DESTROYER : Wednesday 27th March 2019.

'DESTROYER' which I saw this week stars Nicole Kidman playing 110% against type in a much talked about role the likes of which we have never seen her play before, and, she delivers in spades. Directed by American film and television Director Karyn Kusama who's previous film making credits take in 2000's highly acclaimed debut 'Girlfight' and thereafter 'Aeon Flux', 'Jennifer's Body' and most recently in 2015 'The Invitation'. 'Destroyer' saw its World Premier screening at the Telluride Film Festival back in late August last year, saw its US release on Christmas Day, and now its gets a go in Australia last week. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews, has so far recouped just over US$5M of its US$9M production budget, and has received two award wins and another twelve nominations from around the circuit including a Golden Globe, a Satellite and an AACTA nod for Best Actress for Kidman.

As a young cop, Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) went under cover with her former partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) to infiltrate a gang in the California desert with tragic life changing consequences. Bell continues to work as a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department, but feelings of bitterness and remorse leave her down trodden and overtaken by guilt. As the film opens we see Bell coming around from a night of sleeping rough in her car under a viaduct - woken by the nearby sound of skateboarders practising their jumps. She saunters in a half stupor to the crime scene to be greeted by two other Detectives looking over a dead body face down with three bullet hole exit wounds in its back. After a brief exchange of less that friendly words between Police Officers, Bell turns and walks away saying that she knows who the murderer is.

Back at her Police station, Bell receives in the mail a $100 bill half marked in purple dye from an exploding dye pack. Using an old contact at the FBI who seemingly was responsible for sending her deep undercover almost twenty years ago, she is able to confirm that the $100 bill hails from an armed robbery by the Californian gang that she and Chris were embedded in back in the day. She advises her superiors that the bill and the dead body found earlier, are all the proof necessary that the gang's leader Silas (Toby Kebbel) is back on the scene, still active, and picking up where he left off.

To learn of Silas's whereabouts Bell must sift her way through the remaining gang members - gang members that she and Chris were once close with, but all of whom have now gone their separate ways. She begins with Toby (James Jordan), serving time in prison but released for compassionate reasons and now living with his mother serving out his time at home on his death bed - for he has terminal cancer and has only a matter of weeks to live. In return for a sexual favour, Toby gives Bell the whereabouts of Arturo (Zach Villa) who is now trying to live the straight and narrow by giving pro bono legal advice and guidance to immigrants. After a foot chase, Bell catches up with Arturo who spills the details of Dennis DiFranco (Bradley Whitford) - a lawyer who has been laundering the money from the original robbery. Bell deduces that Silas must be active once more because the money from that heist is almost all gone. After a beating at the hands of DiFranco's minder, Bell gets the upper hand and threatens DiFranco at gun point to give her the details of the next money drop off, which is to be collected by Silas' girlfriend Petra (Tatiana Maslany).

Bell catches up with Petra and follows her, camping outside her apartment overnight in her car keeping watch. The next morning Petra and a male friend drive into the city and take part in a heist orchestrated by Silas and his new gang. Bell sees this unfold, calls for back up, and ventures into the bank aided by two recently arrived Police Officers. The three of them lay siege to the armed robbery by now in full swing. In an exchange of rapid gunfire the gang retreat, and Bell catches up with Petra after a foot chase and an exchange of savage punches, kicks and body blows to both sides. Bell however, overcomes Petra and bundles the heavily bloodied woman into her car boot.

In a number of flashbacks we see Bell and Chris develop a loving relationship towards each other. In time, Bell falls pregnant with Chris's child. Bell convinces Chris to become legitimate participants in a bank heist being planned by Silas. Bell's plans is too take their share of the money, report into their Police HQ that after time they lost contact with the gang, lay low for a few months and then resign the Police Force and live happily ever after.

However, come the day of the robbery and Silas changes the plan. Instead of having Bell and Chris as the two getaway drivers, Silas orders Arturo to take Chris' place and for Chris to join him inside the bank at the very scene of the crime. All goes reasonably well, until just outside the bank Silas is carrying a hold-all stashed full of cash which explodes suddenly covering him and the contents of his bag in a haze of purple dye. This pisses Silas off and he returns to the teller and shoots her dead at point blank range. Chris re-enters the bank revealing himself to be FBI and is promptly shot dead by Silas. Bell is distraught and drives off in a rage plunging her van headlong into a dumpster killing the other gang member travelling with her, who by now suspects her of being a Police Officer. Bell hides her share of the stolen cash to retrieve it later. She then returns to active Policing not disclosing her original plan of her share of the heist monies.

