I’m not particularly familiar with the King Kong franchise since I usually avoid films based around animals in case the animals get hurt and it makes me cry. Yes, this even applies to giant apes. However, I was invited to the cinema to watch the King Kong reboot Kong: Skull Island, second in a series of Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse” films (which also includes films about Godzilla). After watching the trailer online I was pretty excited. Samuel L Jackson, John Goodman, Tom Hiddleston, and most importantly Brie Larson who I absolutely love, teamed with a kick-ass soundtrack and beautiful camera shots of Hawaii and Vietnam… the film was sure to be good, right? Hmm, wrong. Spoiler alert: read on at your own risk.
It is pretty impossible to distinguish between the beginning, the middle and the end since it’s generally pretty unclear what we are actually supposed to be rooting for. In that sense, it was hard to ever gather any excitement of climax or catharsis. Sure, initially they come to Skull Island to “see what’s there” but “what’s there” reveals itself immediately as Kong emerges to destroy the helicopters dropping bombs onto his home. So, what you may expect to be the main challenge for the characters is dealt with straight away. After that, we are led on a bit of a wild goose chase with the army characters seeking some form of revenge on Kong for their causalities, and the civilian characters hoping to find a way off the island – but not before bumping into a guy (John C. Reilly) who has been stuck on the island living with the natives for almost 30 years, which initiates another fork in the plot.
Clearly, a film about a giant gorilla is going to be a little tongue-in-cheek to some extent with its realism and what not but sometimes, you really had to scoff out loud. At one point, Tom Hiddleston’s character, a British guy sought out for his tracking skills, suddenly acquires the ability to use a samurai sword. In another instance, Brie Larson’s character, anti-war photographer, conveniently has the ability to shoot hand guns as she does successfully several times.
At one point, one of the army guys suddenly decides that he’s gonna die and he’s gonna die a hero. As the group are pursued by a monster, he takes two grenades, detonates them and moves towards the lizard beast. I’m not really sure what kind of character development or impact this was supposed to have because we didn’t really know this guy and we certainly didn’t care about him. Anyway, he bravely approaches the beast with fear in his face, but his shot at honour is foiled when the lizard simply swipes him away into some rocks with its tail and alas he alone dies in the grenade explosion. No help to the rest of the team. Several attempts at emotive identification with the soldiers were made, such as with references to mothers and sons back home but this was just lost in the chaos of the plot.
Of course Samuel L Jackson, like pretty much always, plays a guy with some power and an inclination to put out snappy and sassy one-liners. Again, this caricature was poorly written. As his thirst for blood grows stronger in response to the actions of Kong, camera techniques encourage us to draw parallels between his character and Kong, showing primordial posture and balled up fists. Of course, this was hinting at the age old trope of “he’s not the real monster, you are!” revelation. Shock, gasp, horror. We totally didn’t see this coming. End sarcasm.
One of the redeeming features of the film was indeed the soundtrack, the score composed by Henry Jackman, with the likes of Run Through the Jungle by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Paranoid by Black Sabbath. But being set in the 70s and around the Vietnam-era, of course the soundtrack is gonna be good. It’s almost too easy. But, the film was also actually pretty funny with several laugh-out-loud moments, mostly thanks to John C. Reilly, although these moments did rely on clichéd and been-done humour. It was worth a chuckle. The scenery and camera shots really were stunning, too.
Overall, the film was disorganised and chaotic in a way it simply failed to pull off, even with its all-star cast, scenery and soundtrack. It seemed as though Kong: Skull Island was trying to do far too much in too little time. Perhaps a split into two films with more suspense and mystery would have been preferable. Ultimately, the film relied on special effects and OTT action like many adventure films these days do and unfortunately, I do not recommend that you watch this film. Definitely don’t pay to watch it, anyway. Bring back good writing and put back special effects.
Photos:
Cover photographyed by Alex Munsell