Kong: Skull Island (3D Blu-ray + Blu-ray Combo Pack)

I've always been enchanted by the King Kong character. I've enjoyed all the movies that featured the big ol' ape. I discovered and fell in love with Jessica Lange in 1976 when her version played on a super-giant screen at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island before the theater was converted from a plush and decadent movie house to a Broadway-like stage theater. That viewing experience, when I was 13, was my first introduction to King Kong.Then I saw the original 1930s version with Fay Wray. I was a kid, so I laughed at the stop-motion photography that made Kong move all jerky, and I laughed at the actors as they pretended to walk in front of a rear projection screen and shoot their rifles at previously shot montages of prehistorical animals. But then I grew up and I was amazed and learned to appreciate what the filmmakers had accomplished using such rudimentary tools and techniques. Using only the limited methods they had at their disposal, they used brilliant ingenuity to tell a fascinating story. I'm sure the filmmakers were thinking at the time they were making the movie that they either had a huge hit on their hands or an enormous bomb -- a laughable stinker that could end their careers. But some brave soul at RKO said it was worth the risk and gave the go ahead. And despite the glaring lack of sophisticated effects we see when holding them up to today's standards, audiences in the '30s understood, inherently, the limitations in film making. The novelty, the magic, the unimaginable lit up the screen and audiences were astounded. And because the story of Ann Darrow was always central to the film (and the effects were relegated to the back seat), audiences were spellbound. And just beneath the narrative, there was a subtle lesson to be learned; a moral lesson or, as I see it, an indictment against a certain faction of society and its culture. I see the film serving as a metaphor for the cruelty and greed that had already infested the motion-picture industry by the early 1930s. Similarly, the 1976 version was a not-so-subtle indictment against the oil industry's cruel posture of putting corporate profits over nature and the sanctity of life.Director Peter Jackson's version with Jack Black, I felt, was a remake of the Fay Wray version. It screamed "Made in Hollywood" in every frame. Some of the fun of seeing Kong slipped away knowing that the creature was merely an image created on a computer, as opposed to a stop-motion animated puppet or a man in an ape suit, where hundreds of people had to use their creative imaginations in order to fool audiences into embracing the illusion that "Kong" was huge and real. I called using C.G.I. a form of cheating. Although it's in rough shape, the 15" poseable puppet and its steel frame used in the original "King Kong" still exists. It's a real and tangible object. Rick Baker still has at least one copy of the ape suit he created and performed in for the '76 version. He created at least five hydraulically maneuvered over-the-head masks (each with a different expression). Surely, he still has those -- even if the original rubber has rotted away and only the steel skull, plastic hoses, cords and air bladders still exist. At least the parts are real and not part of an algorithm typed into a computer animation program, where the computer does most of the math to bring an animation to life. You can't hold an algorithm in your hand or place it in a museum for posterity.But even I got over my resentment of C.G.I. It's a different kind of art, but at least now I see the artistry in it. And given my fondness of Kong, that is the reason I decided to give "Kong: Skull Island" a shot.As a straight-up action-adventure film, it's a cool roller-coaster ride with lots of thrills and frights. Just about everything, except the actors, is done with C.G.I., but the images are so realistic, you wouldn't know nothing on the screen actually exists. The acting is top-notch. The creatures are genuinely creepy, and there are a lot of them -- all huge and deadly. There's a military aspect to the film, so there are lots of bombs and helicopters. Kong is twice as tall in this film than his predecessors and he's all animal imbued with the intellect of a primitive beast motivated solely by instinct. But among the crew of military and scientific men who stumble upon Kong on Skull Island, there is a photographer and she's a girl -- a woman, actually -- and a lovely one at that. You know how Kong loves the ladies. Traditionally, Kong always lets his guard down because he can't help himself when he sees a beautiful girl. He shows his soft side and that's always when the men swoop in and kill him. Well, traditions are made to be broken. This Kong is too much of an animal to give a muddy girl a bath. His instincts won't allow him to let his guard down. After all, he has himself and a whole island to protect. Protect the island from what, you say? Well, the answer to that question is the very reason a creature like Kong exists. You need to see the movie to find out why Kong needs to watch over the island and why he gets so mad at the new militaristic interlopers with their bombs and flying machines.The fact that this movie was released in 3-D shouldn't concern viewers who are able to identify a 3-D movie without actually seeing it in 3-D. I watched the film in 2-D first and didn't notice anything that made me say, "Obviously, this is meant to be watched in 3-D." However, when I finally did watch it in 3-D, it was a really cool viewing experience.Universal Movie Studios created a subsidiary of itself called Universal Dark. "Kong: Skull Island" was set to launch the new studio's lineup of most, if not all, of the Classic Universal Monster Movies from yesteryear. Monsters and horror villains from other studios are on Universal Dark's slate as well. At the end of "Kong: Skull Island," there's a brief reference made to a couple of gentlemen whose names happen to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Presumably, that old classic will be "re-imagined" and released next.

