Kong: Skull Island (4K UHD BD) [Blu-ray]

Good film. Thank you

Great movie. 5*.

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.

excellent

The monumental sense of scale is stunning and the superb cinematography is only a part of what makes this film iconic. It’s an almost total rewrite of the original, and this is part of what makes it so great. There’s some complex characters and untold ‘wow’ moments that made me rewind many times throughout so I could confirm what just happened in front of my eyes! The real scene stealer is, as in every film relating to Kong, is Kong himself. He’s the most realistic of any incarnations of the original star of the show, but bigger and better. He’s super frightening until you get to know him, but is also vulnerable and frightened too. On one hand this film is about man’s greed and egotism in his belief that the world belongs to us, & on the other, it tells us that the animals were here first and deserve our respect and to be allowed to live in peace without being repressed and molded to fit into the human world.Long live Kong!

Ever since I saw the 1933 King Kong movie, I've always got excited about respins. Amazon made this movie available to rent for £1.99 for prime members. After applying a £1 promo credit, I watched this movie for £0.99, which was its only saving grace.I was looking forward to seeing Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L Jackson in this movie. Samuel, I don't recall uses much bad language in this movie, except trying to near the end but failing...I'll say no more. His character is just an angry serviceman with misdirected rage. Tom Hiddleston plays an SAS person for hire, for his unique tracking and survival skill set. This is something that the movie fails to explore, possibly because the movie suffers from too many characters all vying for on screen time. No disrespect to Tom Hiddleston, but his character could've been played by another actor, Tom wasn't given the script/writing/direction to make the role his own.Good performance by Toby Kebbell, in the limited role that he had. He's a face you'll recognise from other movies.Another face you'll recognise and one of my favourite supporting funny actors is John Christopher Reilly. Had the film been directed from the perspective of J C Reilly's character, then it would've worked better and I may have rated this higher. His character has some brilliant moments that could be hilarious but because of poor/inept directing these moments aren't given the focus that they deserve.There are lots of slow-mo montage scenes i.e the troops loading boxes of ammunition onto choppers that seems to take ages. There is a token annoying scientist, who is plain annoying as opposed to frustrating-to-work-with-genuis-arrogant-scientist.Unlike the other King kong movies the female character (played by Brie Larsen) doesn't spend as much time with Kong. Again Brie Larsen isn't given a chance to shine but she's great with the scenes she does have. (I've never seen her before).The other main and important character, Kong, is just an gargantuan Gorilla, unlike the 2005 version where he has almost human like qualities.There's a point in the movie where a creature regurgitates a serviceman. I took exception to the fact that the serviceman's dog tags where intact. So, that his friends could ID him no doubt. Yet the poor soul had been digested by stomach acid and was skeleton mainly. Perhaps they should make armour out of the same metal as the dog tags.Maybe I'm wrong but to my eyes Kong's size fluctuates (when compared to surrounding and interactions with other living things) throughout the movie and I'm not counting the opening scenes, as that is many years in the past. So, Kong would've been younger and perhaps still growing. Otherwise the CGI is of a high standard. Also, I believe this Kong is larger than in all previous versions..I may be wrong.I prefer the 2005 remake with Jack Black in, sorry (I know a lot of people hate that version).I'm being generous with my 3 star rating. I would like to give it 2.5. My advice is don't pay more than £4 for it. If you can wait, by christmas this movie will probably be available free to rent for Amazon primer members.