THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The story of King Kong has been told for decades without changing the basis: The Giant gorilla was discovered by Americans in an uncharted island and when taken to America, is killed in the progress. In 2017, we finally got a new perspective of the character with Kong: Skull Island.
PLOT
In 1973, Monarch agents Bill Randa and Houston Brooks request to research the recently discovered titular island to search primeval creatures. They are given the opportunity with the addition of a military escort, led by Colonel Packard. They also hire a tracker named James Conrad for the sake of a ground expedition, along with anti-war photographer Mason Weaver for proof of what they uncover. Arriving at the island after passing through a hurricane, the group plants seismic explosives around the island to prove Brooks’ ‘Hollow Earth’ theory, that monsters have been living underground, explaining their survival against multiple apocalyptic events. Packard’s unit is then attacked by the island’s infamous giant gorilla Kong. The only ones that survive are split between two groups. The first group includes: Conrad, Weaver, Brooks, biologist San Lin (Jing Tian), soldier Slipko and Landsat official Victor Nieves (John Ortiz). The second group includes: Packard, Randa, Landsat employee Steve Woodward (Marc Evan Johnson) and soldiers Mills, Cole and Reles. Packard’s plan is to meet up with fellow soldier Jack Chapman, to get explosives from his crashed chopper and use it to kill Kong. Conrad’s group meets Hank Marlow, who has been in the island for 29 years and had lived with the island’s natives, the Iwi. There, he explains that Kong is the remaining protector of the island. The gorilla attacked because the explosives woke up the real threat dubbed ‘skullcrawlers’. Not only did these things kill Marlow’s friend, Japanese pilot Gunpei Ikari (MIYAVI), but they were able to kill Kong’s remaining family, making the beast the last of its kind. After helping the veteran finish making a boat he made out of his and Ikari’s planes functional, Conrad’s group take off. When making contact with Packard’s group, Nieves is killed by a carnivorous bird. After both sides regroup, they agree to find Chapman. They pass through a pit where one of the crawlers live. Before killing Randa, the reptilian creature spits up a skull and a dog tag with Chapman’s name, implying it killed him. After the group succeeds in killing it, Conrad reveals Chapman’s fate to everyone. Packard still wants to move forward in killing Kong with the explosives, hoping to avenge his soldiers. Marlow points out that if he kills the gorilla, they won’t stand a chance against the skullcrawlers. Nevertheless, the colonel refuses to let it go. The following night, Kong falls for his trap, being incapacitated by ignited Napalm. As he falls, he steps on Woodward. Conrad intervenes again and this time he convinces the soldiers to spare the gorilla. The explosives awaken the alpha skullcrawler Marlow nicknamed ‘the big one’. They all head to the boat but Packard. Before pulling the trigger on the final explosive, Kong crushes him as he gets back up. Cole sacrifices himself to buy some time for the group. He attempts to use his grenades against the big one but as it smacks him with its tail, the bombs go off, which kill him from a distance. Kong re-emerges to fight the remaining lizard. Weaver sets a flare on it as it fights and when it collides to the mountain she’s on, she falls to the lake. Kong saves her from drowning as he slays the big one. He returns her to the group and they all leave the island. The film ends with archive footage of Marlow returning to his wife and meeting the son he hadn’t met before deporting. There is also a post credit scene where Brooks & Lin show Weaver & Conrad that there are more gigantic creatures around the world, revealing cave paintings of Godzilla and others.
