The King Kong thread

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

I like the idea behind the poster: the image of a soldier atop a giant skull while facing up against the enormous Kong is striking imagery, invoking Jurassic Park in a good way.

But, and please tell me if this is weird or not, but why is the flare light green? It kind of takes away from the image for me, you have this foggy, natural aesthetic and then this lime green that doesn't gel well with it's surroundings.

Because if it was red it would be plagiarism to a Jurassic World scene

Not meaning to double post, but it's here!!!

Kong looks so massive! But I dont think this Kong is 30 m tall. He is much taller!

Yeah, I'm not digging it so far. I didn't like the way it sounded before the trailer and this sort of confirms that this isn't going to be my cup of tea. It doesn't look terrible, and my opinion may change with new information or trailers, but it's not very King Kong-ish and there is something just really off about how everything looks.

Also I notice some shots are from the same locations of Jurassic Park-World. Look 1:21-1:24 its the same forest where Chopper was chasing Indominus.

Skull Island filmed in Hawaii as well.

As a monster/adventure movie, it looks awesome! Love the cinematography, direction, locations, cast.
As a Kong movie, I think this trailer confirms that the best King Kong movie will still remain Peter Jackson's one. I prefer his vision of the ape, being an actual animal, and not a monster.
But I understand that this new film wants to show Kong as a monster, so I'm still very excited to see this movie. Also, I hope they show dinosaurs!

I got some strange vibes from the trailer, like that 90s tv show of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Tlw and Primal Rage combined. Not a real fan of how Kong is essentially standing on two legs looking more like Bigfoot than a gorilla but perhaps that's what they were going for. I can see the appeal but it's not my cup of tea. Peter Jackson's King Kong will always be my favorite I believe.

On a side note, how is this Kong avoiding detection for so long? He seems absolutely massive, dwarfing everything on the island. Where can he hide?

Finally! King Kong standing on two legs again! Just like the old Kong films. IMO all the live action Kong films are good to guilty pleasures. Top 3 favorite ones are King Kong (1976) and (2005) plus King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).

I'm kinda creeped out by Kong standing on two legs. Yeah he did it in Kong vs Godzilla and the earlier kaiju films but I'm more used to Jackson's Kong. When they did that pan up shot with him standing in the river I thought it was a person for a few seconds lol.

Richard Levine wrote:

I'm kinda creeped out by Kong standing on two legs. Yeah he did it in Kong vs Godzilla and the earlier kaiju films but I'm more used to Jackson's Kong. When they did that pan up shot with him standing in the river I thought it was a person for a few seconds lol.

I feel like the only one who likes and is more used to classic looking Kong lol. Have you seen the original Kong vs. Godzilla? Kong in that film is terrifying.

Skull Island is clearly meant to be more horror then sci-fi, which is why Kong is more terrifying then majestic+a giant spider being in the trailer. As for the "fake jungle" it was filmed on location in Vietnam and Hollywood the "fakeness" is being done through filters to evoke Apocalypse NOW! which also had a very surreal dream-like feeling to it.

I don't think a upright bigfoot-esque King Kong works with the type of tone they seem to be going for, it comes off as really silly. To me, if have the ability to make a realistic looking ape through motion capture like we have with modern technology, then you should go with that.

Rewatching the trailer though, I do have to say that I like the color grading and cinematography, but everything else in this movie is looking pretty subpar in my opinion.

A giant normal-looking gorilla isn't horrifying at all. A giant man-like ape however is horrifying and evokes memories of stuff like the Colossus of Rhodes.

Mysterious Hero M wrote:

A giant normal-looking gorilla isn't horrifying at all. A giant man-like ape however is horrifying and evokes memories of stuff like the Colossus of Rhodes.

100% agree. The 2005 film was more about crying then screaming and I love the 2005 film but Kong was created to be a monster. And the trailer feels like a movie that's set in the world of Godzilla, which this film is.

Exactly. The 2005 Peter Jackson Kong is more about the plight of Kong and his tragedy, while this is going full action-horror like Aliens.

Mysterious Hero M wrote:

A giant normal-looking gorilla isn't horrifying at all. A giant man-like ape however is horrifying and evokes memories of stuff like the Colossus of Rhodes.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. It worked for the original film and King Kong Vs. Godzilla because of the time period, but this is all I see with this new one.

Spoiler:

I mean you haven't even seen a full view of King Kong in this yet so... Also the stance reminds me more of this-
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03534/The-Colossus-of-Rh_3534739b.jpg

I just love the tone that the movie has. More monster feeling. I love the 1933 film and Peter Jackson version, this one was my main artistic inspiration to drawn dinosaurs. But the thing I dont like from Jackson version is how Kong was humanized. Kong from 1933 was more realisitic in behaviour, he wasnt really in "love" for me. He was acting like a child that want that "toy".

