, and I can't say that I didn't get to see some good scenes (nothing beat the helicopter attack) and ideas, but somewhere after about half an hour the script got into a rather annoying loop of "period song - walking - monster appears - battle/escape - period song - walking - monster appears," very strange situations and scenes (the ship) and most of all I didn't care about almost any of the human characters. Why would I, when most of them were completely useless (Tom Hiddleston, for example, just walks through almost the whole film and doesn't do anything extravagant), unused (John Goodman, unfortunately) or downright annoying (John C. Reilly)... Seriously a shame. I wasn't expecting a second Godzilla, but at least some good fun. (10/03/2017)

I was looking forward to a great chillout that was alluring me with its premise, digital effects and a mix of actors that under usual circumstances cannot disappoint. In this case the biggest problem lies in the fact that the scriptwriter didn’t properly work out the individual characters, so the only interesting one is Samuel L. Jackson, who really acts, and John C. Reilly, who has some cool lines here and there. Otherwise it’s a military slasher in a similar vein like the legendary Predator, the only difference is that nobody in this movie is able to hold a candle to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Catchphrases are missing, even the whole spirit of the movie is missing, so it is just another mediocre digital film from Hollywood. (10/07/2018)

A rather weak screenplay, balanced by excellent tricks and fine actors. A movie buff’s enthusiasm is evident in Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ work as director, and lots of great ideas and situations are just what I hoped for. Unfortunately, some catalysts leading to these situations don’t make absolute sense (very conveniently located chains and ship’s propeller in the last fight, gas grenades and the simple stupidity of some characters). This is a great shame, because it really spoils the effort. Interesting casting is confronted by a screenplay where for instance the wonderful Sam L. Jackson’s behavior occasionally defies common sense. But all it needs is a little more depth to his motivation. (14/03/2017)

I really love kaiju films, so I'm heavily influenced, but I had a great time watching Kong: Skull Island! Kong is excellent here, the effects are stunning, there are great monsters and incredible action scenes, and there are also interesting characters. Simply a thrilling spectacle for the movie theater. And to top it off, that fantastic poster with the green signal smoke! (12/03/2017)