Such a weird film experience that really ended up being fun

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2017)

I wanted to see a movie on discount Tuesday and thought to myself why not watch another studio churned cgi mess? This is exactly what it was but somehow managed to be subversive enough in its presentation that I had a lot of fun watching it.
This is supposed to take place in the same universe as the Godzilla film of 2014. That is why King Kong is the size of a 30 story building, in hopes that he can throw down with Godzilla in a crossover film. Unlike Godzilla however, this film didn't shy away with showing as much Kong as possible and it was glorious. The scenes where Kong smashes helicopters and fights monsters had that perfect blend of over-the- top action and just being visceral. And the violence in this film had a degree of macabre, so there were moments I was like gasping and chuckling saying "Oh my god!". So many characters get picked off at unexpected moments that it kept the film really suspenseful.
Now this film follows a trend where this is the sophomore film of a director who's debut was a low budget indie film. I think studios do this so that the director is easy to push around and you can cheap out on his share of the budget. And I think the director knew this so he decided to mess around with the audience. There is so much weird dialogue about nothing and I swear the median shot length of the first act was around 1 second because it kept quick cutting. And rather than being annoyed with it, I embraced it and only make me like it more as I placed myself in the directors shoes.
The plot was also weird to say the least especially the setting. Why they wanted the film to be set during the Vietnam War confuses me still. Is it because they wanted to represent a demoralized military force being defeated again by a primitive enemy? Or to push Samuel L Jackson's character as really jaded as he is a Colonel in the US Army. Either way it really worked, because what we ended up getting was a mix of Apocalypse Now, an adventure film, a monster film, a b- movie and Moby Dick.
The characters in this film were a mixed bag. Loki and much of the cast were uninteresting and one dimensional. I don't recall Loki ever going through a character arc and all the blonde girl was characterized as an anti-war shutterbug. The two most interesting characters were played by John C Reilly and Samuel L Jackson. Reilly plays a WW2 pilot who crash landed on the island and had survived off the natives. He was so eccentric and funny and I loved him. Samuel L Jackson though stole the show. As mentioned he plays a very Jaded US Army Colonel who basically becomes the Captain Ahab of the film. I love it when he plays these intense unhinged characters and was so glad he could fit this into his filming schedule. Please keep making movies Sam, I beg you!
So yea, I highly recommend this. Its a very entertaining film that doesn't take itself too seriously unlike Godzilla 2014 did. It has a lot of the generic big budget action tropes but it also manages to mess with your expectations.