Kong: Skull Island 2017

    During WWII in 1944, two fighter pilots, an American and a Japanese pilot parachute onto an island in the South Pacific.  There was a dogfight in close combat but a very large ape became involved with the battle.  Bill Randa was the American pilot and twenty-nine years later in 1973, he hires former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad to guide an expedition to map out Skull Island.  They have a military escort by the Sky Devils, a former Vietnam War helicopter squadron.  As soon as they reach the island, they drop explosives developed by a seismologist to begin their mapping.  Conrad believes the earth is hollow and filled with beasts predating the dinosaurs.  Right away, they encounter the same large ape from 1944.

     The scenery is very beautiful and I knew it was filmed in Vietnam when the rock formations in the water were shown.  There is not much of a story, a LOT of repetitive fighting with monsters, repetitive fighting by Kong and a LOT of CGI.  There is also a tribe of mute people who worship Kong as a protector-god.  I’m not sure how all these name actors were talked into appearing in this film.  Maybe there was a big paycheck waiting??  2 1/2* (This movie is so-so)    

118 min, Action directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts with Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Jason Mitchell, Thomas Mann.

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 76% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 1184 reviews, Metacritic 62 out of 100 with 49 critics 6.7 out of 10 with 39 reviews,

Special Note:  Filmed in Quang Ninh, Vietnam; Queensland Australia; Oahu, Hawaii and Los Angles, California.  Sets were built at Kualoa Ranch, Hawaii near the same filming locations as Jurassic World of 2015.  The actors didn’t know how big Kong would be until after production.  They asked but every time they were given conflicting answers.  The actual height was 104 feet (31.6992 meters) and the biggest of the American versions.  Michael Keaton was originally cast in the role played by John C. Reilly.  J.K. Simmons was cast in the role played by Samuel L. Jackson.  At the premiere in Vietnam, there was a 16-foot tall display model of Kong.  It became engulfed in flames caused by models of small volcanoes surrounding the statue.  The two-armed lizards are called Skullcrawlers and they were modeled after lizards from King Kong of 1933.  The original screenplay was set in 1917 but it was changed to the Vietnam War era like Apocalypse Now of 1979.  Total gross worldwide was $566.7 million, budget was $185 million and $136 million for marketing, $450-500 million profit needed to break even.