Kong: Skull Island

Embark on a monstrous adventure with us as we unravel the colossal charm of "Kong: Skull Island" and venture into the evolving universe where titans like Kong and Godzilla reign supreme. Our latest podcast episode isn't just a conversation—it's an expedition into the depths of Legendary's MonsterVerse, where we dissect the details and debate the dynamics of colossal creature features. We're not alone in this journey; the characters from the film, including Samuel L. Jackson's battle-scarred veteran and Brie Larson's perceptive war photographer, join us in spirit as we traverse the treacherous terrain of Skull Island.

Prepare to be intrigued as we navigate beyond the silver screen and into the imaginative realm of "Solo Leveling," the anime that has us captivated with its unique blend of gaming and reality. The episode isn't just about the monsters that lurk in the shadows; it's also an exploration of growth, discovery, and the personal journey of Solo Leveling's protagonist, who alone can perceive the game-like world unfolding before him. The conversation doesn't stop there, as we weigh in on the impact of cinematic universes on Hollywood, the evolution of the Monsterverse, and the shared experiences that these narratives create.

This isn't just a podcast—it's a tribute to the storytellers who compel us to look at the world through a different lens. We invite you to join the conversation, share your thoughts, and rediscover the wonders of Kong: Skull Island, Solo Leveling, and the shared universe they inhabit. So grab your headphones, tune in, and let's celebrate the monstrous marvels together.

Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA


Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

Music:
Eric Godlow Beats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpkcYps82PdSo0tK5rEIPA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome one and all to Project Geekology, episode 71. I'm one half of your host, dakota, and I'm joined, as always, with Anthony, and I hope you're ready to walk through a mysterious island caught in a perpetual storm that's evaded anyone from actually checking it out for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. At this point, we're looking for big monkeys, guys, huge monkeys, monstrous hundred foot monkeys. Bring mosquito repellent, you're probably gonna need it. And, yeah, we're discussing Kong Skull Island, the 2017 movie by Legendary, the first or the second movie, the second movie in their Monster vs Series, and it's held up pretty well. I'm excited to talk about it, anthony.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Anthony yes, well, I think the reason why we haven't been able to find it is because we haven't tried to fly through that storm with Vietnam-era helicopters.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Anthony, yeah, you know they almost didn't make it, but I think, you know, after they actually did make it, the big hurdle after that point was, you know, the big monkey, anthony, we're looking for the monk Anthony.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Yeah, for the monk, the Winston.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Anthony, before we talk about Kong, skull Island and all its wonders, what have you been up to?

Speaker 2: 1:26

Well, you know, I went back to watch Kong Skull Island and of course, and actually right after that I decided to hop into Monarch. It's actually a really good show to start watching after Kong Skull Island. Like it works so well.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you texted me and you were. You were, without spoiling too much. There's a brief scene in the beginning of Monarch in Monarch Legacy of Monsters that has John Goodman's character of Bill Randa from the Kong Skull Island movie in like almost like a deleted scene slash, found footage type introduction to the show, where it's a scene that was like not necessarily cut away from the Kong Skull Island movie because it was never filmed for that movie. It's. It's it was filmed separate for the Monarch show, but it's it's like he's recording found footage after his helicopter goes down and he's running from, you know, just giant monsters in the woods. The whole show kind of starts with that mystery of like, what did Bill Randa like? Like, what files did Bill Randa throw into the water and how does that involve the unfolding mystery throughout the entire Monarch show? How far did you get into that?

Speaker 2: 2:43

Let me ask you, so I'm a few episodes in. Okay, what do? You think so. So I've watched so far. I like it. It's it's definitely interesting. It's cool seeing like a perspective of that, like 2014 Godzilla movie, like from you know somebody that was like on on that bridge right.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Francisco, you know the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Speaker 2: 3:06

Yeah, yeah, like he busted right through it and you know there's somebody that's like literally there dealing with that and it's, you know, it's she's gotten like you know, ptsd from that. But it's cool seeing that in how it kind of how the world has changed since this, since that event happened.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Yeah, in the show they call it G Day. So it's like what the day that Godzilla attacked San Francisco is known as G Day, which is kind of a cool like in universe thing that we didn't know before this. But it's cool how they basically like tie events before and after G Day to create a narrative around these characters who aren't necessarily like big characters in the monster films or monster verse. They're not like directly attached to, like the monarch organization, but they have ties to it within their family. It uses that narrative to like follow people who are, for you know, for all intents and purposes, normal people in this crazy new world that was unleashed after Godzilla showed up. So I think it's really the way that it weaves together those events in Godzilla and then in Kong School Island, which we're going to talk more about, you know, later in this episode. I think it's so cool.

Speaker 2: 4:30

I agree. So far it's been a pretty good watch and I'm excited to finish it up because, like a lot of people were, like you got to get to the end. You got to get to the end.

Speaker 1: 4:39

It's actually like some of the stuff in the final three episodes like really blew me away. There's there's a lull I mean most, most shows have a lull somewhere in the middle. But like there's a couple episodes in the middle there where I'm just kind of like I just don't understand why this is taking so long. But then it all finally comes into place.

Speaker 2: 5:00

And I highly recommend it.

Speaker 1: 5:01

You should definitely, you know get through it. It's it's worth it, it's definitely worth your while.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Oh no, I'll definitely, I'll definitely finish it up. But yeah, I've been watching that and I've also been watching this anime called Solo Leveling and it's really good man.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Talk to me about it.

Speaker 2: 5:21

Talk to you about it. So Solo Leveling takes place in a world. It's got this video game elements, but instead of somebody being transported into a video game world, it's the world. And so there are these magical gates that had been opening across the land. You got all these monsters and creatures that are coming through these gates. But along with these gates opening, people start getting these magical powers and they can fight these monsters and close these gates. And they're all ranked from S to E, and so the main character is he's literally the worst hunter. They call him Hunters. He's literally the worst hunter ever. His power level is super low. He gets even the weakest goblins like give him issues, and so it kind of Obviously it centers around him and some stuff happens. And then he starts seeing these video game screens Like daily quests and inventory and leveling and attributes and all that stuff, and this isn't something that everybody sees. And so there's moments where he's like, hey, do you see this thing? And they're like see what? And he's like, oh, never mind.