THOUGHTS
When first watching this film in 2017, I know that this is far from better than the previous versions of King Kong but it clearly stands out for being the one film where he lives. That alone makes it watchable. Henry Jackman delivers with providing a score that makes the movie as epic as it should be. Aside from the titular character, the visuals on the various new monsters, including the skullcrawlers, are a terrifying delight to see because their presence make the story unpredictable. I do think that the last fight between Kong and the big one is creative to see, mainly due to how Kong is able to use his surroundings as an advantage. Thanks to Terry Notary & Toby Kebbell, the latter who played Chapman, providing motion capture acting, they indeed give a whole lot of life to him as expected. The flaw with the climactic battle is when it came to Weaver’s involvement. I have a hard time believing she survived being in his hands when fighting the remaining skullcrawler, because it felt like he could’ve crushed her on accident, especially when he has to pull his hand she’s in from the big one’s jaw, pulling out the tongue in the progress. That moment is either badass/gross to witness, but the factor of Weaver doesn’t make it convincing. While that is one flaw that can be easily ignored, there were still some I scratched my head about. Near the end of the first act, it felt confusing on how Nieves wanted to abort the mission immediately after seeing the storm , because their plan to get there felt so intricate. For someone who was afraid of the storm, it surprises me how he still has a job like this. It is cool seeing the choppers go towards Kong when encountering him for the first time, and it sets the rest of the movie in motion, but they really should’ve turned around if they wanted to survive. There is a massive continuity error where Mills appears highly clean compared after the spider encounter got him exposed to a lot of slime. If you’re trying to imply he went to another lake to get it off him, it wouldn’t hurt showing that. I still love this movie but imagine how cool would it be if it was about Hank’s experience before his rescue and we see his dynamic relationship with Gun Pei grow. I’m not saying it would be a better movie than this, but it would be highly intriguing to witness. The graveyard scene is cool but there are two big gripes out of it. One, Conrad doesn’t get exposed to the toxic gas when taking off his gas mask. Lastly, Kong doesn’t show up during that scene at all and we know he’s the one that can take out the Skullcrawlers. Maybe the humans would’ve gotten killed if he stepped on them on accident but for some reason, it would’ve been another interesting scenario if he was there. Ignore all of this, and this is still an awesome monster movie. Back to the goods, I give the most praise to the lighting, because the colors remind me of Vietnam based films like Apocalypse Now. I also give a lot of credit to the cinematography by Larry Fong because in the first scene where the crew sees Kong for the first time, he succeeds in making him as terrifying as he was in 1933. The one time I thought about the 2005 version was when midway through the film, Kong is looking at the stars from where he’s about to rest. It reminded me of how in the prior film, he looks at the sunset and you pick up on all the humanity he has deep down as his arc has always been about connection. I thought it was clever for the after credits to confirm it’s inclusion to Legendary’s Monster-Verse franchise. As Weaver and Conrad see the cave painting of Godzilla and other creatures (Rodan, Mothra and Ghidorah), that appear in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it only sets the stone that these characters will soon cross paths. This truly made 2021's Godzilla vs Kong worth the wait. At first I thought it was weird seeing an A-list cast for a movie like this but they surprised me by the end. Samuel L. Jackson impressed me as Packard because he is able to express the pain of a soldier through anger. He is able to keep it quiet before but when he encounters Kong, it broke him because he and his men survived Vietnam and the last thing he expected was to get killed by a giant gorilla. His determination to vow revenge for the fallen made him a fearsome figure and impossible to root for. It’s through his arc and his dynamic with the rest of the characters where we understand there are things far from your own control and the attempt to control what you can’t will only worsen the trouble you could’ve avoided. Going into the rest of the cast, Shea Wingham expresses the similar pain as Cole but only through facial expressions, which makes his performance pay off as well. He has his own perspective of PTSD by seeing the world much differently compared to his brothers in arms. It was a bummer when he got killed off because his intent to kill the Skullcrawler backfired, but you can't help but respect that it bought some time for the group to avoid the following conflict. I find it clever seeing Jason Mitchell, Eugene Cordero & Thomas Mann play soldiers Mills, Reles & Slivko because due to how they look young, it reflects how many American Vietnam recruits were as young as those actors look. I was also impressed with Corey Hawkins as Brooks. This was a character that came off reckless to prove a theory, only to put himself and others in danger. It is during this adventure that he realizes that the most rational decisions should have been thought through. Tom Hiddleston keeps things interesting in expressing the greed that Conrad was at first represented, and than succeeds in expressing his intelligence and survival instincts. For Brie Larson, she is likable as Weaver because due to her intuition and compassion towards nature, she is able to reflect the mercy Weaver had towards Kong. Every encounter she had with him, she sees that the beast is innocent. For me, John C. Reilly becomes the highlight of the movie for me as Marlow. What I like about him other than being the one exposit knowledge of the island, he is able to reflect the pain and trauma of isolation through sarcasm. Despite living with the Iwis, he was lonely without Ikari and the fear of the monsters around the island that weren't Kong made him more paranoid than ever. Realizing that speaks volumes for the character. I didn’t think there is much to say with John Goodman as Randa, but at the same time there is. What makes him interesting enough is how he has his own compassionate he is in proving the truth like Brooks, but is aware how coexistence between humans and Titans are unlikely. He drives the opening of the plot but is misused by the time the characters are separated. So when he dies in the pit, it is almost predictable, due to bringing nothing else to the table. He does make up the suspense of the pit sequence because that crawler swallowed his camera too. And when the camera kept flashing, it drove the suspense on where the creature was, putting the other characters on alarm. So his death wasn’t in vain as it gave the others a fighting chance for much longer. Overall, Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts gave an adaptation of a known character that despite being connected to a bigger picture, it pays off bringing fresh air for being different from the rest. If you love monsters, or are a general fan of King Kong, you’ll likely have a blast with this one.
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