Now that’s a blockbuster! Hollywood these days doesn’t make enough good movies about hot women and giant monsters. Oh sure, they make them. The Transformers films are all parts of this but whereas they created dumb, loud, insufferable giant monsters, and even dumber hot women, Kong opts to just make all the right decisions. A mere perusal of the first sentences in many reviews for this film offer the word “dumb” up as the best descriptor, but it’s selling the movie short. The direction and acting here are far from dumb. In fact, both are smartly executed. This isn’t an ironically good movie, just a good one and after last March gave us Batman v Superman it’s a blast to get something as filmically proficient as Kong: Skull Island. On the legs of its director and actors, Kong is able to run oh so far. The plot is almost nonexistent but the actors are so great that the flimsy structure of the film almost makes the entire thing feel spontaneous. Everything exists to create a groovy, 70’s infused (and therefore actually quite sexy), action movie that just happens to have a bunch of monsters, and Tom Hiddleston swinging around a freaking samurai sword. This leaves the director and the actors to make the best movie with a bunch of monsters and Tom Hiddleston swinging around a freaking samurai sword that they could have and they didn’t waste the opportunity. This is rip-roaring, scary, and thoughtfully crafted action movie, that’s in the spirit of the mind-blowing third act of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Especially, that badass helicopter smash that happens near the beginning of the film. If I’m not writing in a professional way here it’s simply because I can’t believe how thrilling so much of this damn movie is. That is kind of the bottom line too. Kong transcends as a visual experience with perfectly placed archetypical characters, that has some of the best giant monster fights that we’ll ever see up on screen. The archetypes have life too. Brie Larson as a photographer creates so many moments of levity. Her quiet moments with the natives of the island make for a delightful confection in the middle of this blast of a movie. Everything down to the pitch perfect color grading seems to be at beautiful service to the spectacle and that spectacle is well directed so therefore this is a great movie. Besides the common fact that the second act of these types of movies tend to extend to the point that they just become the third act, what has been built here is airtight or at least so unbelievably badass that it almost doesn’t matter. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is such a master over the whole 70’s era look and the action that comes with the monsters that...well, it’s almost exasperating. Kong: Skull Island is that rare beast (no pun intended) that is just so ungodly fun that I’m left dumbfounded and almost unable to explain the reason it is. The script is thin, but you never feel it because the world feels so real. It’s a film experience. An action movie experience. It’s not perfect, but it’s just intoxicating. Kong: Skull Island gets an 8 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |