Something I didn't mention in my review was the fate of Marlow's enemy turned brother in arms, the Japanese pilot who also crash lands on the island at the start of the film. You learn that he and Marlow became close friends on the island, and made multiple attempts to escape before he was killed by a Skullcrawler, I however don't think he should have been killed, I think the film would have benefited from actually having him in it, it would have been interesting to see Marlow and his friend, it would have given the film more emotional weight, as the film doesn't really have that until the end, when there's a really touching scene with Marlow singing We'll Meet Again, before being reunited with his wife and son, and watching the game with a beer and a hotdog. I did think that was a great way to end his character's story, something about it's just really sweet, and without it, this film would be very devoid of emotional weight, like it already is for most of its runtime. That's because, like I said in my review, most of the film's characters are really poorly developed; Conrad's dad gave him an RAF lighter before going off to fight the Nazis, that doesn't really add to his character, it's just some exposition, Weaver being in the shit is the same, and has the same problem; in Godzilla Ford had to deal with the death of his mum and his dad's decent into madness, both things you are shown in the film's opening sequence, that emotional weight hits right at the beginning of the film, and the effect is Ford becomes a more interesting character, even if he's completely wooden, and Conrad in this film is a badass. The closest comparison in terms of characters however is Randa and Serizawa, Serizawa is someone with a history with Godzilla, having finally read Godzilla: Awakening, I learnt his father was a Monarch agent, and spent six years trying to prove Godzilla's existence, after surviving the Hiroshima bombing and having a run in with a MUTO. Randa meanwhile also had a run in with a MUTO, which was most likely Godzilla, Randa is driven to find the answers he seeks because of that encounter, while Serizawa is carrying on his father's work, fortunately Serizawa has a comic to help flesh him out, Randa has some exposition, so the point goes to Godzilla, again. Packard and his soldiers were an interesting crew of characters, but not necessarily for the best reasons. It is a spoiler, so I didn't bring it up before, but near the end one of the soldiers tries to kill himself to slow down the Skullcrawler, and it just makes no sense, he tells his friends to go and live their lives, then turns around and tries to blow up the Skullcrawler, but there's no reason he would do that, the film's established him as a little off in the head, but that doesn't explain this very sudden suicidal decision, and his 'sacrifice' was pointless, since it carried no emotional weight. Another soldier writes to his son, and he's actually somewhere I think the film could have expanded, since he spends most of the time he's alive separated from rest of the crew, instead of fleshing him out more and giving him more screen time however, you see him a few times, then a Skullcrawler vomits up his head, wasteful. The soldiers do however provide the film's best laughs; early on Packard makes a Jurassic Park reference, which was funny, the guy who kills himself has a good bit or to, mainly "unconventional encounter", it's still clear though that the vast majority of them are simply there to die, some have a bit more personality than others, which means they either survive or die in more significant ways, and seeing that pattern is too easy.
Packard's quest to bring down Kong is, weirdly, one of the film's most grounded elements, as Kong killed his men, now he sees an enemy in Kong, and he needs an enemy, he needs a mission, so he gives himself one both as revenge for his dead men, and as a justification for his struggle. The suicide soldier had some good foreshadowing earlier in the film about enemies not existing until you go looking for them, his need to kill his enemy drives him to madness, it alienates his men, and in the end, when he fails to kill Kong, and Kong crushes him, it's a satisfying comeuppance. The other character I felt the film did an alright job with was Marlow, like I said earlier, it might have been better to have the Japanese pilot in the film also, since while they were friends on the island, when they last saw the world they were on different sides of a war. I think the film could have done with some more Marlow anyway though, his story was the most interesting of any of the characters, and the most engaging and satisfying from an emotional standpoint, he was cool. They try to go for the feels with Kong and Weaver as well, and it failed, miserably. The scene I was on about in my review was the scene when Conrad and Weaver are face to face with Kong on a cliff, I'm not sure what motivated this, either an effort to humanise Kong, which isn't necessary, or a desire to employ the Kong Ann relationship that was crucial to both the original films, again, not necessary. Regardless of the motivation, it was a dumb scene, and in isolation it would have been just a dumb scene, but later on when Kong is fighting the big Skullcrawler something happens that made it even dumber, he saves Weaver. I always saw the two times in Godzilla when Godzilla saves Ford from the MUTO as just lucky for Ford, Godzilla's target was the MUTO, and the saving of humanity, and more specifically Ford, was just an unintentional benefit to humanity, particularly Ford. Yet in Kong: Skull Island Weaver falls off a cliff into the water, and Kong ignores the Skullcrawler for a second, and actively saves Weaver, goes and fishes her out, and continues fighting the Skullcrawler, while also now protecting Weaver. Is Kong like me, does he just have a crush on Brie Larson, because like I said in my review, it betrays a core theme of Godzilla, that being that these Kaiju exist in a larger ecosystem, one where Humanity is insignificant, I used ants as a comparison in my review, and that's how I see it. Packard's desire to kill Kong is more understandable, as an act of revenge, and that need for revenge blinding him to the reality that Kong is bigger than him, both literally and metaphorically. Meanwhile Kong very literally has bigger problems, but he can put them on hold for a fleshy little human, it's a bit too cheesy for me. On the plus side, the action scenes against the smaller monsters are kind of cool; there's a fight in a Bamboo forest that will scare the living shit out of arachnophobes, and it was a cool little fight. The fight in the bone yard is one of the film's coolest fights, when the crew take on a smaller Skullcrawler, and it basically fucks them up before being incinerated by a gas vent. It was very Godzilla esque, in that all their flamethrowers and their 50 Caliber MG's were useless, and it is one way the film actually adheres to something that was good about Godzilla, plus it was a fun scene, which is good.
Finally there's the thing, that thing, it was just me and a very attractive cleaner in the cinema at this point, everyone else was gone, and she even turned the lights back off for me, so I could see the post credits scene. The scene basically consists of Conrad and Weaver in an interrogation room with the Monarch symbol on the wall, Brooks and the Great Wall chick walk in and tell them that Kong isn't the only king, a direct implication that Kong is not the only giant monster, before showing them photos of cave paintings depicting four monsters; Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, before the film cuts to black, and you hear Godzilla's roar. This is obviously a big deal for the monsterverse, it was known before that Legendary had permission to use these three Toho monsters, and it looks like these three monsters will be in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which has me both stupidly excited, and a bit nervous. First though, the scene itself, it's set up in a very deliberate way to get a reaction out of you, with the building music, and with the order of the pictures; starting with the four monsters individually, before showing a painting depicting Godzilla and Ghidorah together, before playing the Godzilla roar, I won't lie, it worked on me, seeing that these monsters are coming got me a bit giddy, and hearing that roar again, good god, hearing that roar in a cinema again was incredible, even a bit tingly, and I fucking love it. I'm excited to see these three monsters in a Godzilla sequel, being a fan of Godzilla from a very early age, I've grown up watching and loving these monsters, and to see them appear in an American film with American money behind them is something I really really want to see. My concern however is that three monsters is too much, more specifically these three; Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, three monsters that have all been around since the 60's, and will inevitably all have their fans with their own things they want to see. These monsters are big deals, Mothra in particular will be a very tricky one, in fact I'd argue a Mothra solo film is a better idea to start with than throwing her in with three other really popular monsters in a film that could very easily go down the Batman v Superman route of being really bloated and muddled. Another concern I have is believability; Godzilla sets up a world that isn't entirely insane, with a Kaiju ecosystem consisting of numerous super species. Mothra in the older Toho films is a literal god, who usually pals around with a pair of fairies, which isn't a joke, I reckon that would be hard to sell in a realistic monster universe. And Godzilla may be able to expel vast amounts of radiation out of his mouth as a weapon, but at least he's not a three headed alien like Ghidorah, sure he might be a mutant or something, a freak of nature with multiple heads, the alien part will probably be left out too. Mothra on the other hand, again, I think should get her own film, it's possible that she could be featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, then get a solo film in the future, similar to Wonder Woman, but again, Batman V Superman was a muddled mess.
Kong: Skull Island, upon reflection, does not hold up even remotely as well as Godzilla, and while I had fun watching it, it is an inferior film, and a film I hope doesn't set a precedent for this new Monster cinematic universe, because I don't just want to see movies with my childhood hero monsters in them, I want to see movies with my childhood hero monsters in them that are good. Godzilla was good, hell, it was great, Kong: Skull Island however is just good, and though that tease at the end has me really excited for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I don't want that film to be just good, and I really don't want it to be a clumsy, overcrowded mess.
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