Back in the present day, we see Bell in a cafe with her sixteen year old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn) with whom she has a very strained relationship. Bell is attempting to make her peace with her estranged daughter who is in a relationship with a 23 year old guy whom Bell disapproves of vehemently, and whom we see attempting to pay off with a cash sum of US$11K to move to Spokane and never darken her daughters doors again . . . . ever, by phone, letter, social media, in person - never, ever!

Bell does make peace with her off the rails daughter in a round about way, saying that she is far better off with Ethan (Scoot McNairy) with whom Bell struck up a relationship after Chris died but that relationship too is now fractured although the pair are still on good terms. Shelby considers Ethan to be her father, seeing as though she never knew her real father, Chris. Bell and Shelby share a quiet moment together in a diner recounting a fond memory from when Shelby was seven years of age, after which Bell stands up, tells her daughter that she loves her, kisses her on the forehead, and leaves.

Bell is then seen visiting a lock up storage facility where she aims to retrieve her share of the stolen money amounting to some US$300K and which she has not touched since the robbery. Her intention was to give the money to Ethan so that he can look after Shelby and give her the upbringing that she never could. However, upon opening the holdall bag in which is contained her stash of cash it is revealed that the majority of the bank notes are stained with the same purple dye.

She later receives a text message from Silas arranging a meeting at a viaduct, where she promptly shoots him three times at close range, so avenging the death of Chris. The next morning we see Bell sauntering up to the scene of the crime to be greeted by two Detectives looking over the murder victim. The slumped body is revealed to be the same body which Bell looked over at the start of the film bringing the story full circle. We then cut to Erin back in her car with those skateboarders practising their jump tricks. Up rocks her partner Antonio (Shamier Anderson), whom she hands an envelope to saying that all is self explanatory. In it she confesses to her sins giving Petra's location, the stained dollar bills, and a the key to her lock up. After Antonio leaves, we see Bell lift up her shirt revealing an extended stomach with severe bruising and internal bleeding sustained from several heavy beatings during the course of her investigations. She is finally at peace and resigned to her fate.

I have to say that I quite enjoyed 'Destroyer' but not as much as I thought I would. On the positive side Nicole Kidman gives a transformative performance that is so left field of her usual character choices that she deserves all the kudos afforded her for her quite possibly most unrecognisable role to date. And, in that respect she certainly delivers as the once good cop turned bad cop now with a massive chip on her shoulder, a grudge to society and as the weather beaten down trodden chewed up spat out nothing to lose LA cop. And the plot weaves between the past and the present in a way that makes sense and helps you join the dots come the end. But, for all of that this is a fairly procedural cops and robbers genre piece that we have seen before, interspersed with some moments of gripping action, emotional turmoil and revelation. This is Kidman's movie make no mistake supported by a convincing Sebastian Stan, but as for the other characters of Silas and Ethan especially, these are undercooked. 'Destroyer' is certainly worth the price of your cinema ticket for Kidman's performance if nothing else.

'Destroyer' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard form a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES : Tuesday 1st August 2017.

'WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES' which I saw last week has a long history on both the big and small screen as various derivatives of the 'Planet of the Apes' saga, but this last reboot of which this marks the third and supposedly final instalment has received widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. The original reintroduction to the franchise came in 2011 with 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and was Directed by Rupert Wyatt for US$93M and grossed US$482M and starred James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar, the first intelligent ape. In 2014 its sequel 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was Directed by Matt Reeves for US$209M and grossed US$711M worldwide and starred Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis as Caesar again and Toby Kebbell as Koba, a renegade lieutenant to Caesar. Now in 2017 we have 'War for the Planet of the Apes' Directed once again by Matt Reeves for US$150M and so far since its US release on 14th July has taken US$278M and stars Woody Harrelson as the main human protagonist and Andy Serkis again as Caesar. There are several likenesses with the fifth film in the original franchise series 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' but this is not intended as a remake of that earlier 1973 film. 'War for the Planet of the Apes' has met with widespread critical acclaim with strong praise for the acting (Andy Serkis for his Mo-Cap performance especially), the storyline, the action scenes, the music score and the overall Direction.

