As the Vietnam War comes to a close, an uncharted island in the South Pacific (a place spoken of in legend called Skull Island) pops up in a satellite image and this gets the Monarch organization eager to explore a place where fact and legend merge. Monarch head, Bill Randa (John Goodman), convinces a senator (a nice Richard Jenkins cameo) to get them funding for a trip using the specter of communism. Under the guise of a mapping mission, Randa, a couple Monarch employees, an expert guide (Tom Hiddleston), an awarded photojournalist (Brie Larson) and a military escort (lead by Samual L Jackson) make their way into uncharted territory. They fly in by chopper and find the island surrounded by a perpetual storm system, breaking through the bad weather they almost immediately come across a colossal ape. Foolishly firing upon it, the intruders get their asses swatted out of the sky, losing a few lives on the way. Lt. Corporeal Packard takes it personally and gets a wee bit obsessed with killing the gigantic simian. Randa comes clean about his organization’s true purpose of discovering the original monstrous inhabitants of planet earth and various beasts kill off the dwindling band of survivors. The island is full of monsters and reigned over by that big-ass ape the natives consider their savior/god, Kong. Kong is the last of his kind and in a constant battle with weird skull-headed dinosaur things that live inside the earth. They also come across an American (John C. Reilly) who crash-landed on the island during the Second World War, which is convenient when it comes to being caught up on what the hell is going down in this crazy place. With a refueling team hitting the island in three days, the clock is ticking for the men to get the hell off of the dangerous rock. My dude Shea Whigham shows up, Reilly talks about cold beers and Cubs games (he also gets a fulfilling resolution), Hollow Earth Theory is thrown around, ‘Nam-era music plays over the soundtrack and Kong shows the heroics. There’s plentiful monster action and a bunch of familiar faces to keep your interest when the monsters aren’t onscreen doing whatever it is giant monsters do. No complaints here.
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