Speaker 1: 6:53

So let me get this straight, because I'm trying to follow along and maybe this will benefit the listening audience as well, if they don't know what solo leveling is. So this is like the real world, yes, plus some portals that have started bringing monsters into it.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Right, right, it's the real world, like modern day, with like fantasy elements, where you have goblins and different monsters and creatures on the other side of these gates. And these gates when they open, hunters go in to close them before there's like a breakout event, which is the monsters coming into the real world and then you know they have to pretty much fight and, you know, suffer collateral damage and stuff.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Okay. So, because he is now able to see these video game elements that are popping up in this real world scenario, is the general consensus like while watching it, that like there's a bigger conspiracy going on, that like he's actually becoming like sentient within whatever simulation is going on? Or is just like a special power that he's been given.

Speaker 2: 8:02

So I mean, I haven't read the manga, but there hasn't really been like an explanation given. You know, I don't want to dive too deep, but it happened after an event in the beginning of the anime. You know, he kind of goes unconscious after this moment and then kind of comes back and he's able to see these screens. And that's not normal, even for, like regular. You know, other hunters.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Other hunters don't see this, so does that help him in his solo leveling career, like does that give him hints as to how to better his craft to level up?

Speaker 2: 8:39

So now he can like, actually he can actually he can like build he could.

Speaker 1: 8:46

He could build up different attributes that he has, so he could gain the system a little bit.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Yeah, he's been putting it mostly like into strength. But the thing is is that in this world, when somebody most hunted, or like pretty much all the hunters, that like you know once, once you're you're set in a specific ranking, s you know s all the way through e like you're there, that is it. There's no leveling up. So he kind of unlocks this ability to level up pretty much.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Interesting Okay, all right, all right, all right, cool, all right.

Speaker 2: 9:22

So I've been enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Yeah, I want to check that out. So is it a long running anime? I've heard about it before, I just have never checked it out.

Speaker 2: 9:30

It's it's brand new, like the anime is like like six episodes in now.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Okay, so it's so.

Speaker 2: 9:36

The manga has been out for for a bit and it's been popular, but the anime just came out. So, yeah, we're not like seasons deep, it's like literally like not even a season yet. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1: 9:49

All right, so I got to check it out. It's on crunchy roll, I'm guessing.

Speaker 2: 9:52

Yes, definitely All right. Yeah, so you know, just been doing a bit of that and yeah, man, you know gaming, playing my persona. Overwatch two is going through like a really big, major overhaul with their competitive system starting tomorrow, so I'm going to definitely hop into that and check it out. They're revamping the way that you you rank up so that it's a lot like you get more feedback and it's a lot more visual. Before you had to win like a set of. You would have to win a set amount of games and then you would either go up or down a rank depending on how many times you lost. You know it wasn't really clear cut, like where you, where you stood, so this is supposed to fix that. Okay, so cool man, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 10:40

So, yeah, there's, there's been stuff like that on. But, yeah, man, other than that not, you know, not all that much craziness going on. How about you? What have you been up to? I know that we just spoke when we recorded our Godzilla 1954. But you know, what have you been up to this past week?

Speaker 1: 10:58

Yeah, actually. So we're recording this on a Monday and we recorded our last episode on a Friday, so only a couple days have passed, but it was an eventful weekend for me. I was able to finish all like the research and the note taking that I needed to do for my upcoming like YouTube project with the Monsterverse. It's been nice talking about Godzilla these past couple episodes, but it's even nicer being able to talk about the Monsterverse, which is what I'm actually going to be covering on YouTube. So because I've taken like loads of notes, dude, I have like 18,000 words of like timeline notes across all the films, all the shows, and I finally finished Monarch.

Speaker 1: 11:37

You know it takes a lot of time doing like notes for a timeline stuff like behind this, like background stuff, to like stuff. People say so yeah, like I'm not even like exaggerating, it's 18,000 words of stuff that I've like sifted through. I'm super happy. I'm finally like in the writing phase of my my next project, and it's not going to be 18,000 words, it's probably going to be closer like five or 6,000 words like the actual script. But I'm excited to talk about Kong today because you know it will keep me in that mindset and hopefully I can get some writing done this coming week before I take my trip to Florida, down to the land of the Alligator, yes, yeah it'll actually feel a lot more like Kong skull Island down in Florida than it does here in New York.

Speaker 2: 12:27

So it'll be nice, you know it'll feel like you know waiting into the element you know you'll be able to get in the mindset of Kong skull Island. For yeah, talk about it.

Speaker 1: 12:40

I got to bring some like cargo shorts and like camo camo shirts. Yeah, why don't we jump into Kong skull Island while we, you know, while we're here? I don't think I have too much else to say as far as like what I've been up to, besides the fact that I don't think we've mentioned it. On the podcast, anthony and I have a new system going in terms of like output so that we can get more episodes to you more regularly. We're trying to do a weekly release on Mondays. We've been doing that for the past couple of weeks now.

Speaker 1: 13:15

We hit you guys with Mean Girls a couple of weeks ago we hit you with you know as of recording. Today we just released our Godzilla minus one review. So that's a couple of weeks back at this point for you guys, but we're going in a way that we didn't go that we've never even considered before. So, basically, like when we first started the first couple of years of the podcast, I was editing every, every podcast and I think I kind of burned out a little bit because I was also doing that weekly release.

