Island Voyages & Monster Match-Ups
Kong-Skull Island is an impressive visual showcase and a typical monster movie, including all the usual hallmarks you’d expect from films of its kind. There’s some good action and a pretty decent pacing throughout too.
If you’ve finished watching this and are looking for alternatives – fret not! We’ve combed through the archives and saved you the hassle with our top picks for alternate viewing.
So without further ado, we present 10 movies to check out when you’ve finished watching Kong: Skull Island.
King Kong
Peter Jackson’s first feature after the Lord of the Rings trilogy is still one of the best King Kong movies released in quite some time. With excellent effects and a faithfully adapted story, King Kong is well worth a watch.
The story here revolves around Carl Denham, a prospective filmmaker who settles on the perfect location to finish his movie – Skull Island. After recruiting Ann Darrow to be his leading female protagonist, they jet off to film their motion picture.
Hidden on the island though is a giant gorilla (King Kong) and after snatching up Ann, he takes off. Carl though decides to chase after this giant gorilla, with alternate money-making plans of his own.
With a hefty run-time and a slow-burn build-up, King Kong is a long-running fantasy picture but certainly an enthralling watch.
Rampage
Rampage is a rip-roaring good time; a high-octane adventure featuring giant monsters roaming around alongside Dwayne Johnson.
The story revolves around primatologist Davis, who shares an unshakable bond with an extremely intelligent silverback gorilla called George. When a greed-fueled corporation’s experiment goes wrong, George and the other animals across the country mutate into aggressive super-creatures.
With time slipping away and the monsters on a rampage, Davis sets out to find an antidote and save the creature he once called his friend.
Sure it’s simple and a little bit silly, but this film is all-action and it absolutely delivers on that front.
King Kong vs Godzilla (1963)
The original clash that started it all – King Kong VS Godzilla is the first epic showdown between these two juggernauts.
The story here revolves around a reporter for the UN, Eric Cater. When Godzilla is freed from his icy slumber, news of this reaches Mr Tako, the chairman of a pharmaceutical company. He sets out and seeks a monster of his own to generate publicity for the upcoming grudge match. This monster happens to be King Kong.
If you’re looking for a film similar to King VS Godzilla, this one is absolutely on the money.
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla is an intriguing slow burn, one that plays out more like a mystery thriller than an outright action flick. Still, when Godzilla does show up, the movie kicks into high gear to deliver a bombastic finale that’s well worth sticking around for.
The story begins in 1999 with the Janjira nuclear plant mysteriously destroyed. With lots of question marks surrounding the root cause of this, it’s up to Joe’s son Ford to head off to Japan and pick up the pieces of his estranged Father’s research.
What follows is a slow-burn drama that eventually reveals our King of the Monsters in the third act. Although a little slow and with lots of time for our human characters to take the lion’s share of the screen-time, Godzilla remains a decent film – and much better than the guilty pleasure comedy-flick from 1998.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Set 5 years after the events of the Godzilla movie from 2014, King of the Monsters follows Dr Emma Russell, who inadvertently triggers a worldwide awakening of Hollow Earth’s Titans.
As the long-dormant giants resurface and begin attacking the world, it’s up to our ultimate Kaiju – Godzilla – to fight back and save the day. This sets up an intriguing showdown between Godzilla and Ghidorah, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
Although the monster fighting is excellent, the human characters in this dominate much of the run-time, which is a real shame. Despite that though, this is an essential watch before Kong VS Godzilla, especially given its place in the MonsterVerse.
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim is a movie about giant robots beating up giant monsters. This is about as basic a structure as you could get here, but the movie does pepper in a lot of humanization to really get behind our main characters.
The story picks up right in the heart of this conflict, as the battling forces of humanity find themselves on the verge of defeat. The forces defending mankind eventually turn to two unlikely heroes to try and turn the tide of battle.
Former pilot Raleigh Becket and his untested trainee Mako Mori are teamed together to drive an obsolete Jaeger into victory. Together, they try and drive back the evil forces facing humanity.
Although much less action-driven than one may expect, Pacific Rim’s original idea and serviceable plot makes it well worth a watch.
Cloverfield
Cloverfield is an interesting project that jumped on the found-footage craze back in 2008 while the iron was hot. The result is a strangely compelling and unique monster movie.
Instead of seeing the action up close and all the fireworks that come with it, Cloverfield instead draws the curtains and follows a group of friends caught in the middle of a monster attack in New York.
With brief glimpses of the creature, Cloverfield spends most of its time with a group of panicked and frightened friends. With things looking bleak, the group head out onto the streets for a rescue mission. In doing so, they wind up caught in the middle of mass hysteria and a much larger threat than they ever expected.
With lots of shaky cam and brief glimpses of this huge monster, Cloverfield is an acquired taste but those who like this style of film will find a lot to like here.
Jurassic Park III
Although it is regarded as one of the worst Jurassic films in the franchise, Jurassic Park II is also the one that shares the most similarities with Kong: Skull Island.
The story here takes place after the events of the first two movies and shifts the focus back to Dr Alan Grant. Desperate for funding and on the cusp of a breakthrough regarding velociraptor intelligence, a chance opportunity comes knocking.
When Grant is offered to fly over Isla Sorna in exchange for an easy payday, things predictably go horribly wrong. A monstrous Spinosaurus begins stalking the group, leading to a fight for survival.
At times annoying and certainly not in keeping with the spirit of the first two movies, Jurassic Park III is a goofy guilty pleasure.
The Mysterious Island
Serving as the sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Mysterious Island may seem like an odd choice on the surface. However, with giant creatures, a survival plot and lots of ensuing drama in between, this film definitely has a lot of similarities to Kong: Skull Island.
The story takes place during the US Civil War. A group of Union Prisoners of War escape in a balloon, only to find themselves stranded on a strange South Pacific Island. Only, it turns out the island is inhabited by giant plants and animals. Together, the group are forced to use their ingenuity and quick wits to survive the dangers and find a way back home.
This is certainly a fun and vibrant adventure flick. While the special effects don’t match that of today’s standards, the adventure and story are enough to look past that.
Eight Legged Freaks
Eight Legged Freaks is undeniably a fun little movie, leaning into its goofy and silly premise in a humorous and entertaining way.
Our tale jets us off to a rural mining town. There, a toxic chemical spill unfortunately turns hundreds of little spiders into giant arachnids. In order to save the day, mining engineer Chris McCormack and Sheriff Sam Parker team up with the other townsfolk to take these creepy crawlies down.
It’s certainly not a great movie but it is great fun – which is what’s most important from a monster movie like this.
So there we have it, our 10 Movie picks to keep you busy after watching Kong: Skull Island.
What do you think of our picks? Do you agree? Are there any notable omissions? Let us know in the comments below!