This review is for the 4K UHD version of 'Kong Skull Island' released in July, 2017.As usual for big budget movies, there are lots of reviews here so I won't go into great depth about the plot but will give my observations.I'm giving the movie 3 stars overall but it has some distinct positives and negatives. It seem like every category of this movie was either 1 star or 5 stars. I'll elaborate a bit more below.LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEADPROS: The music was terrific. They got that right. Many classic rock and roll songs from the Vietnam era were used and it seemed to go well with military action. Obviously Apocalypse Now was used as inspiration for the entrance to Skull Island and the first encounter with Kong.Special effects were awesomely good. Every time I watch something like this I end up thinking of all the possibilities. It just frustrates me that Hollywood can do such amazing stuff and can't do the same with the scripts. Anyway there isn't anything that didn't look good from a technical standpoint. I didn't necessarily like all the design choices but that's just preference nor does it take away from how good the movie looked.There were many creatures on skull island. This diversity of monsters added a lot to the movie. Every few minutes there is a new wonder to see. The extra's seem to indicate that there were others planned or perhaps they were just preliminary designs that were rejected? I didn't listen to the commentaries yet so this could have been addressed.I liked that just about all the creatures on Skull island are real creatures (of course, not the skull crawlers), obviously much larger!I also liked the fact that Kong was the true King and dispatched his enemies easily. This gave a realistic fell to it that you don't often see. Usually, the good guy(creature) looks like he is going to lose and miraculously turns it around at the end. This gets tedious when you see it in every movie. In this case Kong just kicks butt and is never in any real trouble. Makes you wonder how his family was killed by the skull crawler when they are dispatched of so easily, especially in light of the fact that Kong is not nearly full grown yet.At the end of the credits, we get a teaser for the next Godzilla movie! I know there are a lot of people that hate the end of credit stuff but I happen to like it. I just wish the credits weren't so long. It's OK when you watch on a disc at home but in the theater, the wait is boring.CONS: I'm not really sure why Hollywood can never seem to write a decent script for action movies. Why do they feel like every character has to be a cliche' or be completely illogical. Worst of all, the behavior of the characters in this movie is almost as bad as in most horror movies. It's not as if they couldn't use the same action scenes if the characters behaved in a more believable way. If I were to point out all the illogical stuff I'd pretty much be commenting on every scene. I get accused often of being way to picky but here we go:I doubt very much that a group of helicopters would head into a storm of the magnitude shown. Who in their right mind would OK this? There was zero visibility and hurricane force winds with an immense electrical storm and the helicopters were wide open! There was nothing pressing about going in as it was supposed to be a geological survey. It's not as if they were going to rescue people. Even if they did attempt it, I'm sure just one would head in first not the entire group.Why would the American military need to hire a British special forces guy to do tracking for them? Why would a tracker even be necessary if you had all those helicopters.The incompetence of the helicopter pilots is was too incredibly bad to be believable. I can understand one being stupid enough to fly right into Kong and get destroyed....but eleven? One of the pilots actually yells back at Conrad, after he tells him to pull away, "I don't take orders from you." Then promptly flies into Kong so they too can enjoy the thrill of going down in a helicopter. It's not as if Kong has radioactive breath like Godzilla, all they had to do was either go above him or to the side of them and yet none were capable. Go figure.There were too many characters and not enough time to 'flesh them out.' Kong is the star and it's understandable that many of the characters will not have much depth. But this cast of characters was just flat out boring and would have been better served to just use a few and give them more depth. Most of the characters just weren't necessarySamuel L. Jackson's character was just plain stupid. I'm not going to bother wasting time and going into detail here. Let's just say everything he said or did in the movie was flat out stupid and unbelievable.John C. Reilly's character sure didn't seem like he was stranded for 29 years. It looked like he just got done with a cruise in the Caribbean. I remember reading about how the real life person that 'Robinson Crusoe' was based on was stranded on an island for 4 years. When he was found he could barely speak his language anymore.Kong supposedly was friendly to humans. Somehow he seems to know everybody who is out to get him and everybody that likes him.The scene with Conrad and Weaver (the photographer) was just ridiculous. Like if you were just standing near the edge of a cliff in a jungle and you see a giant ape right in front of you, you would just walk up to the edge of the cliff and pet him.....mmm....yeeaaahhhhh.Not much thought was put into feasibility. It's highly unlikely that all these giant species could exist in such a small area. Especially at the rate in which they are killed. It takes massive amounts of food to sustain creatures that large and it just wouldn't exist in such a small area. How many Gigantic Squids could there be in the water? How many fish would they have to eat? How long would it take for them to grow to size? If Kong kills a few how could they sustain their population? OK....I know I'm getting way too deep for a movie of this type.Not complaining that much about the Skull Crawlers but the design kind of sucked. They afforded no challenge to Kong.Upon my first viewing I didn't notice much of a difference in size. But then I watched again. It just wasn't as noticeable as it should have been. I didn't like their faces looking like a skull. I guess they had to have a reason for calling it skull island. Which brings us to:The island itself wasn't that great. I liked previous versions a lot better. I'm not sure why it was named 'skull island' I didn't see any part that looked like a skull. Perhaps the references to the underside being hollow? like a skull? Or perhaps the skull crawlers?The giant stick insect depicted in this movie is of no danger. They are herbivores. OK...I think I need to stop here or I'll be up all night doing this, I'm really nitpicking now.Recommendations: Despite there being so many thing's I didn't like in this movie...I still have to give it a thumbs up. It's still a lot of fun to watch despite the shortcomings. When I say shortcomings I mostly mean the characters and the poorly executed script. The story itself is not bad. It's decent enough. It's the stupidity of the characters that, to me, detracts from the movie. I realize that we are dealing with giant monsters here and there has to be some suspension of disbelief so I'll forgive the lack of feasibility about creatures that size surviving in a closed environment.Five stars for the special effects and music. One star for the execution of the script. So three stars it is overall.Seeing how good this movie looked makes me really look forward to future movies from the monsterverse. I wish they would make a movie on every giant monster ever created last century. Godzilla in 2019 should be awesome if they don't screw it up with an awful script.