Speaker 2: 13:47

You had a weekly release thing going on with the podcast and so you know, we kind of we had that going for a little while. We wanted to. You know, I kind of missed doing the weekly release. You know, the bi-weekly stuff was good for first season but you know, I decided to come up with the idea of you know, hey, you know, dakota and I should kind of come together with the editing and kind of you know, mentally it feels like we're only editing bi-weekly but like we're really releasing weekly.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Yeah, so we can record once a week, but only one of us has to edit, you know that week, so every other week we switch off, so Anthony will record or Anthony will edit, like last week's episode and I'll edit this week's episode, and so on and so forth. So I think that should, you know, theoretically make the creation, the actual workload of this podcast much lighter, because, believe it or not, folks, there's a lot of editing that goes into something like a podcast, even if it sounds like you know you're just talking. There's a lot of like wasted space, there's a lot of like ums, there's a lot of just background noise that you have to like, try to, you know, get rid of. But I think this will be better for the podcast as a whole. What do you think, anthony?

Speaker 2: 15:09

I agree, I agree. That's why, as of like listening to this episode, you all have seen kind of like an uptick in episodes being released. This is that system coming into play and we just want to get more episodes out. We really enjoyed it and it kind of it gave us a reason to get together and kind of chat weekly, catching up with each other and then talking about stuff that we enjoy, and it also, I feel I don't know about you, but I feel like when we do talk, it helps with the brainstorming of what we should record next.

Speaker 1: 15:48

So, yeah, believe it or not, most of the things that we decide to record, we kind of figure out around the end of a podcast where we're just like do you want to cover this next week?

Speaker 1: 15:59

And we're both like, oh yeah. So yeah, you know, you're definitely right. All right, let's, let's jump into Kong Skoll Island. So Kong Skoll Island is the second movie in the legendary Tohovert. Legendary Tohovert, legendary Monsterverse it's, you know, legendary has got licensing rights to use some of Toho's characters, including Godzilla, Godzilla being the main guy, obviously, in the third movie. In the line they were able to bring in Ghidorah, rodan Mothra, some of the the greats from, you know, the Japanese Monster series that Toho produced. So it's really cool that they were able to also use Kong. Now they can't call him King Kong Because that's technically still something owned I think it's, by MGM, if I remember correctly.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Right, I was going to say because King Kong, you know, or Kong predates Godzilla by like 20 years, Almost 20 years.

Speaker 1: 17:10

Yeah, I think it's 1938 versus 1954.

Speaker 2: 17:14

So it's like Okay, so, so it's getting, yeah, it's getting, it's. Yeah, it's definitely a lot older, it's, I think like back then it was. I think it was a silent film, if I remember correctly. I don't think it was. No, I don't think it was no, I don't think it was.

Speaker 1: 17:31

There were silent aspects to it, but I don't think the whole thing was silent, but it was. You know it was. It was like it was a huge step up for filmmaking at the time. The first King Kong movie the character of Kong was used in like the Toho era movies. I think it was like the third or fourth Godzilla movie where it was like Godzilla vs King Kong or Godzilla. Let me look that up really quick. It might be Godzilla vs Kong or Godzilla vs King Kong. It was King Kong vs Godzilla. So I don't know how they got the rights to use the term King Kong, like how Japan and Toho got the rights to that. But they did and they made a pretty silly movie. But it's kind of. It's still fun to watch. Maybe one of these days we'll cover it. I doubt it, but we'll see.

Speaker 2: 18:25

I think the next one we're covering is probably the best Godzilla of all time.

Speaker 1: 18:29

Son of Godzilla, oh yeah yeah, you kind of need to you kind of need to like work our way up to that one, I think like that's a real good one. Like we don't want to waste that one.

Speaker 2: 18:42

That one's definitely a whopper, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:45

Yeah, I would actually like to do Shin Godzilla. I haven't watched it, but everyone considers that among the top three, alongside the original Godzilla and Godzilla 1954. So that's something I want to watch. But we're going off in a little tangent here. Basically, Legendary got the rights to use Kong, not King Kong but Kong, and they'll use like he's the king in advertising, but they won't use the term King Kong.

Speaker 2: 19:10

Right, right and I say that throughout the movie that he's the king.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Yeah, they do and you know they really play with that licensing loophole.

Speaker 2: 19:20

But we didn't say it together.

Speaker 1: 19:25

We never called him King Kong. I would never. That's clearly Kong. He's just the king. He's just the king of this island. As the second movie, they were able to like move away from the world of Godzilla and actually like turn the clock back a little bit. So Godzilla took place in 2014. This movie takes place in early 1973. And what's?

Speaker 1: 19:47

great about that is, that it's the end of the Vietnam War, so most of the characters in this are coming straight from the war and they still have, you know, like bomb everything attitude into Skull Island, which doesn't work out for them.

Speaker 2: 20:03

Yeah, seriously, they have that. You know and think about this like a lot of them. Yeah, they're coming from Vietnam, so imagine the horrors that they witnessed there. Yeah, and then going into this place and then like you know a whole different set of horrors. It's a whole, seriously, like you know you're dealing with. You see this massive, massive gorilla and like dude, that would freak me out, dude, like, if I see a gorilla that large like you're, like dude what? And then you have those like the, the, the skull the skull crawlers yes.

Speaker 2: 20:43

There's like, like, even weird, you know, they're like a lot creepier too.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Yeah, so they're. They're bipedal creatures but like they only have like forearms, so it's not like they're standing on two legs or just crawling on two legs and their heads a big skull. Basically they're crazy creatures because, like they're basically born with an insatiable hunger so they will just like continue eating and like being vicious. So they're just like a formidable foe and basically like we. You can find out, like in ancillary content, like the comics and some of the novelizations they talk about how the skull crawlers actually killed Kong's parents, like right when he was born. Basically like Kong was born into a world where his parents were dying basically because they were fighting these skull crawlers. So I just think that's like a like a pretty metal origin story for, you know, a giant fighting ape and you know what's crazy is that like.

Speaker 2: 21:41

You see how, because they touch upon that in the movie. And you see how massive Kong is in this film and you know it was a John C Riley's character I forgot his name.

Speaker 1: 21:53

Marlo.

