Kong: Skull Island (2017) - Review
Originally published February, 2018The original King Kong is a classic masterpiece that used groundbreaking special effects to tell a grand and tragic story. The sequel, Son of Kong, is a good, though often forgotten sequel to the original. The 1970s remake was another attempt at telling the same story with some impressive effects that were impressive at the time, but it was all less effective at evoking sympathy and interest. Its sequel, King Kong Lives deviated from the typical storyline and is one of the more hilariously bad movie sequels of its time. The Peter Jackson remake was another attempt at telling the King Kong story, this time using computer-generated effects and taking the same amount of time to watch the whole thing as it takes for a med student to complete school—admittedly, I haven't seen that one the whole way through. A little over a decade later, there is now Kong: Skull Island. It's not a remake. It's not a sequel. So what is it?
Skull Island is definitely its own thing. It's a movie that was likely inspired by Peter Jackson's version and, considering the amount of time the characters in that movie spent on the island, the writers probably thought: "We should make a movie where it's all just about trying to survive this prehistoric landscape." Kong: Skull Island took the setting of Kong's home, pretended like all the other movies didn't occur, and made the adventure all about going to the island and then trying to escape it. What you have is not the traditional giant movie monster romp that involves a wild animal getting loose in a city, but a Lost World scenario where people go to a place without knowing what to expect, things go awry, and they have to escape. A simple premise that could be a lot of fun. But is it?
A good moment to the tune of Black Sabbath's Paranoid
Pros
CGI looks pretty good in certain spots with the details in Kong and his facial animations
Some good kaiju fighting in spots
John C Riley
Stylistic touches of the movie work to its benefit
Decent ‘70s rock soundtrack
Cons
Ultimately, a forgettable film
A lot of standard, predictable turns in the film
The cheesiness doesn't always work
Weird stuff where the movie is full screen and then letterbox at certain points
Plot & Thoughts
It's the 1970s and some crackpot (John Goodman) is convinced there is a distant island worth exploring. He's looking for monsters, but to get the government to sponsor his project and provide military protection, he's willing to use false geological estimations and the oldest political trick in the book during the Cold War: "What if the Russians are doing it too?" His wish is granted and Colonel Packard (Samuel L Jackson) happily takes on the charge of being the military protection for the scientific team and drags his platoon out of Vietnam to help. Somewhere along the way, the scientists also managed to convince a former SAS specialist (Tom Hiddleston) to be their survivalist guide. In less than 30 minutes, we're on Skull Island.
Geology. More interesting than you thought
After they set up the plan and the base camp, they start doing the most aggressive and bizarre method of geological study I've ever heard of by dropping bombs on the ground. Naturally, this causes them to run into a bit of trouble. Kong shows up smashes a bunch of helicopters, kills a bunch of soldiers, and pisses off Colonel Packard, who seeks revenge for his fallen soldiers. The survivors of the attack are scattered across the island. All of them need to rendezvous at another end of the island where the extraction point is, but they have to survive the jungle and all of its terrors. Along the way, John C Riley shows up, explains the history of Skull Island and why Kong's so pissed off, and adds some much-needed humor to the situation. I'm not normally a fan of Riley, but his role here is definitely suited to him with some witty dialogue that is well woven into his optimistically friendly persona, making him a standout for the movie.
The plot isn't bad and I quite like the scenario the filmmakers crafted for the movie. There are a lot of opportunities to show off some crazy monsters and give it a horror tone that you don't normally get from Kong movies. That being said, I also forgot I watched this movie multiple times, so it obviously didn't stick with me much. The characters are all pretty rote and even the action itself isn't that memorable outside of the occasional kaiju battle scenes. Hiddleston, who is supposed to be our primary hero doesn't really fall into that role for a majority of the film and only starts to take charge towards the end.
His stare is more sexual and menacing than Kong's
All that being said, to criticize it for not coming up with dozens of interesting characters who all inevitably die by the hands or teeth of giant monsters would be unfair. I don't think Skull Island sets out to do anything more than be an entertaining and fun little adventure since the cheesiness of certain spots with the editing and direction seem deliberately over the top. In some ways, I wish that it kept its somewhat playful and stylized tone that it loses once everyone is separated and it becomes a bit of a survival horror movie. This is part of the reason John C. Riley's character helps the movie so much; he brings a lot of playfulness back into the movie with some well-timed jokes and subtle sarcasm. Though, he takes a while to show up, so a lot of the personality that was present in the opening act is missing for quite some time.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
Kong: Skull Island is not a bad movie, nor does it fail to accomplish what it sets out to do. It's fun and enjoyable for what it is and it has some notable highlights with certain characters and some decent giant monster fights. It's just not the most memorable movie and it lacks enough consistent personality to make it an experience worth having more than once. With a name like Kong in the title, it's a shame that this fun little experiment wasn't nearly as memorable as all the better and worse movies that came before it.
Kong's moments highlighted by letterbox
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