And so to this gripping instalment. Set fifteen years or so after the outbreak of the Simian Flu, that infected and near wiped out the worlds human population and gave rise to ever increasingly intelligent apes, a rogue group of soldiers known as Alpha-Omega are patrolling through the undergrowth of a dense forest. As they progress it is clear that they are on a mission to seek out and destroy an ape colony. In the distance and up an embankment, the soldiers spy several apes keeping guard on horseback. They let loose with crossbow fire taking out three guards on horseback, before letting rip with the might of rocket launchers and automatic machine gun fire on the unsuspecting ape colony hidden amongst the trees. The apes muster themselves and have the higher ground advantage and give back as good as they get, but ultimately there are many casualties on both sides.

In the aftermath of the attack in which the apes gained the upper hand, there are four live soldiers remaining who are being held captive by the apes. Caesar (Andy Serkis) arrives, and it is clear from his entry that he is the revered leader of this clan of apes. He orders that the four men be released with a clear message to be delivered to their leader that he did not start the war, and that he wants peace between the apes and the humans. Soon after their release, Caesar's son, Blue Eyes (Max Lloyd-Jones) and Rocket (Terry Notary) a lieutenant to Caesar and close friend, return from a reconnaissance mission to find suitable safe haven for the apes to relocate to where they can establish themselves away from humankind and live in peace. They report that they have pinpointed a perfect place for them across the desert and with plenty of water.

Later that night after the injured apes have been attended to, a crack team of Alpha-Omega troops led by Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson) descend on the apes colony hidden behind a cascading waterfall. Caesar is alerted to their presence and quietly musters support to take them out, but not before the Colonel has killed Caesar's wife, Cornelia (Judy Greer) and his son, Blue Eyes. Caesar is distraught and the rage builds up inside him, wanting to exact his revenge on the humans for killing his family after he extended the hand of peace.

The next day, Caesar departs to seek out his revenge on the Colonel. He leaves his youngest son, Cornelius (Devyn Dalton) in the care of Blue Eye's mate, Lake (Sara Canning), and has every intention of going it alone while the clan make for their safe haven beyond the desert. However, Maurice (Karin Konoval) a wise and trusted Bornean oragutan, Rocket and Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) decide to accompany Caesar on his perilous journey, and reluctantly Caesar agrees.

En route they come across what seems to be an abandoned run down lakeside village. They split up and investigate and are greeted by a soldier type, who plays it all innocent before reaching for his gun, only to be shot dead by Caesar. They search through the soldiers hut and come across a young girl (Amiah Miller) cowering in her bed. She cannot speak. Maurice insists they they take her with them, for left alone she will surely die. The two share a connection when Maurice picks up a old rag doll from under the bed and gently hands it to the girl, who accepts it graciously.

In time Caesar, Maurice, Rocket, Luca and the girl make it to the Colonel's camp, but notice that it is being evacuated. Caesar learns from another captive ape that the Colonel has departed for the 'border' where a new Alpha-Omega camp is being established, but none of them know where the border is. They decide to follow behind the outgoing convoy of Alpha-Omega and along the way discover three human soldiers shot and left for dead and buried in the snow. Uncovering the bodies, one remains alive but like the young girl, cannot speak. He soon dies from his wounds. Caesar is left wondering why the Colonel would turn on his own?

Continuing their journey they meet up with another ape in an abandoned resort hotel. Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) can speak, and converses with Caesar that he has been living alone all these years keeping out of harms way, and that he originated from the Sierra Zoo before the Simian Flu pandemic. He learnt to speak human from his captors, who chided him and berated him calling him, Bad Ape! Bad Ape reveals that he knows the whereabouts of the border encampment, and reluctantly agrees to take them there.

Upon arriving at the Alpha-Omega camp Caesar and his party observe that there are hundreds of apes all being held captive. While checking out the facility, Luca is killed protecting Caesar by a patrol soldier, and in his anger and having proceeded alone is captured by Red (Ty Olsson) a lowland Gorilla and former follower of Koba as played by Toby Kebbell in the previous films, who now serves the Colonel against Caesar. In the camp compound Caesar comes to realise that many of the captive apes are from his own clan, including his young son Cornelius, and Lake. He witnesses them being forced into hard manual labour building a high fortified defensive wall and without any food or water.

