Kong: Skull Island is the second part of the Monsterverse and the first King Kong film since Peter Jackson's 2005 offering. This is a sequel prequel in the sense that it is set in 1973 so 41 years before the 2014 Godzilla film. The set up of the film is that Bill Randa (John Goodman) leads a research team with Preston Packard (Tom Hiddleston) and anti-war photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) to a newly discovered Skull Island.
I know it's 12 years later, but King Kong looks really good here. When he is smashing the helicopters that whole scene looks impressive. Even when he is fighting an octopus it's brief but intense and it shows the strength of Kong just incase it wasn't clear when he smashed a bunch of helicopters out of the sky.
John Goodman is great in this film. Saying John Goodman is great in something is like saying that the moon is in the sky or the grass is green. I liked his character mainly because of Goodman so it was inevitable that he wouldn't make it to the end of the film. This honestly isn't the sort of film I would expect to see Samuel L. Jackson in. It seems like the sort thing that he would be involved in but he gives it his all and treats its so seriously that it is impressive. He turns into the crazy military man that wants to kill Kong and if anyone can play crazy well then it's Jackson.
I have always had mixed feelings about John C. Reilly but he was perfectly cast as Hank. He has been on the island for a long time and has gone a little bit crazy and its played perfectly by Reilly. When Hank leaves the locals, it is quite a sad moment and I didn't know that I could get that reaction from watching John C. Reilly. Brie Larson is good as Weaver. The character is an anti-war photographer but I didn't think her character was overbearing and annoying. I thought that the moment she has Kong is rather nice and one of the few lovely moments in the film.
If there was a weak link casting wise then it would be Tom Hiddleston. As Loki he is really good and you would expect him to be just as good in this but I just found him quite bland. He was good in his first scene but once the action moves to Skull Island then he sort of gets forgotten.
Overall I enjoyed this as a Kong movie. Kong isn't my favourite monster (I prefer Godzilla) but I thought he was used well and made to look like a monster in the literal and metaphorical sense and this film achieved this. They achieved it to the extent that I would be happy to see another Kong film (on his own). Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts does a very good job with making this film look very different to what has come before in these monster movies. There are a couple of shots which were intended to be used in trailers but in the context of the film they look stunning. At just under two hours the film packs in quite a lot including several cool fights and a story that feels like its part of a franchise but still stands on it own which is quite a difficult thing to pull off.