This is absolutely brilliant.If you have any affection for any Kong film going back to the 1933 film you will probably love this as much as I did.Kong is bigger and better than ever as CGI has come on so much in the last few years.The movie is set in 1973 for plot purposes I suppose but in truth the plot and indeed the cast are a bit superfluous as this is all about the creatures.Kong is joined some nasty varmints.The worst of which are The Skullcrawlers which are some kind of crawling T-Rex.Anyway s scientific expedition go to the island to see if the creatures exist as the island is surrounded by constant storms so we are not sure.Of course once they get there man does what man does best.Buggers everything upwith the help of the military escort.As I said cast not important.I will say Tom Hiddleston is a little too effete as the ex SAS guide and Samuel L Jackson is pretty much himself as the over the top colonel in charge of the armed escort.Brie Larson is wasted in the token female role originally played by Fay Wray in the 1933 movie.This is about the fights and explosions and about Kong.You will believe he is reall.Kids will be amazed but beware that it is a little violent and there is some ripe language with one use of the F word.This is uttered by John C Rielley who comes out best in the cast as a soldier that's been trapped on the Island for 24 years and is a bit mad.There are some good extras for us geeks which include technical details of hoe the big guy was created and some deleted scenes.The picture quality is also crystal clear.

** SPOILER FREE + UHD/4K REVIEW **Despite being a digital 2K upscale, the image quality of Kong: Skull Island's UHD BD is impressive and demonstates a clear improvement over the HD Blu-ray, especially the wider colour palette.Overall image quality is excellent, and fine detail is remarkable; animals' fur, creatures' scales and human skin texture down to their sweat and pores all look stunning. HDR is what truly shines within the UHD BD however, everything from the body decorations of the indigenous people, to the multiple shades and depth to smoke and for, all the way to the bark on a variety of trees, the colour palette is incredible.As for audio, if you have an appropriately equip sound system, Kong: Skull Island offers an almighty roar due to the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, which perfectly accompanies this monster movie.

Kong: Skull Island doesn't try to be anything special. This is a straight ahead action/adventure movie. The real standout here is the CGI, as you'd expect, and the lavish Skull Island itself (full of weird and wonderful beasts). Tom Hiddleston plays the very forgettable lead along with Brie Larson, Jon Goodman and Samual L Jackson. Nobody really stands out here, apart from perhaps the comedy skits from John C Reilly, but we're here for Kong. The film has a loose premise about war and its effect on nature, but it's very loose. When we first meet Kong its a real spectacle, along with the other dangerous inhabitants of the island. By keeping the action going along with the wonderful CGI this film moves along at a exciting pace and the finale is very entertaining.It's not a film that offers anything very deep and meaningful. It's a popcorn flick that will keep you entertained though. For that it's worth a watch. If you enjoyed films like the recent Godzilla movie you'll like this.

