Green Goblin Reviews Kong: Skull Island
So in the lead-up to Kong: Skull Island, I had to actively remind myself that the concept of King Kong need not necessarily be tied directly to the plot of the 1933 film (Island adventure, live capture, display in New York, climb a building, shot down, “Beauty killed the beast”, credits roll), because a remake is rarely better than the source material and trying to remake one the biggest films in cinematic history is asking for a second place trophy if you’re lucky. They tried it in 1976, updating the plot to a then-modern setting and most people agree to pretend that it never happened. Even Peter Jackson’s note-for-note remake in 2005 is typically forgotten 12 years later. So here we have a movie that tosses out the idea of selling a giant creature as an attraction and instead gives us a full extended film based entirely on Kong’s native Skull Island, centering around hollow earth theory, creepy-ass giant bugs and a plot that feels more akin to a cross between Moby Dick and a Jules Verne novel. How does this fair as a reboot to the franchise of King Kong? Well, pretty damn good, I’d say.
Kong: Skull Island’s plot centers around a post-Vietnam scientific research team led by John Goodman’s Bill Randa to man an expedition to an uncharted island in the South Pacific that seems to be perpetually covered in hurricane-level storms. Though he sells the idea as a means to get a leg-up on any possible scientific research the Soviets are cooking up, his chief concern comes from his belief in the Hollow Earth hypothesis; a long-since debunked scientific proposal that claims that beneath our level of the earth is a subterranean environment where monsters and dinosaurs still roam free (like in A Journey to the Center of the Earth). Randa believes that this mythical Skull Island may be one of the few places on earth where the underlayer has a gateway to the outside world and requests a military escort to examine the island firsthand. The call is then placed to Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) to put together a team of men to provide support for what he’s promising his men is just one last tour before making it back stateside. Once on the island, they begin their research into the bedrock underneath the island in the most heavy-handed way possible: they start dropping straight-up bombs in order to get seismic readings. Naturally, this “research” doesn’t go unnoticed and our crew is soon knocked out of the sky by Kong, now re-imagined as a legitimate guardian of the island instead of the chaotic neutral status that I’d be more inclined to award the modern Western Godzilla. They’ve got three days now to make it from the center of the island to the Northern coast and wait for rescue and fight off any and all manner of gargantuan creatures along the way. While the characters in this film are a bit rudimentary, the actors all bring their A-game to the table. Tom Hiddleston plays James Conrad (a former British Airman-turned tracker), who I suppose the film wants you to accept as a central protagonist alongside Brie Larson as Mason Weaver (a peace activist and photojournalist), but they honestly play more like secondary characters to Goodman’s Randa and John C. Reilly as Hank Marlow (a WWII pilot who crashed on the island 28 years prior to the events of the film). Reilly is without a doubt, the heart and soul of this film, offering humor, insight and more than a few heroic exploits throughout the course of the film. And you see how he contrasts with that of the ‘Nam-era military, lead by Jackon’s Lt. Packard. Jackson is great as a hardened lifer Lieutenant Colonel who wasn’t ready to leave Vietnam. Of course he’d be the exact kind of guy who would sign off on this type of mission, rather than go home. And of course he’d feel the responsibility and guilt and rage when his decision ends up costing his men their lives. So rather than just leaving, he wants to stay and finish the job by eliminating the threat on the island for the sake of his fallen comrades (because symbolism) and now we have a villain of the Captain Ahab variety who wants to slay the great beast at any cost.
The island design itself deserves some recognition as being varied and solid and establishing tone. I was honestly surprised at how well each scene compliments the arrival of the given creatures of the island. The idea of a bamboo forest being the perfect camouflage for a towering daddy long-legs or a marsh where the small islands turn out to be massive water-bison with antlers as wide as a house is some stellar art direction. You can totally buy the verisimilitude at work and accept the creatures and the world that they inhabit, despite how laughably large they are. Speaking of “laughably large”, Kong himself has received a massive upgrade in the size department. While typically depicted as around 25-30 ft tall, this Kong now stands upright at closer to around 120 ft. He’s capable of grabbing a military supply copter out of the air like a football and spiking it. And while he’s designed as more bipedal than he did previously (more akin to a Chimpanzee than a Silverback), they haven’t taken away his agility or movement speed, which he will need in the future if Legendary’s plans come to fruition. For now, he must do battle with the film’s central monster bad guy. You see, Kong initially got upset with the bombing, because it will wake up the creatures from down below; what Reilly’s character refers to as Skullcrawlers (“Because it sounds cool”). Gigantic two-legged lizards with projectile tongues, thick armor on their heads and a very fast movement speed. Their design is unique enough to that they’re instantly recognizable and a much better adversary than the MUTOs from Godzilla. But……I just can’t help but wish that they were just classic style dinosaurs. I totally get it. Skullcrawlers offer a distinct option for licensing and toys, but Kong fighting a T-Rex or something vaguely close enough to resembling a sauropod is something that we just won’t get here. Missed opportunity, but not a big concern.
The plot here is a little predictable, but the actors still sell you on the adventure. And it’s good to see a big dumb monster movie finally capture the big dumb monster part correctly. I want this movie to do well enough to continue this trend and keep the party going.
8/10
Also, stay after the credits. Good things in the future.