My Monsterverse Part 2. Kong: King Of Skull Island

Art by Frank Frazetta

Returned to civilization, Ann and Jack try to assemble a rescue effort for Will, but the coordinates to the island have been lost and no one believes their story of a prehistoric world. Also, the onset of a global military war makes ocean travel impossible. It is nearly 10 years before they convince movie mogul Carl Denham to fund an expedition to find the lost Island of Kong. Carl joins the crew, hoping to find lost treasure and natural wonders to film for a new movie. He brings with him archeology and ancient literary experts to study the temple Jack & Ann have told him of.

Skull Island is found. Ann & Jack are elated to find that Will is not only alive, but doing well. The natives of the island took him in, due in no small part to his friendship with Kong, who they idolize. Will now has a wife and child among the natives.

The catastrophic geological events seen in the previous movie have killed most of the wildlife. There are no more dinosaurs, and Kong is sadly the last of his species. However, many unusual deadly creatures such as Skull Crawlers and Kamacuras (giant praying mantises) still remain.  Quite prevalent are the giant spiders, called Kumonga by the natives. All of these predatory species seem to survive by preying on each other. 

Ann & Jack catch up with Will, who tells them the story of his survival while touring the safer parts of his home, which he calls Skull Island due to the many skeletal remains of extinct monsters scattered about. Meanwhile, Carl takes his crew to explore what remains of the temple. Expositionary scenes follow, the experts reading glyphs and such, foreshadowing future events in the series. And wouldn't you know it? Carl and his crew are attacked by monsters and must flee to the huge, maze-like underground corridors beneath the temple. Ann, Jack, and Will, with some native volunteers, attempt a rescue. Kong follows, and has several battles with eldritch beasts who attack the protagonists. 

This film is relatively short and briskly paced, with a visual style reminiscent of classic Ray Harryhausen movies. It's designed to give adult Kong some monster battles and put a few wins under his belt before he meets Godzilla in the next movie, but it does have important plot points for the series. It is speculated that the ancient civilization who built the temple had contact with an extraterrestrial species. As they explore the catacombs, the presence of alien technology is confirmed. It seems this unknown species performed experiments with Earth-life DNA, which would explain the myriad of unusual creatures on Skull Island.

They discover a strange energy generator, the core of which contains a cluster of material that we recognize as the radiating fins of Godzilla's species. During one of Kong's fights, he is knocked into the core. The radiation is expected to be deadly, but has the opposite effect.  Kong is energized, and swiftly defeats his opponent. We will find in the next film that this infusion of energy has made him grow in size and strength.

They find Denham and his crew. They are able to save some of his men, but Denham himself falls victim to his own greed. He dies trying to steal an ancient alien artifact (which seems to function as a sort of key for the power generator).

They leave the island. After saying goodbye to Kong, Will and his family go with them. The film ends once again with Kong surveying his lonely Kingdom.