Kong: Skull Island is a massive step in the right direction for Legendary's MonsterVerse to take

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2020)

After the lengthy carbon-copy that was Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, it was finally time to change up the formulaic plot structure and subvert people's expectations in a fresh and unpredictable way from what they're normally accustomed to seeing (for one thing, he never gets taken off the island in this reimagining). Unlike the many previous incarnations of the famous titular gorilla, this film introduced the idea to general audiences about Kong being a skyscraper-sized god-figure instead of an abnormally large jungle beast, akin to something along the lines of a wasei daikaiju eiga (translated into English as "Japanese giant-monster movie").
Knowing full well the film was going to be interconnected with Gareth Edwards' Godzilla (2014), I feared this would be yet another dull snooze-fest with no fun to be had. But luckily for me I was wrong, as Legendary Entertainment seemed to go out of their way to make this the complete polar-opposite to that boring trite (meaning we can now actually see the monster battles this time around as they occur onscreen during the daylight hours and overall, there's more of a focus placed on having naturally-flowing humorous levity which was much welcomed by me as it felt organic to the situations and not forced-in). I'd say the film as a whole has a pretty good level of satire, which works well in its favour.
Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts really managed to evoke a very strong sense of just how powerful this great ape actually is, which was effectively demonstrated by his presence alone (and he sure wasn't ashamed to embrace all the weird monster mayhem!). Another way of making this Kong standout from the rest is that they ever so slightly reinvented his beastly character to act more as the island's noble guardian who protects its native tribe of inland villagers from many nasty predatory monstrosities (while still staying true to the spirit of the original character).
Something I really admire about Kong: Skull Island is that, for the most part, it manages to avoid many of the typical cliche-plagued trappings you'd often see these modern, big-budget Hollywood blockbusters fall into nowadays, like a character heroically sacrificing himself to save the lives of his friends (only for his plan to backfire horribly on this occasion). And it even pokes fun at a few of these overplayed tropes, like when Brie Larson's monologue is abruptly interrupted by Samuel L. Jackson (whose character is consumed by feelings of revenge against Kong, in a scenario similar to that of Captain Ahab & Moby-Dick), or when the soldiers run away from the approaching danger by going straight ahead instead of doing the sensible thing and moving off to the side. Another good example is when John C. Reilly (this film's best character!) is spouting out a bunch of expositional dialogue that's supposed to explain the island's bizarre inhabitants to the team of scientists and instead of it just simply being one monotonously static scene, they kept the moment visually interesting by cutting away to different scenes of Kong going about his daily routine, casually jumping from mountain to mountain whilst keeping a watchful eye out for any oncoming trouble.
As for the movie's main antagonistic kaiju threat, the ominous boney-headed Skullcrawlers are a constant sinister presence stalking and devouring our disposable group of soldier side-characters around the island, with the nightmarish appearance and attributes of a ferociously menacing ambush killer. And most of the island's other terrifying yet majestic creatures, collectively known as "flora-fauna" (exotic animal-plant hybrid organisms), which are featured in the final cut are also creative enough to be memorable in their respective scenes.
Back when this came out, it was the first film in a good while that made me feel like I was actually being taken on a real thrilling adventure (probably helps that I went to see it in IMAX 3D). A big part of why I think it's so captivating to watch is the fact it was mostly shot on location and not entirely on a green-screen set, which then in turn adds an extra layer of grit and plausibility to the audience's mindset of this being a fantastical epic that's somewhat grounded in realism (also, the compositing of CGI into certain shots felt almost seamlessly done to perfection). And although composer Henry Jackman's musical score might not be all that great for listening to on its own when isolated from the movie on a soundtrack, it does manage to work very efficiently within the visual context of its accompanying sequences (however, all the licensed songs they acquired were some awsome choices).
Now, I don't really want to give away any major spoilers for the ending here, but all I'm going to say is that this movie's big finale has the most dynamically animalistic monster fight I honestly believe I've ever seen be put in a kaiju film (and with the addition of some explicit gory violence, it has to be the messiest monster brawl in recent kaiju history).