It's become a right of passage for major blockbuster to receive an Honest Trailer months after its theatrical release. At the very least, you can look forward to the deep-voiced narrator making wisecracks and a few astute critiques within these videos. The Honest Trailer for Kong: Skull Island that was just released, however, stands out from the crowd because it features director Jordan Vogt-Roberts dropping some blunt commentary truths on his 2017 MonsterVerse blockbuster.
The Kong: Skull Island Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies starts off as you would expect it to, with the narrator taking jabs at elements like the Vietnam War themes and Kong basically being the ape version of Batman. But suddenly, Jordan Vogt-Roberts appears from his Kong Lair to take matters into his own hands, saying that he doesn't mind people critiquing his movie so long as there is merit to their comments. Wisely sidestepping the commentary the narrator had planned about Kong not having a "ding dong" (material that's already been used in Zootopia, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Fantastic Four Honest Trailers), Vogt-Roberts provides his own list of Kong: Skull Island problems, like John Goodman's character being killed once he has no more exposition to deliver and Tom Hiddleston's character looking too clean and "perfect."
However, one part of Kong: Skull Island Jordan Vogt-Roberts will not budge on is the amount of helicopters seen flying to Skull Island, as he sets aside nearly a whole minute to point out that he explicitly had the camera show that the boat was packed with helicopters. Why so many helicopters? Because for this kind of King Kong movie, you need to have the ape ripping into those aircraft and swinging them around like baseball bats. After Vogt-Roberts gets that off his chest chest, the Kong: Skull Island trailer ends with the traditional name jokes, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
This isn't the first time that someone directly connected to one of Honest Trailer's targets has participated in these parody videos. Ryan Reynolds reprised Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, for the Deadpool and Logan Honest Trailers, although in the latter, the Merc with the Mouth uncharacteristically didn't take the opportunity to ridicule Wolverine and Hugh Jackman. Still for Jordan Vogt-Roberts to come on and admit that his movie has some issues is remarkably bold. As he admitted, his biggest critic is himself, and he "bathes in pain." Maybe he can do the same thing after his Metal Gear Solid movie has been released.
Kong: Skull Island is available to enjoy on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, and the giant gorilla will return on May 22, 2020 for Godzilla vs. Kong. Before that, though, the MonsterVerse will continue with Godzilla: King of the Monsters on March 22, 2019.