Speaker 2: 21:54

Marlo. He says that Kong is still growing. This guy is already massive and he's still growing.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Yeah, so in this movie his height is about 100 feet. By the time of Godzilla versus Kong he's a 300 foot ape, so he's way bigger, and around the time of Godzilla versus Kong at least the novelization claims that he's almost fully grown. So yeah, so he's. He's gonna get a lot bigger after 1973, but yeah, it'll take a little time, which will definitely will cover that film down the line.

Speaker 1: 22:32

Yeah, I mean, I think I think the audience, I think the audience wants it. I'll be honest, I'm not, I mean, I don't know too much about what the audience wants, but I have a feeling this is something the audience wants, because our our Godzilla 2014 episode, which is, you know, way over a year old at this point, probably two years old at this point, for whatever reason that movie and that podcast is like getting an unnormal, like an unnatural amount of listens for you know, back episodes, like backlog episodes for us, you know like right at this time.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I think I got 24 episodes like 24, 25 downloads for like within a week, which is crazy for an old episode. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot for an old episode.

Speaker 2: 23:18

So right, right. People are currently looking for it. We're a podcast our size.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Yes, we're, we're. We're tiny, we're not big monkey.

Speaker 2: 23:25

We're tiny.

Speaker 1: 23:27

We are not, but anyway, yeah anyway, yeah, what did you think of about John C Riley, john C Riley's character? We talked about him briefly when we covered or at least I talked about him briefly when we covered Godzilla minus one and how, like the writing in Godzilla minus one is very different from the writing you would see in like Kong's Island, because John C Riley kind of talks like a contemporary human, even though he's from World War two. You know, like his, his jokes kind of are more modern feeling. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 23:56

Right, like he doesn't seem like somebody that that had spent like many years in and in Island, you know like he was, with pretty much a primitive civilization and he's still maintained a lot of his I don't know like what would you call it like it's just like decorum almost. You know like he didn't regress to like a like a primitive way, like he still was. He could you still kind of maintains his like you know, present world sense somehow. I don't know, you know, maybe it was because he was building boats out of out of planes and stuff or that boat out of a plane.

Speaker 1: 24:39

Yeah, so I like his story. Ultimately. I think it's a very heartwarming story from like the beginning of the movie, when it's, like 1944, you have an American Air Force guy and a Japanese pilot, basically attacked like dog fighting above Skoll Island and they crash, land on the island and, you know, they take their fight out of their planes and into the woods, or into the jungle rather, and that's where they meet Kong for the first time and they, you know, obviously freak them out because there's a giant monkey. You know, seeing Kong for the first time really put their predicament into new light and they somehow worked through their prior hatred of each other because of nationalistic, you know, warfare or wartime, you know. So clearly they were picked up by the Iwi people who were on Skoll Island already, and they, you know, found a way to like basically become brothers I think that's what John C Riley said at a certain point is that Gunpei Ikari became his brother yeah yeah, and they eventually like created this craft that they were gonna try to get out on out of Skoll Island.

Speaker 1: 25:54

But I think I think they said that he was very recently taken by a Skoll crawler yeah, I forgot what it, what it was that that had killed him.

Speaker 2: 26:05

But yeah, no, you're, you're right, they did build this brotherhood because, remember, he takes, he takes his, you know, his katana that was that was on his grave and he uses it as a weapon and he even, like, speaks Japanese before fighting one of the Skoll crawlers.

Speaker 2: 26:23

So there's definitely a closeness that was built there, you know, and obviously he learned some Japanese and whatnot from him. So there, yeah, there was a brotherhood that was built there and I thought that was like interesting, because I did like that. They had that. You know, even though they had their differences, they put it aside because there was something going on that was bigger than what their issues were they yeah, there's a.

Speaker 1: 26:47

There's a line where he says me and Gunpei spent six years of our lives building this thing and obviously it was a piece of junk. It was all that they could manage with the, you know, the two planes that they had crash landed and random parts from like holes of ships, basically that they they could scrounge together. So it was cool at the end of the, you know, by the end of the movie, seeing the, the new people on Skoll Island helping him finish what Gunpei and him started so that they can actually do something and get out of there. So that was cool. What did you think of? Uh, john Goodman's character, bill Randa, and you know the Bill Rand like and comparing that to the Bill Randa of the Monarch TV show his character.

Speaker 2: 27:30

He, he was definitely, you know, eccentric, like he was so, and he was so obsessed with, you know, finding this creature and Monarch kind of touches, touches, base on, like where his obsession started with finding these. They call him Titans, you know, yeah, and so that that's essentially what Kong is, you know, they're, they're looking, he's looking for this Titan named Kong and or I don't think he knew the name at that point, but he just knew that there was an island and that there could be potentially something there, you know yeah, there were like the guys of geological survey there were clearly legends of the island and now there was, um, you know, satellite proof of the island.

Speaker 1: 28:19

I like the idea at the beginning of this. You know it's, it's like the end of wartime. You know Reagan's saying you know he's, he's, he's, he's seen on the monitors in, like the White House delivering a message to the people, basically saying that we're bringing the troops back. You know, like the the time there in Vietnam is is going to be over very soon. And that's why Bill Randa realized, like, if we're ever going to get funding for this expedition, it has to be while the you know military is still out there. It has to be while they're they're still getting funding out there. So that's when he makes the last ditch effort which, eventually, which actually saved Monarch from extinction, because, like, they were already kind of on the way out at that point.

Speaker 1: 29:05

Like it was Bill Randa and, uh, like Houston Brooks at that time, who that was, that was the other guy that he was with Houston Brooks. He had the idea that like, uh, the earth was hollow and that that's how the Titans got around. And actually that's one of the things that they were looking for on Skoll Island was some proof that Hollow Earth was kind of, or that Skoll Island was kind of like a hub for you know the Hollow Earth theory, basically, you know, which is a later expanded on in future movies like Godzilla versus Kong, they they have a whole like journey into Hollow Earth basically yeah, so it's all kind of connected in that way, and I think that's why the Monsterverse appeals to me so much.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Is that like even though, like the timeline's kind of wonky, like, if you really dig into it there's a lot of plot holes like a lot of plot holes, the actual idea and the actual like mythology and legends, that like they push together to create these like crazy notions and like pseudo science. It's fun, you know, it's one of the funner things like. It's one of the funner universes we have to like explore in right now. I don't know, man, I think it's so fun now, I agree it's.

Speaker 2: 30:14

It's really cool that they've gone and build like a new, a new age of the, the Monsterverse, because, like you said in in the last episode, you know the Godzilla 1954 is that. You know they were, they were build, they had this like Toho universe thing going on and then now, like more recently, we've only really been getting one off Godzilla movies. You know one off. You know, and even like King Kong, you know we had King Kong what back in 2006? These were all like one-off movies and you know now we're starting to get it something that's, you know, kind of like a, you know kind of like an MCU or a or a DCEU. It's a shared universe with these giant.

Speaker 1: 31:01

You know creatures and you know they're gonna somehow connect a little specific rim in there, you know that would be, that would be insane, that would be so crazy.

Speaker 2: 31:11

They'd be like how did y'all do this?

Speaker 1: 31:13

they, they they'd need to like, do like a multiverse sort of thing for that to actually be a possibility. But um, yeah, that'd be, that'd be crazy. But uh, like you were saying, it is kind of MCU-ified. I think the MCU had pretty spectacular and, you know, I would say, damaging effects on like, the Hollywood scene in general. Like after, after Avengers was so popular in 2012, everybody, literally everybody, wanted a piece of that. They, everyone was like we have a bunch of characters we can make a universe. You know, man of Steel was already in production. They're like we can make a whole universe out of this character. The Godzilla 2014 movie sparked the legendary monsters. I don't think that was originally intended to be a whole universe.

Speaker 2: 31:57

I don't think so either. It didn't feel like it. It no, it didn't. And I mean up until that point I don't think that anything like that was being hinted to right.

Speaker 1: 32:08

I mean it may have been, but we weren't really paying too much attention to the Godzilla side of things at that point. But I do think that what the monsterverse has is pretty special. I think that the idea of these giant bumbling, you know, kaiju, titans, muto's is just such a fun concept and, like that, they've remained hidden for millennia until now, until they're they're like waking up. And, of course, kong has been around for a little while, you know, without having been in hibernation or anything like that, but that's because he was hidden on skull island. And I think what makes it work is that, like, you are seeing the evolution of these creatures throughout these movies. But it's the people that you know you're actually following that are telling the narrative or are experiencing it firsthand, and I think that's what makes this special and consistent, like in relation to something like the MCU. Like the MCU, you're following the heroes.

Speaker 2: 33:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:08

You don't follow the daily civilians, you know, unless you're watching Asians of Shield or whatever.

Speaker 2: 33:13

Oh yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1: 33:15

With the Monsterverse, you're following the humans pretty much the entire way, and usually the humans are following the Titans. But that's besides the point. It's got its own special sauce and I think that that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 33:27

Right, yeah, I do. I feel like it would be tough to do like a two to two and a half hour movie of just like the monsters fighting, like there's got to be something mixed in that, there's got to be something at stake, something that adds to. You know why this whatever is going on is a crisis, and that's where the human interaction is.

Speaker 2: 33:53

Why are they fighting? You know understanding the science behind it. You know what are these creatures. Where are they coming from? You know, like it's all like valid, it makes sense, Like if these things started coming out of nowhere, we would want to know where the heck they're coming from. Is it from space, or they where they just dormant somewhere in the mountain? You know.

Speaker 1: 34:12

Yeah, what did you think of some of the like cinematography in this movie, because there's some like really cool shots.

Speaker 2: 34:18

There is Skull Island. Like the location was beautiful.

Speaker 1: 34:24

Yeah, it had that Vietnam feel oh absolutely.

Speaker 2: 34:28

It was like it. Literally it felt like putting, like those guys were being put right back into the same setting, except there were in an island that looked. It looked like a skull, like, like the satellite image looked like a skull.

Speaker 1: 34:42

Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 2: 34:44

And.

Speaker 1: 34:44

I think it was a cool idea to use Vietnam soldiers for like a number of reasons, but it just gives the movie a certain wartime vibe, you know, like they still are at war, even though they're not technically at war with anyone on the island. They make war when they encounter Kong.

Speaker 2: 35:05

You got that in Samuel Jackson's character, like he still, like he wasn't over the fact that they and his mind, and quote, you know, quote unquote abandoned the war. You know that they, that they didn't lose, they just abandoned it, and so he was looking for his victory here.

Speaker 1: 35:24

Yeah, it's such an interesting character dynamic. He's got one of the more interesting characters in this movie because, like you said, the war is not over for him. He doesn't feel like they've completed their mission. He wants to continue the battle like no matter what. There's actually even in the beginning of the movie, like before they get the call to go to Skull Island, like he's debating what's going on, whether or not to bring his troops back home like they have. They have leave. Like they're. They're good to go, but he's willing to risk all their lives just for another mission. Like he's happy, like you got it.

Speaker 2: 36:07

Yeah, he was so happy when they, when he had received that mission, dude Like he was you feel bad for the people who had to go because they were this close.

Speaker 1: 36:17

They were so close.

Speaker 2: 36:19

They were so close to going home and, like dude, like I said, like they experienced some horrors in that, in that war, you know they were ready to go home and then now they're getting sent to some place that they don't know of, they don't know what the enemy or what's going to go on in this island. And you know, just like right off the bat, like them getting there, it starts off terribly because they have to get through that storm, through the you know, with these helicopters that could easily go down to kind of juxtapose, like the military aspect of this movie.

Speaker 1: 36:55

You also had Brie Larson's character. I think her name is Mason Mason Weaver or something like that.

Speaker 2: 37:01

Yes, mason, and she's a full time photographer. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:05

So Samuel Jackson's character is he's not mean to her, but he kind of like puts her in like a place, like he kind of like pushes her away because he believes that the fact that photography and videography within Vietnam was so prevalent that they lost the war at home, which is why they ended up losing the war in Vietnam.

Speaker 1: 37:29

I think that that's, that's his stance on her, and I think that that's just such a cool like back and forth, even though they don't explore it too much, but you know, getting to know these characters on that level. Like this, this person Mason is very much, you know, anti-war. She wants to bring, as you know, she wants to explore what's actually happening in reality through photography versus this person who doesn't want the war to end and he's willing to risk her lives of 100 men basically.

Speaker 2: 38:00

And she was deep in it, she was, she was in the fight to, not like she didn't fight, obviously, but she was in, like dangerous areas because she had mentioned where she was and he's like oh wow, like you were, you were in there, you know.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Yeah. Yeah, so then, then, then then there's a like a mercenary type character that is played by Tom Hiddleston, James Conrad.

Speaker 2: 38:27

I'm happy he was in the movie.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Yeah, he's a very he's a forgettable character, unfortunately. He's a forgettable character, unfortunately, but he's cool. His presence is pretty badass, you know, like it's it's, it's just kind of he's. He's there, he chops some monsters up.

Speaker 2: 38:44

Yeah, I like. I like him in this movie. It's just I hadn't seen it in so long, but it was cool seeing him in there. Brie Larson they're. They're already like kind of they're already like co-workers from the MCU.

Speaker 1: 38:57

So actually I don't think they will. We're at that point, brie Larson, not at that point.

Speaker 2: 39:02

Brie Larson wasn't, but he was, he was yeah. Yeah, so so by the time they that they do like. You know she comes into the MCU. They've already worked together doing this. Yeah, true, but yeah, his character was interesting and you know there was a couple of the soldiers that were that you know they kind of highlighted. Also there was some like crazy character deaths. Random between.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Well, yeah, dude Randa would. It's so funny that, like Bill Randa, who ends up becoming such like a like a big character name in the Monarch Legacy of Monster series, is just kind of a throwaway character at this point. You know, like this is his last hurrah at Monarch, it's his last hurrah in life, really he's, he's taken by.

Speaker 2: 39:50

Skullcrawler.

Speaker 1: 39:51

Yeah, he's taken by a Skullcrawler after like they're like in that boneyard. Yeah, he takes a picture of or like for whatever reason. The film kind of like blows up a little bit in his face and like the camera starts malfunctioning and like that's what draws the attention of the Skullcrawler and it takes him out and it's.

Speaker 1: 40:14

It's a crazy it eats him right up, including the camera that's still flashing every couple seconds and it's kind of cool because they're in the fog and you could see, like, where the Skullcrawler is because, like the flash, the flash inside the Skullcrawler is still going off. So there's stuff like that. There's also the, the soldier who you know, who is trying to like risk his own life by, like he pulled out a grenade and he was ready to let it to like throw it at the Skullcrawler, but the Skullcrawler like whipped a tail and right into the mountains.

Speaker 2: 40:48

So he was trying to get eaten by the Skullcrawler with the grenades, yes, and so he could blow it from the inside. But like that thing was not like I'm thinking, like did he? Did he realize that like something wasn't right and decided to whip him instead of eating? Probably not.

Speaker 1: 41:06

I don't see, I don't see why did?

Speaker 2: 41:08

why did it whip him instead of eat Like? Because they literally were trying to eat everybody else, but for some reason they whipped him. That's a good question.

Speaker 1: 41:15

I don't have an answer for you. I don't think anyone has an answer for you. That's that's like a like a very contentious scene online Not contentious, that's the wrong word. But people are like always commenting on like Twitter about how extra that scene is. Like this is the most unnecessary character death, or like the most out of pocket character death, and it's hilarious. Actually, it's a very funny character death because you expect him to be all heroic. He's going off in slow motion and the Skullcrawler tail whips him and he lets go of the the pin on the grenade too late. Or like, yeah, he lets it go after like he hits the mountain side and it's just an explosion off into the distance and it's just so out of pocket.

Speaker 2: 41:56

Yeah, man, he got blown up. Like you you were. You were thinking he was going to get eaten, but he got. He got tail whipped.

Speaker 1: 42:06

There were a couple other like monsters that popped up on Skull Island in this movie. There's the giant spider thing that almost had bamboo-shaped legs.

Speaker 2: 42:16

Yes, those things were crazy.

Speaker 1: 42:18

Yeah, that actually was terrifying. They call them mother-long legs, like that's their official name, and they are mother-long legs for real, we don't like mother-long legs.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Daddy-long legs are okay, mother-long legs yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:34

Too big Too big to go home. There's also the leaf wings that they shoot at. They're almost like pterodactyl type creatures, but they're made of a more leafy texture, or they look more like leaves, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 42:51

Yeah, somebody gets destroyed by a flak of them.

Speaker 1: 42:55

And there's also a kraken in the water, like a giant squid that Kong briefly attacks and then eats, slurps up.

Speaker 2: 43:04

Well, kong started attacking Kong. Yeah, kong was just trying to bait. He was just strolling through the water. It gets attacked by this kraken and I mean, look Kong's like. Well, I guess I have lunch. Yeah, because he eats some of it and just drags it with him.

Speaker 1: 43:24

There's like. The visual effects in this movie are insane, like some of the close-ups of Kong, especially when he's eating the squid, it looks great. But later, when he's fighting the big skull crawler and he gets stuck in the chains of an old ship, he ends up using a chain attached to a propeller to use as a whip, or a cat of nine tails whip on the skull crawler. Dude, that was like it's so epic, it's so ridiculously epic.

Speaker 2: 43:59

Yeah, it was really yeah. Like Kong is smart, like Kong is like. Like resourceful.

Speaker 1: 44:06

Yeah, he's a very intelligent monkey.

Speaker 2: 44:11

And I think that's why he could see that there were some of those humans. The native people would all be dead if Kong wanted it to be so you know.

Speaker 2: 44:23

So I think, Kong realized was like, if you respect me, I won't mess with you. That's why, like when Mason had that encounter with him, I think that Kong saw that she was trying to help that like bison creature, you know, like she was trying to lift the helicopter tail off, and so he lifts it off and kind of like stares at her for a moment, but then I think he realizes that she's not like a threat and that she was trying to help, because I mean, that's exactly what he did he helped this creature. So you know, kong does have like a compassionate side, you know it's like. You know you mess with me, I'm gonna throw down on you. But like, if you're cool, I'm cool, you know.

Speaker 1: 45:08

But to hammer home the point that he is compassionate and he actually has like true sentience, like he's able to not realize that all humans are good or all humans are bad. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:20

Like he has his issues with a lot of humans in those movies. A lot of humans die at his hands and that's, you know something that happens because they were shooting at him. Blah, blah, blah. But he could very easily see a human realize wow, the last one hurt me a lot. I'm gonna attack this one so that this one doesn't hurt me too. He doesn't do that. He kind of treats every human as they treat him. Yes, If that makes sense, you know.

Speaker 2: 45:46

Which is very like human, like honestly, you know.

Speaker 1: 45:50

Yeah, it's a very intelligent, like sentient thing to do, like if you know if a dog is beaten by a previous owner. Like you know, I hate using that as an example, but like if a dog is beaten by a previous owner, the next owner will have troubles training that dog. It'll have trouble, you know, learning to, or the dog will have trouble learning to trust future humans. Right, because of prior experience.

Speaker 1: 46:16

That's just that becomes their personality. But Kong isn't like an animal. He's not like a normal animal in that sense where he's able to separate this human good, this human bad. And later on down the line we actually find out that he's capable of sign language in Kong, godzilla versus Kong. So this guy's extremely smart.

Speaker 2: 46:44

He also saves Brie Larson.

Speaker 1: 46:48

Yeah, in that fight with the big bad skull crawler, because I think she gets knocked out or she gets flying.

Speaker 2: 46:57

Yes, yes, she does, flying to the ocean or lake or something. Yeah, she's on that cliff and she gets knocked off that cliff and so, yeah, whatever that body of water is like the ocean that's kind of snaking through the island, but, yeah, she falls off and he takes her out of the water.

Speaker 1: 47:20

Yeah, kong's cool. I don't know, I don't know about you guys. Kong's pretty cool. I do that. That first scene when they're flying into Skull Island on the helicopters is super beautiful, just from a cinematic point of view. Obviously, most of it's CGI and most of it they definitely didn't have actual helicopters like that flying information, but it's such a beautiful scene. And then seeing Kong, like the silhouette of Kong in the distance, as like the sun was setting, dude, that's an iconic shot right there. And the way that the camera moves around Kong, like within the helicopter cockpits as they're trying to attack him and he's like grabbing them out of the sky. Yeah, there's a lot of that in this movie that I'm just like looks great. I kind of miss when blockbusters did big bombastic things like that and made it look good. I love this movie, I really do.

Speaker 2: 48:18

Yeah, I enjoy it. I also I remember going to they have that ride at Universal where it was the Kong one, and then they updated it when Skull Island came out.

Speaker 1: 48:31

I don't think I remember if I wrote it. I went to Universal a couple years back. I don't remember if that was operational at the time. It might have been down.

Speaker 2: 48:42

Yeah, it's one of those like ones where it's like a screen one. You're sitting in something and it kind of moves along and then it stops and you have like screens around you.

Speaker 1: 48:52

There was a time where Universal did that for a lot of rides.

Speaker 2: 48:56

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:57

They're moving more towards like coasters now.

Speaker 2: 48:59

Fast and the Furious is like that.

Speaker 1: 49:01

Fast and the Furious. There's one. There's a Hogwarts ride. That's like that too, or it's like a Gringots ride, I think it's like a Gringots spine chase.

Speaker 2: 49:13

There's that. It's the oh you're thinking of the one actually in the castle that you're like sitting in the seats.

Speaker 1: 49:20

Yes, you're sitting in the seats and you're going room from room.

Speaker 2: 49:25

There's also some practical effects on that one too. But there's a the Kong school island is like pretty much like all screens, with some, like you know, stuffing sprayed here and there.

Speaker 1: 49:37

Kong guts, kong guts get sprayed Kong spittle. Yeah, that's cool, that's really cool. What's your favorite ride in Universal? Let me ask you.

Speaker 2: 49:47

I don't think I ever asked you this. That's a good question, oh man.

Speaker 1: 49:51

I have a controversial one. The ride I enjoyed the most when I was there last time I was there was the Simpsons ride. It was a crazy like experience, like I did not expect that to be half as good as it was and it was like laugh out loud fun Like I was. It lasted a good minute, let too. I think it was like a five to seven minute ride and it was, you know, coming from Disney where like two minutes is like norm that was awesome.

Speaker 2: 50:17

I like the. I like the Simpsons ride but, dude, like I don't know, the last time I went on it like I felt so nauseous getting off of that.

Speaker 1: 50:25

People get a lot of motion sickness on that for some reason.

Speaker 2: 50:27

Yeah, I've heard.

Speaker 1: 50:28

I think that's why it's not a common answer.

Speaker 2: 50:32

I think when I had gone when I was younger, I was okay, but like, for some reason, like I don't know, now that I'm older, like I can do, I can deal with roller coasters, but yeah, I don't know, it's just like now. I guess with with age, the whipping around it just doesn't agree with me as much anymore. And I went to Dollywood in October and I went on like, oh my goodness, dude, I went on like six coasters by the time, by the time that that day ended like I was, I was done, like I was out, out for the count.

