I was going to see Kong Skull Island on Saturday, but it was raining cats and dogs and I couldn’t bring myself to leave the house. Sunday was better, though, so I grabbed the early show. I had a BLAST. The two hour run time is pleasingly lean. Moreover, the film has learned from both Peter Jackson’s overstuffed Kong flick and even Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla movie. The monster scenes are shorter (thankfully) than Jackson’s and more frequent than Edwards’. The characters are all stereotypes, at least one of which is kind of irksome. But they use the stereotypes in the proper fashion, which is to say they take it we get everyone’s motivation and just move on with things quickly. And good actors cover up a multitude of sins, so really it’s all good.
The leads are fine, but better the film is peppered with veteran characters like a somewhat slimmed-down John Goodman. There are also a lot of solid TV actors in there, including a weird blink-and-you’ll-miss him appearance by the star of Longmire (and also the star of Jabootu subject Steel Justice). They clearly are heading to a larger Marvel-like ‘cinematic universe,’ and indeed much of the lead cast has appeared in (or will be appearing in) Marvel films.
Speaking of, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the post-credit teaser sequence completely blown by the end credits themselves, so be forewarned.
