Academy Award winner Brie Larson, Golden Globe winners Tom Hiddleston and John Goodman, Academy Award nominees Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly and Richard Jenkins, and Tony Award nominee Corey Hawkins sounds like an excellent cast for an awards-baiting prestige drama. However, this impressive ensemble wasn’t gathered together for a somber character study, but a $185 million blockbuster about a giant angry ape.
After breaking out in a big way with low budget independent feature Kings of Summer, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and his phenomenal beard jumped straight into the realm of big budget franchise filmmaking on Kong: Skull Island, with the rising talent signing on to helm the second chapter in Warner Bros. and Legendary’s MonsterVerse.
Making Skull Island a prequel set in the 1970s gave Vogt-Roberts the freedom to deliver exactly the kind of movie he wanted without having to fit his narrative into the pre-existing mythology, and what he delivered was essentially a Vietnam-inspired war film where the enemy just so happened to be King Kong and the various terrifying residents of his homeland.
Pure popcorn entertainment, Kong: Skull Island rocketed to over $566 million at the box office, thrilling audiences with a fast-paced narrative packed to the brim with eye-popping visuals and plenty of kaiju-sized spectacle. A lot of people’s favorite entry in the MonsterVerse by far, the film is proving to be massively popular once again with Netflix subscribers, where it currently ranks as the tenth most-watched title around the world.
Presumably, folks are brushing up on their history before Godzilla vs. Kong explodes into theaters and HBO Max at the end of next month, with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla also residing on Netflix’s Top 10 list as we speak.
Published: Feb 1, 2021 01:47 pm