MAD’S Hollywood Rundown

Having always been a fan of movies such a Planet of the Apes, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, it’s safe to say I like movies centered around mythical type creatures, so seeing, “Kong: Skull island” was a no brainer. The movie takes place in the 70’s during the Vietnam War. The soldiers are almost home free, until they get a mission headed by scientist John Goodman to explore an uncharted island off the Pacific Ocean. Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Preston Packard is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel that leads the helicopter squadron known as the “Sky Devils,” through the expedition. In a lot of ways Samuel L. Jackson (who I believe plays the same type of character in every one of his movies) is the human version of Kong. In the movie he says it’s man vs. beast, but I think hidden behind those words is the revelation that the beast is actually Jackson’s character and man is the 100 ft. tall gorilla. Kong had more compassion and human attributes than that of Jackson character, Colonel Packard.

I really enjoyed the diverse line up of creatures in this adaptation of King Kong. A lot of the time when a movie is centered around one particular creature, it ends up being the focal point of the movie. In Kong: Skull Island, there were several different types of monstrous creature, many that I considered to be more threatening than Kong himself.

I also liked the music selection for the movie. Here we see these people fighting this massive gorilla, yet in the following scene we hear a common 70’s song play, which I believe makes the movie more relatable, it draws the viewer in and makes the whole movie more realistic.

Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson’s characters were a good paring. I appreciated that a friendship is all it was, rather than trying to create some romantic element between the two. It was nice to have Kong not be the villain to a damsel in distress i.e. Brie Larson. Brie’s character was strong and determined. Tom’s character was that of a peacemaker between Jackson’s character and everyone else.

Overall the movie was centered around survival. The objective? To escape and survive in a world where humanity does not belong.