Kong: Skull Island

So, monster fans, there’s a new Kong movie out. I personally never really got into the whole Kong phenomenon and a remake/reboot of a monster movie that has been around since the 1930s definitely didn’t thrill me at first. But then I went and saw Kong: Skull Island. 

Set at the end of the Vietnam War, the movie chronicles an expedition to a mysterious island where ‘crackpot’ scientist, Bill Randa (John Goodman) can prove the existence of ancient monsters. The adventure begins well with the team successfully travelling through a hurricane to get to the island, but goes pear-shaped when a giant ape swats the squadron out of the sky and separates them. The tracker (Tom Hiddleston), photographer (Brie Larson), and soldier brave the jungle and find an ancient civilization as well as a 20-years-stranded soldier (John C. Reilly), whilst Randa, Colonel Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), and surviving soldiers trek through lake and plain to get back to the crash site. As one group learns the truth about Kong, the other plans bloody revenge against him. 

This is a very good reimagining of the Kong story. I think setting it against the backdrop of the Vietnam War was a stroke of genius because not only does it really hammer home the idea that the adventure and the monster is a metaphor for war, it’s a fantastic genre enabler! 
This is not your typical monster movie. Everything about this film from the shot composition to the special effects screams of a Vietnam War film. Filters of “Asian orange sunsets” (to quote Redgum) and then gritty light when we’re in the jungle dominate the screen and then we have these wonderful bouts of slow-motion during the most intense parts of the action sequences (of which there are many).
If you want to be pedantic you could argue that Kong is a little heavy on these generic clichés and that the not-so-subtle references to Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are not needed to hammer home the point, but I stand firm that everything visual about this movie was spot-on! You can see the filmmakers’ love and appreciation of genre and film and that’s really what makes this movie so great. It’s a clever idea and aesthetically very pleasing and exciting, delivering all the expected feels of a war movie, but with a great ape at its centre.

Where the film stumbles is in its character development (or lack thereof). Past adaptations have been criticized for spending too much time boringly building their characters so that audiences care about them and I get the feeling that this movie did try to pander to the masses that wanted to see more Kong and more island battles.
But the problem becomes that whatever actions the characters take or whatever gruesome deaths the writers give them, none of it really brings anything to the movie, even when it’s obviously supposed to. A number of the deaths fail as pay-off, Tom Hiddleston I feel was only there to provide a British accent, Tian Jing was there for a diverse cast, and Brie Larson was sort of left to her own devices; it’s like the writers didn’t know what to do with a woman that was neither damsel in distress nor badass independent woman so they just left her. Perhaps the best presence is Samuel L. Jackson who does the role of the only-knows-war soldier-that-loses-his-grip-a-bit quite well, though at some point he seems to break character and just become Samuel L. Jackson (but we won’t begrudge him that).

Despite the shaky skeletal structure of characters, Kong: Skull Island is a movie that I would recommend. Visually, it’s highly simulating with its Vietnam War movie aesthetic and even the computer wizardry around Kong himself deserves some applause because he was a CG character that had proper weight to him. As a genre piece, it’s exceptional: delivering all the thrills, horror, and gritty delights of a war movie and it’s really for this reason that I recommend it.

Starring: John Goodman, Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleson, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, and Eugene Cordero 
Rating: M