Supposedly this movie won't even have dinosaurs at all which is kind of putting me off.

Sickle_Claw wrote:

Supposedly this movie won't even have dinosaurs at all which is kind of putting me off.

Who said that? Was it the director, the producer, or one of the cast members?

We saw that bone yard filled with skeletons of other members of Kong's species (or so we supposed, before it was revealed just how massive Kong is) and most importantly in one shot a scene with Hiddleston firing his gun from the frill of a Triceratops. And the thing is the dinosaurs must be living on the island because those bones would not only not be there if they weren't, but they wouldn't look so fresh, like they'd only had all the flesh rotted away. Plus, who would the Marines be firing at if not dinosaurs, they can't be natives.

As for why we haven't seen live dinos, maybe it's like the Pteranodon situation in the Jurassic World teaser, they weren't added in until later. Maybe they're still working on the VFX to look Oscar worthy. It is disappointing that we didn't get any concrete evidence of dinosaurs, but I would not rule them out completely just yet.

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

Sickle_Claw wrote:

Supposedly this movie won't even have dinosaurs at all which is kind of putting me off.

Who said that? Was it the director, the producer, or one of the cast members?

We saw that bone yard filled with skeletons of other members of Kong's species (or so we supposed, before it was revealed just how massive Kong is) and most importantly in one shot a scene with Hiddleston firing his gun from the frill of a Triceratops. And the thing is the dinosaurs must be living on the island because those bones would not only not be there if they weren't, but they wouldn't look so fresh, like they'd only had all the flesh rotted away. Plus, who would the Marines be firing at if not dinosaurs, they can't be natives.

As for why we haven't seen live dinos, maybe it's like the Pteranodon situation in the Jurassic World teaser, they weren't added in until later. Maybe they're still working on the VFX to look Oscar worthy. It is disappointing that we didn't get any concrete evidence of dinosaurs, but I would not rule them out completely just yet.

A writer for Empire Magazine said that. (And his magazine has an exclusive set visit that will be published next month)

I hope at least we will have some living dinosaurs like the T-rex fight! Its strange that we have dinosaurs bones when there are no dinosaurs. I remember the last year Hiddelston mentioned before shoots, there will be giant bugs and a t-rex fight. I hope this wont be like the 70s version...I hate that film

RolandEden wrote:

I hope at least we will have some living dinosaurs like the T-rex fight! Its strange that we have dinosaurs bones when there are no dinosaurs. I remember the last year Hiddelston mentioned before shoots, there will be giant bugs and a t-rex fight. I hope this wont be like the 70s version...I hate that film

Not going to lie, that's my favorite King Kong film and one of my top three favorite films of all time. Still tear up over it's ending more than the 2005 film's ending. So I'm fine without dinosaurs in this Kong film. Oh and the original Kong vs. Godzilla didn't have dinosaurs.

No retrosaurs in the Kong movie? Why not just name it Attack of the 50ft Ape? I mean, what's the point of having an entire movie dedicated to Skull Island and not have dinosaurs in it.

CT-1138 wrote:

No retrosaurs in the Kong movie? Why not just name it Attack of the 50ft Ape? I mean, what's the point of having an entire movie dedicated to Skull Island and not have dinosaurs in it.

Precisely!! And this movie has a $190 million budget, $40 million more than Jurassic World, which arguably used more CGI for creating digital landscapes than this movie did! I get that this has a bigger all-star cast than Jurassic World, but I refuse to believe that there are no dinos/retrosaurs in this film until someone comes out and says it. And effectively shoot themselves in the foot.

Well this Kong film isn't an remake of the 1933 classic, it's an "original" story that is about King Kong, it doesn't need dinosaurs. Besides, look how tall Kong is in this film, a fight would require there be an 100 foot T.rex to battle Kong.

It's a movie about Skull Island. Not having dinosaurs would be like Star Wars with only humans.

CT-1138 wrote:

It's a movie about Skull Island. Not having dinosaurs would be like Star Wars with only humans.

Would you want super sized dinosaurs? Yes, the movie will include Skull Island but from the trailer I got the impression the movie is more about Kong. And I know I've mentioned it before but the 1976 and 1986 and the Toho 1962 and 1967 films didn't at all featured dinosaurs. Kong can make this movie fun all by himself.

King Kong, the original and Jackson's film, was very much a Lost World-type move as much as it was about a giant monster. So, if you're going to name your movie 'Kong: Skull Island' then I'm going to expect a cool Skull Island. No dinosaurs, in my opinion, makes Skull Island a whole lot more uninteresting.

What it seems like in the trailer is that the island is mostly desolate, most of the larger animals dying probably due to Kong's huge size and there simply not being enough room on the island for all of them. That'd be an interesting idea to explore, but I kind of doubt that's where they're going.

EDIT: Also, King Kong Vs. Godzilla DID have a dinosaur. It was Godzilla.