The Colonel reveals to Caesar that the Simian Flu virus has mutated, causing the human survivors of the original strain to devolve becoming mute and reverting back to a primitive state. Caesar deduces that the Colonel is barricading himself into this heavily fortified remote mountainside hideaway to fend off the remains of the U.S. Army from the North, who want to eradicate him because of his beliefs in killing off any infected humans, including his own son, to stop the spread of the virus. The Colonel firmly believes that he is battling a 'Holy War' for the survival of humankind, before the world becomes an ape planet!

Caesar is tied to a cross at night in the freezing conditions and is then locked up in a solitary cell, and tortured with starvation and hard labour too. Maurice calls the young girl Nova, and she sneaks into the camp under cover of darkness and gives Caesar the rag doll, as well as food and water to revive and sustain him. Rocket allows himself to be captured as a distraction to Nova being found out. The next day when the Colonel inspects Caesar to determine if he still lives, he notices the rag doll in his cell. Asking where it came from, everyone is clueless, so the Colonel takes it with him. Caesar is strengthened by the food and water from Nova, and so hatches a plan with Rocket to effect an escape for all the apes using an underground tunnel that leads out of the camp. Maurice and Bad Ape co-ordinate and execute the escape plan setting free all apes. Caesar goes in search of the Colonel intent on killing him as his final act of revenge.

The camp then comes under attack by the US Army. As Caesar reaches the Colonel he sees that he has fallen victim to the virus that he was so intent on halting himself, and can no longer speak. Caesar pulls a gun to the weakened Colonel's temple, and sees the rag doll on the floor beneath the bed - the source of the virus infection. Caesar rethinks and pulls the gun away laying it to rest on the Colonel's bedside table and turns away. The Colonel picks up the gun, and shoots himself in the head.

As the camp comes under heavy attack from the US Army, Caesar needs to get away and save his own ape clan who while escaping have come under attack from the Alpha-Omega soldiers within the camp. Caesar sees his opportunity to blow up a fuel tanker which results in a cascading explosion that sees the defensive wall of the camp topple over the side of the mountain wiping out just about all of the Alpha-Omega troops, and allowing the US Army to claim a victory. Caesar effects his escape from the fireball mayhem through the tunnel, emerging beyond the perimeter.

As the US Army approach the now decimated Alpha-Omega camp and let out a collective rallying cry, they turn almost in unison to look at Caesar looking at them. Then, with a tremendous roar in the background, they observe a huge avalanche of snow and ice hurtling down on them from high above the mountain caused by the earlier attack commotion. They too are wiped out without a trace leaving Caesar and his clan looking on from the safety of high trees that they were able to escape too to evade the treacherous avalanche. In the aftermath of this, the apes regroup and Caesar leads them to beyond the desert and their safe haven, where the gathered clan rejoice in their new found freedom, the wide open spaces and the land of plenty.

This is a fitting end to the latest and most successful of this franchise reincarnation yet. The CGI and motion capture technology behind the anthropoids is quite stunning, making for a more realistic experience backed up by a smarter, stronger, layered sequel that for the third instalment in a series is unusual in itself. The film serves up raw emotion, gritty action, epic spectacle all underpinned by first rate believable performances, assured Direction and a story you can invest in. At over 140 minutes long however, perhaps just a tad too long, that said, the film moves along at a fast pace and never labours. Talk of a fourth film in this rebooted franchise has already been mooted. Catch it on the big screen while you can - you won't be disappointed.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th July 2017.

'Planet of the Apes' which sees another film released under this banner this week (see Preview below) started out life way back in 1963 as a novel by French Author Pierre Boulle titled 'La Planete des Singes' (translated as 'Planet of the Apes' or 'Monkey Planet') and since then has gone on to spawn it's original 1968 film adaptation with Charlton Heston in the iconic role as Astronaut George Taylor who crash lands on a seemingly alien planet inhabited by intelligent apes who rule over humans, only to discover in the closing scene that he is in fact on Earth sometime in the distant future (if ever there was a twist at the end of a movie this ranks up there amongst the best of them!). In turn 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968 saw four sequels - 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' in 1970; 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes' in 1971; 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' in 1972; and 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' in 1973. These first five films cost a combined US$16M to bring to the big screen, and collectively they grossed a total worldwide Box Office stash of US$160M.

Then of course came Tim Burton's reimagining with 2001 'Planet of the Apes' which cost US$100M to make and raked in US$362M, but which met with a luke warm critical response. In the meantime, there had been a fourteen episode televisions series in 1974 that was based on the earlier film franchise that saw Roddy McDowall return as chimpanzee Galen, whereas McDowall played the ape Cornelius in two of the original films and Caesar, the son of Cornelius in the latter two. The series was canned after its first season due to lacklustre ratings, and in 1975 an animated series hit the TV screens for thirteen episodes, but once again due to average ratings only at best, a second season was never commissioned. However, the storyline continued in various novels by noted Sci-Fi authors of the day, as did comic books, toys and merchandise, video games and apparently a theme park ride is under construction in Malaysia too. Which brings us up to the present day, and a successful reboot of the franchise that is so far three films in, going strong and has seen solid Box Office returns and largely critical acclaim.

This week then there are just two new release films coming to your local independent theatre or multiplex. First up we have the second sequel in a successful rebooted Sci-Fi franchise that sees mankind face of head to head, hand to hand and toe to toe against simian kind to determine the rulers of our planet, and then we have a children's tale of a young lad learning a few life lessons from a giant walking, talking tree.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the two new releases as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are cordially invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your cinematic experience in the coming week.

'WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES' (Rated M) - the 'Planet of the Apes' saga has a long history on both the big and small screen, but this last reboot of which this marks the third and supposedly final instalment has received widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. The original reintroduction to the franchise came in 2011 with 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and was Directed by Rupert Wyatt for US$93M and grossed US$482M and starred James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar, the first intelligent ape. In 2014 its sequel 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was Directed by Matt Reeves for US$209M and grossed US$711M worldwide and starred Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis as Caesar again and Toby Kebbell as Koba, a lieutenant to Caesar. Now in 2017 we have 'War for the Planet of the Apes' Directed once again by Matt Reeves for US$150M and so far since its US release on 14th July has taken US$178M and stars Woody Harrelson as the main human protagonist and Andy Serkis again as Caesar. There are several likenesses with the fifth film in the original franchise series 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' but this is not intended as a remake of that earlier 1973 film. 'War for the Planet of the Apes' has met with widespread critical acclaim with strong praise for the acting (Andy Serkis for his Mo-Cap performance especially), the storyline, the action scenes, the music score and the overall Direction.

And so to this gripping instalment. We join Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his apes who are forced into a deadly conflict with a military faction of humans known as Alpha-Omega led by the ruthless paramilitary Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson) who is obsessed with wiping out Caesar's tribe and any humans infected with the Simian Flu to preserve mankind's place as the dominant species. After the apes suffer huge losses at the hands of the Colonel's army, Caesar needs to come to terms with his own inner darker instincts and so embarks on his own journey to avenge his kind. As that journey counts down to the final face to face conflict, Caesar and the Colonel are pitched against one another in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both of them as individuals, their species and the planet. Talk of a fourth film in this rebooted franchise has already been mooted.

'A MONSTER CALLS' (Rated PG) - Directed by Spaniard Juan Antonio Garcia Boyega whose previous credits include 2012's 'The Impossible', 'A Monster Calls' is based on the low fantasy children's book by Patrick Ness published in 2011 of the same name. The film Premiered back last September at TIFF, was released in Spain in early October, then the US last Christmas and in the UK on New Years Day, and only now does its reach Australian cinemas having recovered US$46M from its US$43M budget outlay. Telling the story of young lad Conor O'Malley (Lewis McDougall) who is having to deal with far more challenges in his young life than other boys of his age. His beloved and devoted mother Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Clayton (Felicity Jones) is terminally ill. He has little in common and wants little to do with his strict and ruling grandmother Mrs. Clayton (Sigourney Weaver), and his father, Mr. O'Malley (Toby Kebbell) who has divorced his mother Lizzie has resettled thousands of miles away in the US. But Conor finds a most unlikely friend when one night at 12:07am a tree-like Monster (Liam Neeson) appears at his bedroom window, and proceeds to tell Conor that he has come to tell him three true stories, after which Conor must tell the Monster his own story - that of the truth behind his own nightmare. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster takes Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth that powerfully fuses imagination and reality.

With just two new releases this week to tempt you out on a cold mid-Winter evening, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

KONG : SKULL ISLAND : Tuesday 14th March 2017.

I saw 'KONG : SKULL ISLAND' in the week. Wanting to catch a movie for which I could leave my brain at the door, I saw this offering in 3D because it was the only session that suited my timing. I wasn't disappointed by the first point, but I was for the second and maybe because 3D has been done to death now that it is no longer the novelty that it once was, and let me tell you 3D does little for this film beyond what you would expect. That said, the film does have other redeeming features.

In 84 years of film making history, 'King Kong' has featured countless times in live action and animated forms, in dramatic thrillers and cheesy send ups, on his own or battling some other equally menacing foe. 'King Kong' first mesmerised audiences back in 1933 by the remarkable stop-motion effects of Willis O'Brien, and a story that began on Skull Island, somewhere near Indonesia where as well as Kong, dinosaurs and giant insects also roamed the wild undiscovered landscape. In this origin story Kong is tracked down by filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and falls for Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) culminating in the classic closing sequence atop the Empire State Building from which Kong eventually falls to his death. On the strength of this film, 'Son of Kong' was immediately put into production and released later on in 1933. 'Mighty Joe Young' followed in 1949 also featuring Robert Armstrong, and remade in 1998 starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. Then courtesy of Japanese cinema, came 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' in 1962 and 'King Kong Escapes' in 1967. 1976 saw the Dino De Laurentiis produced remake 'King Kong' and that same year the Brits released the send up of all King Kong movies with 'Queen Kong'. 'King Kong Lives' was released in 1986 and Directed by John Guillermin who also Directed the 1976 film. Peter Jackson delivered us 'King Kong' in 2005 with all the modern day cutting edge technical wizardry he could throw at his three time Oscar winning film that brought in US$550M at the global Box Office. And so in 2017 we have another King Kong offering Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, made on a budget of US$185M and starring an ensemble cast and featuring a raft load of special effects and filmed in northern Vietnam, Hawaii and on Australia's Gold Coast. It has so far taken US$163M, and has garnered generally positive Reviews.

Set in the early '70's a secret organisation called 'Monarch' locate an island that is shrouded in mystery and is said to contain several new species. That island is named 'Skull Island' because from the air the island resembles the shape of a skull in profile. Enter Bill Randa (John Goodman) who works for Monarch who sets up the expedition to go boldly where no man has gone before. He and colleague Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) - a young geologist, Yale University graduate and well known for his ground breaking work on seismology seek the funding support from Senator Willis (Richard Jenkins) who reluctantly gives it. In turn Randa and Brooks recruit James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) a former British Air Services Captain who saw time in Vietnam and who has a particular set of tracking and survival skills. Also hired is Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads the Sky Devils helicopter squadron who have to chopper in the expedition team. And then there's Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) a pacifist photojournalist who has an affinity with nature and the environment.

Pretty soon, the team are assembled and are en route via cargo ship to Skull Island and into the unknown. They get their briefing, military style, and as they approach, the order is given to man the helicopters and negotiate their way through the islands own weather system which sees the island shrouded in thick storm clouds. For Packard and his team of hardened Vietnam War vets, this is a walk in the park, and what could possibly go wrong with a few lightning strikes and a little wet weather? How wrong could they be?

After successfully negotiating the surrounding storm front the fleet of choppers emerge into sudden clear blue skies, sunshine and lush tropical islands below - a picture of paradise lost! Randa and Packard give the order to Brooks to release the seismic charges and they detonate in the verdant forests below shaking the ground with explosion after explosion. This draws the attention of a certain giant bipedal ape the like of which no man has ever witnessed before, and one by one 'Kong' plucks the helicopters out of the sky, swatting them like flies and sending them crashing down to the dense forest floor below. Many are destroyed resulting in those that survived being split into two groups.

After burying their dead, the group containing Conrad, Weaver and Brooks and young Monarch biologist San Lin (Jing Tian) amongst a few others, stumble across a deserted ancient looking village. Venturing inside they are met with local Iwi natives and Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly) who was shot down over the island in a aerial dogfight 28 years earlier during WWII and has been on the island ever since despite his eight attempts to get of it. He has been befriended by the Iwi's, has lived with them all this time, and has learned a thing or two about the island, and it's giant animal life - friendly and harmless, and not so!

