Kong: Skull Island Review – Humanity Is Kong’s Greatest Weakness

<p>King Kong&&num;8217&semi;s cinematic life has been vast and storied&period; Starting with his debut in 1933&&num;8217&semi;s <em>King Kong <&sol;em>starring Fay Wray&comma; the eponymous creature laid down the format for all kinds of monster films in the pre and post-code era&period; While the original film was always the one to shine the brightest&comma; Kong had many films&period; Even his son had an appearance&excl; But <em>Kong&colon; Skull Island <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t really looking to those films for inspiration&period; Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is looking to channel some Amblin flavor&comma; a large dose of <em>Apocalypse Now&comma; <&sol;em>and the fun monster battles of the Toho era monster movies&period; Not only does Roberts fail at his attempt to turn those three films into something cohesive but he mostly misses the mark on making the character fun at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Skull Island <&sol;em>is set in 1973 during the end of the Vietnam war&period; Some soldiers are ready to go back home after fighting a war they never entirely understood&comma; some like Lt Colonel Preston Packard &lpar;Samuel L&period; Jackson&rpar; don&&num;8217&semi;t feel like going back home yet&period; Thankfully for him&comma; William Randa &lpar;John Goodman&rpar; is looking for a military escort to a remote island in Southeast Asia&period; Along for the ride are former SAS Captain James Conrad &lpar;Tom Hiddleston&rpar;&comma; journalist and photographer Mason Weaver &lpar;Brie Larson&rpar; and a dozen other puny humans ripe for the killing&period; Sadly&comma; their awe for Skull Island is shortlived when the King himself greets them by destroying their helicopters and killing half the crew&period; Now they have to fight their way through the island while meeting up with the wacky Hank Marlow &lpar;John C&period; Reilly&rpar; and many different types of creatures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;121079" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-121079" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-121079" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;12205113&sol;kongskullisland-kong-grabchopper-e1489687331837&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Kong&lowbar;3" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"402" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-121079" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Kong&colon; Skull Island&comma; Warner Bros&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The filmmakers seem incredibly unsure of themselves all throughout this film&period; If the date and setting didn&&num;8217&semi;t give away that the film is set during Vietnam&comma; the tiresome soundtrack certainly does&period; The <em>Apocalypse Now<&sol;em>&sol;<em>Heart of Darkness<&sol;em> references won&&num;8217&semi;t be lost on you with character names like Hank <span style&equals;"text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;">Marlow<&sol;span> and James <span style&equals;"text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;">Conrad<&sol;span>&period; A major problem of the film is its complete disregard for subtlety&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not that a monster film always needs a message or deep character motivation&comma; but when the film ties itself deeply to <em>Apocalypse Now <&sol;em>and the Amblin films of the early 80&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; there needs to be a decent attempt to make the story&sol;characters interesting&period; Neither of those two qualities are strong in <em>Kong&colon; Skull Island&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Injecting the audience into a story like this involves a teensy bit of reality&period; It can be the physical reality of the situation&period; Environments and different creatures can be shot in real environments and practical effects&period; The reality can also live in the way the characters behave and react&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s very easy to say neither of those things are accomplished&period; There is an unruly amount of CG used in places that could easily have been practically shot&period; There are one too many overly choreographed scenes including a moment where Tom Hiddleston cuts up a few dozen prehistoric birds while wearing a gas mask&period; A large part of this can be blamed on longtime Zack Snyder cinematrographer Larry Fong&period; His presence brings down what could&&num;8217&semi;ve been a loose and fun version of the Kong story&period; With his help&comma; <em>Kong&colon; Skull Island <&sol;em>is a little too polished&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;121078" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-121078" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-121078" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;12205019&sol;a317a9f652d445eaa976bd71f43fc099&lowbar;18eaf1cb734c43b1998b10ac2242b2ee&lowbar;header-e1489687368944&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Kong&lowbar;2" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"486" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-121078" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Kong&colon; Skull Island&comma; Warner Bros&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;d like to give a shout-out to the course correction made in the last 20 minutes of the film&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;s too little too late&comma; Roberts remembers that the audience came to see Kong kick some ass and we finally get to see those monster battles we all wanted&period; In these moments&comma; the choreography of the fights are excellent and with a lot of the humans out of the way&comma; a large portion of the weaknesses of the film disappear&period; While these wonderful moments are squandered by a couple misguided post-credits scenes&comma; it was refreshing to see the movie everyone wanted&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a bright future of <em>Kong <&sol;em>if Legendary Pictures gets their act together&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t see that coming with this franchise&comma; but we can always revisit the great times we had with the character&period; Kong will live on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;