Speaker 2: 51:07

I knocked out like at the end of that night yeah, dude, like my body had it's. Like my body felt like it suffered so much. I was getting whipped around my head, my brain was rattling in my head. And you know that, dude, that's what the Hulk, the Hulk ride always like it feels, like it's taking my, my like brain and like shaking it. Like my head is a snow globe and my brain is just swirling around in my head.

Speaker 1: 51:32

That's what the rides are Ridiculous. Yeah, that rides are ridiculous.

Speaker 2: 51:37

The ride that I would say that I actually really like is the the Hagrid's one.

Speaker 1: 51:44

I have it was down when I was there, so it was like a really bad rainstorm that day and they just closed the ride and like we were like next in line. We were literally like right there and they closed it and I I haven't gone back since. But yeah, I've heard that ride's good. I've heard the Velocircoster's good.

Speaker 2: 52:01

So the last time. So the last time I went on the Hagrid's one, it was raining, but it wasn't storming, but it was raining and they still let us get on the ride. Dude, I was getting whipped by by raindrops, Like it, just like cause it's going fast, and like I'm just getting whipped in the face by rain and so you know what that's so fun.

Speaker 1: 52:24

You're probably laughing your head off.

Speaker 2: 52:26

Dude, we were, cause I was with, I was with Miguel and him and I were just dying laughing. But just one, because the ride is really fun. And then two like I just I felt like I couldn't see half the time cause my face was getting whipped, and it's really. It's fun because they have like the sidecar and then the part where you could sit up on the bike and I've been able to sit, do both. And the bike part is like really really fun, cause like I mean obviously like you're strapped in and it's got like a back, but like you're sitting up more, like it's like you're on a, on a on an actual motorcycle, rather than like you're sitting in like a little sidecar, you know.

Speaker 1: 53:02

So that yeah that part's fun.

Speaker 2: 53:04

Yeah, that, that's like definitely one of my favorite rides.

Speaker 1: 53:07

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So last thoughts on Kong Skull Island before we close out our discussion today.

Speaker 2: 53:15

Kong Skull Island is definitely a really good revisit. If you all haven't seen it or haven't seen it in a while, definitely go back and watch it, especially since you know we've got more monster-verse movies coming out. And if you've seen Monarch and you haven't seen this or seen it in a while, it's definitely cool to go back and see this. And it was really awesome watching Monarch right after seeing Kong Skull Island because it felt like a continuation really.

Speaker 1: 53:47

Yeah, that that is a really cool experience. So one thing that you were very curious about, like going into that, and I was very curious about when I was rewatching Monarch, is where did? Where exactly does that scene fit? Because there's a scene with, like we mentioned, john Goodman's Bill Randa. That takes place sometime after they land, but before he dies on Skull Island, and there's a scene, obviously like the helicopters go down and then later on we have Sam Jackson's character saying something along the lines of where's Randa? And we cut to Bill Randa, like sitting down on some rock somewhere, but in between that scene and the you know, when he first crash landed, he was basically running through the jungle and he was filming something for, you know, his long lost son that we didn't know about. So that's that's basically like where that scene fits in, and I think it's pretty. The fact that they were able to find a place for that logically was really neat for me.

Speaker 2: 54:52

Yeah, I was so confused at first but you know, kind of like when you explained that it made it, it made a lot of sense. I don't know why I didn't think of that, but yeah, I was just thinking that some stuff was being retconned. It didn't make sense to me at first.

Speaker 1: 55:07

Yeah no, it seemed like a retcon to me as well and that's like I had to like actually like pull up my, my, my digital files of that episode and the movie and just kind of like see like what, where would it fit best? And that's pretty much where it fits best.

Speaker 2: 55:24

So yeah, it makes sense.

Speaker 1: 55:27

Anywho.

Speaker 2: 55:28

What's your last words?

Speaker 1: 55:30

Last words. Honestly, the movie is a little bit of a stinker. Uh no, I love this movie.

Speaker 1: 55:38

I didn't give it a fair chance back in the day. I don't know why, but I this wasn't a movie that, like I loved when I first saw it. I didn't even catch it in theaters when I first. You know when it was, you know, first around. I saw it like a couple of years maybe, but maybe about a year later and I didn't really do anything for me, but coming at it with fresh eyes, with a greater respect for the world that they've created, that monster verse or legendary, has created with the monster verse and you know, just being an overall, more open minded film, goer, I think you know, in recent years, this was awesome. This is such a fun movie. I've watched it a couple of times in the past couple of months in like the lead up to the YouTube project that I'm working on right now and, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm so happy that it exists. It's such a creative concept Like that they could have set this movie at any time in history. But, like Vietnam, who?

Speaker 1: 56:35

would have thought like that would be such a cool time period to explore. Anyway, guys, check this out If you haven't already. It's a it's a fantastic movie. Revisit it if you haven't in a while, because it actually really holds up. So thanks so much for listening to us here for project Geekology episode 71 next week or our next podcast, rather, is going to be on Star Wars episode five, the Empire Strikes Back. Maybe you've heard of it.

Speaker 2: 57:04

Right, yeah, we haven't covered a Star Wars film in a while and we've covered a good bit of Godzilla, monster, verse type films that were like, hey, you know what, let's, let's bring it back and, actually, you know, cover a movie that comes out what like a few years after this movie takes place.

Speaker 1: 57:25

Yeah, so that, uh, this takes place in 73.

Speaker 2: 57:28

So four years came on 1980.

Speaker 1: 57:30

Oh, no, 1980.

Speaker 2: 57:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:33

So I'm thinking about the original, yeah.

Speaker 2: 57:36

Um so seven years.

Speaker 1: 57:38

Yes, seven years later, uh, one of the best movies ever is released. Thank you, george Lucas and company. Um guys, thanks. You can check out our links to our socials in the show notes down below. Please be sure to give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to this podcast, and reach out to us on socials. We want to hear what you guys think about, like any show that you listen to, whether it be, you know, our second episode or, uh, this week's episode. So, anyway, bye guys, bye, adios, pooh Peds, bye, bye.