Although I think Peter Jackson's version of Kong a few years back had a lot going for it, especially in terms of scale and some of the cinematics on the island (including the dinosaurs giving Jurassic Park a run for its money), this new version is so much tighter and looks absolutely incredible on the big screen. The island is breath-taking and all of the wide screen landscapes really do look magnificent, as do all the special effects which are top notch - especially a lot of the various giant nasties Kong is up against which are also a marked improvement.Kong also looks much better I think - cinema has come a long way, but also he just seems much more realistic and has lost some of the goofy big friendly monkey aspects of his persona in the previous version, thankfully, along with the childish humour. He's a much grittier and much more impressive version.The action is great and the pacing is very good - the film never drags and each of the main human survivors trying to survive the island have just enough going for them as characters to keep your interest beyond the amazing landscapes and the spectacle of the huge creatures attacking them (and each other!). John Goodman who is partly responsible for kicking everything off is super, Brie Larson is also is very good, if underused, as an anti-war photographer who heads out with the exploration team and their army escort to document the island, Tom Hiddleston is OK as a mercenary tracker leading the good guys, though sometimes a little light and airy for such a role and Samuel Jackson is mostly OK as the colonel who heads up the army escort, but does start to feel a bit text-book colonel-turned-crazy in his performance as he becomes obsessed with destroying Kong. And John C Rielly who is found on the island having survived there for decades after crashing there during the war is superb - his character brings some great humour to the film and he carries it off effortlessly.Matching the film's setting of the early 70's is an awesome soundtrack throughout which is used really well and compliments the film nicely. Hopefully they stick with this version of Kong and revisit for a few more adventures!

Kong: Skull Island.Certificate: 12/PG-13Genre: Action/Adventure.Running Time: 118 Minutes.Synopsis.A diverse team of scientists, soldiers & adventurers unite to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as it is beautiful.Cut off from everything they know, the team ventures into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle between man against nature in a battle for survival, they must fight to escape a primal Eden in which humanity does not belong.Timelord Thoughts.Kong: Skull Island is a fun, entertaining action packed thrill ride that despite a few minor flaws with the human characterisations this movie packs a mean punch & sets the bar very high for future monster movie smackdowns.The year is 1973 & the plot sees Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard aided by former Special Air Service Captain James Conrad who served in the Vietnam War with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment & Photographer Mason Weaver team up for a government assignment led by William Randa to investigate a unknown island before the Soviets learn of its whereabouts & beat them in discovering what the mystery of the island holds.What isn't told to the team is there's more to this mission than meets the eye & soon they come face to face with not only a variety of strange creatures but the islands baddest inhabitant, a 100ft Gorilla named Kong makes his first appearance by literally smashing helicopters out the sky the s##t has well & truly hit the fan.Jordan Vogt- Roberts direction is a spectacular effort who has skillfully directed plenty of tense action pack monster smackdowns against mutated spiders, blue-blooded pterodactyls & a giant saw- toothed Skullcrawler that are both thrilling & entertaining, the CGI animation is fantastic & Kong for the most part looks amazing.The movies pace is quick moving & gets on with the plot narratives, within 30 minutes Kong appears on Skull Island & causes all manner of destruction, the action set pieces deliver draw dropping mayhem & unlike the recent lacklustre Godzilla 2014 we we hardly seen the monster with Kong we get to witness plenty of monster mayhem on the screen & this movie never lets up until it's exciting post credit scene that teases of what's to come next... Kong Vs Godzilla?Sadly the human characters are poorly underwritten which shows in the actors performances, Samuel L.Jackson gives his usual cliche performance as Colonel Preston Packard a character similar in tone to Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick who's obsessed with killing Kong, Tom Hiddleson (my hair gets lighter as the movie progresses) is a little bland as tracker James Conrad but does the best he can with the material he's given which isn't a lot while Brie Larson is completely wasted & isn't given a lot to do in her role of anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver apart from take pictures.The secondary characters fare even worse, Toby Kebbell as Jack Chapman, a United States Army major & Sea Stallion helicopter pilot who writes letters to his son is quickly killed after hinting & building up a arc to be a possible major character, but I knew as soon as Chapman began writing letters to his son he was not long for this world because he has something to live for so he definitely has to die, it's a shame as this character was quite likeable but in the end becomes the equivalent to a Star Trek: Original Series red shirt extra.John Goodman does well as scientific bureaucrat William Randa but sadly his role quickly became redundant when he arrives on the island, thankfully faring far better is John C. Reilly who scene steals with his performance as the eccentric Lieutenant Hank Marlow a former WWII pilot who's been stranded on Skull Island for 28 years & gone a bit mad & special praise must go to Terry Notary who gives a excellent motion capture performance & brings Kong to life making him a fully rounded character with heart & capable of showing emotion via expression.Overall Kong: Skull Island is a easy watch monster movie that's crammed full of intense action set pieces that truly pack a punch, however it forgoes character development which is sorely lacking & mostly leaves audiences not caring about these characters fates because there so badly underdeveloped, however if your after a high quality popcorn blockbuster flick then this film is definitely worth checking out.