Marlow tells the group that Kong is the island's guardian and is worshipped as a god by the natives for protecting them from 'Skullcrawlers'. These reptilian underground lizard monsters slaughtered Kong's parents and ancestors, leaving him as the last of his kind. Marlow also tells them that Kong only attacked the helicopters to prevent the bombs from awakening the largest Skullcrawler, and therefore protecting the locals from it. After being welcomed by the Iwi who take the group back to their heavily fortified village (for protection from the Skullcrawlers, not Kong), and learning more of their culture and beliefs, the group head out on a motor boat that Marlow spent six years building out of salvaged parts from his WWII downed plane. In the meantime, Conrad has an up close and personal encounter with some of the wildlife present on the island!

Needing to reunite with the second group and rendezvous at a designated time with a resupply team in the islands north, Conrad and his group disembark their boat upstream in search for Randa, Packard and his men. They reunite, but Packard is insistent that they continue to search for missing right hand man, Jack Chapman (Tony Kebbell). Little do they know that Chapman was eaten by a Skullcrawler earlier on. Conrad leads the team into the 'Forbidden Zone' - a former battleground and now graveyard containing the skeleton remains of Kong's ancestors.

The Skullcrawler that killed Chapman emerges and attacks, devouring Randa in a moment of lost concentration as he played with his camera. Many of Packards soldiers are massacred too, before Weaver kills it by setting off an explosion. Packard blames Kong for the deaths of his men and wants vengeance. He retrieves seismic explosives from one of his downed helicopters to lure Kong into a trap and kill him using napalm.  Conrad in turn leads the non-military group back to the boat so they can rendezvous with the resupply team in time.

The groups now separated again, with Packard vowing to destroy the giant ape in a ball of fire, and Conrad working back to meet up with the boat. While out scouting the surrounding lie of the land to get their bearings from a high peak with which to look down, Conrad and Weaver come face to face with Kong. Sensing that Kong is not the bad guy here, they resolve to do what they can to save him, to which Marlow staunchly agrees. 

As Kong turns away from Conrad and Weaver his attention is grabbed by fires and explosions set by Packard to lure the ape out into the open, and engulf him in napalm flame. Packard is successful in bringing Kong down, but he's not out. Meanwhile a standoff ensues as Conrad and Weaver arrive at the scene just before Packard is about to butcher Kong once and for all, using more explosives. The group is attacked by the dominant Skullcrawler, giving Kong enough time to recover his senses and stand on his two feet. As Packard is set to detonate the explosives taking out Kong, so Kong stamps on him with his giant size 38 feet!

As Conrad, Weaver and Marlow seek their escape back to the boat and a waiting Brooks and Lin, they are pursued by the Skullcrawler. At which point Kong arrives to their aid, and an epic battle ensues between the two giant creatures. Kong prevails needless to say by ripping out the Skullcrawlers guts through its mouth at the end of its elongated forked tongue. The group make their getaway with Kong looking on, he then turns and walks away. 

In a post credits sequence, Conrad and Weaver are held in detention and interrogated by Monarch officials, and Skull Island expedition survivors Brooks and Lin in a bunker at some undisclosed location, watched from behind a one way window. Conrad and Weaver are told that Kong is not the only monster to roam the world, and are shown archive film of cave paintings depicting Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah. This sets up the already announced Legendary Pictures 'MonsterVerse' and their planned May 2020 release of the 'Godzilla vs. Kong' film.

I enjoyed this film, but it is everything you would expect it to be. A simple somewhat implausible popcorn story that sees strong enough performances from the principle cast, but which are overshadowed by the special effects, the action set pieces, the enormity of Kong (delivered expertly though motion capture by Terry Notary), and the other creatures that share Kong's world. There is a high body count with bodies getting eaten, trampled on, thrown asunder and dismembered, and the film runs along at a solid pace without any melodramatic interludes. Sure 'Kong : Skull Island' stands tall in the pantheon of better 'King Kong' film fare in its 84 year history, but not tall enough to outshine its original predecessor. Worth a look on the big screen nonetheless.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-