Japan has a certain monopoly on classic city-shredding
monsters, what with the king of monsters Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery well
and truly ingrained in the popular consciousness. But damn it all if the West
doesn’t have its own colossal champion which also represents quite a few
milestones for the art of cinema: The big bad gorilla King Kong. Whether it’s
the ground-breaking effects work of the 1933 original, the years-in-the-making
passion project of Peter Jackson’s 2005 version, to the 1960 introduction
between the beasts in King Kong Vs. Godzilla, the Eighth Wonder of the World
has quite a colourful history. I’ll admit that I’m not as big into giant
monster movies as I probably should be, but I am at least willing to hear it
out… even if the trailers didn’t exactly instil hope for this one. So, as we
delve into the next step in yet another cinematic universe, how does it hold
up? This is Kong: Skull Island.
The plot: Fresh off the heels of the U.S.’s retreat from the
Vietnam War, government official Bill (John Goodman) and geologist Houston
(Corey Hawkins) get permission from the government to go on a very special expedition.
With a military escort in tow, along with tracker James (Tom Hiddleston) and
journalist Mason (Brie Larson), Bill and Houston go to the secluded Skull
Island. Once they arrive, they discover that this island holds many secrets,
among them a host of deadly creatures that could soon spell the end of our
explorers.
The cast here is astounding, to put it bluntly. I say this
because this might be one of the single most enticing cast lists I’ve seen in a
very long time. Established actors like Goodman, Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson
and John C. Reilly, a couple recognisable names from… let’s say less than reputable works like Toby Kebbell, and a whole slew of indie favourites from
Larson fresh off of Room to Hawkins and Straight Outta Compton co-star Jason
Mitchell to Me And Earl And The Dying Girl’s Thomas Mann filling in the blanks.
The only thing more remarkable than the Marvel-level quality of the casting,
which makes sense since the casting director here Sarah Finn also casted ALL of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, is how brilliantly they fulfil their roles.
From the leaders of the expedition to the military officers to the hired hands
who eventually realise the folly of their mission, everyone here delivers. Even
those I wasn’t expecting great things from like Kebbell are great here, given
how he is a linchpin in one of this film’s stronger thematic moments with the
titular Kong.
So, between this and the 2014 Godzilla remake, this is meant
to help bolster a giant monster cinematic universe helmed by Legendary
Entertainment. Because if Marvel can dominate the box office with its own
efforts, why not try and get in on that? Hell, even without my own love for
proper world-building in films, this is certainly an interesting idea.
Thankfully, it seems that it is far more than just an idea at this point. The
way that the film creates this world encompassed in a single island, with some
truly incredibly creature designs and a nicely humanised version of Kong
himself, honestly makes it seem like this is a universe that can hold its own
weight in the market.
This is probably helped by the action beats, which left me
with the goofiest open-mouthed grin on my face for the majority of the film.
Legendary’s pedigree for monsters over the last few years (excluding Jurassic
World) definitely pulls through here, giving us these huge throwdowns between
Kong and the other monsters on the island. However, that’s only half of it; the
bigger reason why this film feels as awesome as it does is because, well, these
people knew what to do with the materials they were given. Nothing sucks more
than seeing a film with great concepts but not knowing how to use them
properly, and this alone shows why because the action beats here get very
creative with how they use everything around them.
Rather than go through all
the noteworthy moments, which would just summarise the entire film, I’ll put it
like this: Once we reach the Forbidden Zone, essentially a giant monster graveyard,
the insanity never stops. One after another, we get these set pieces and
moments that throttle the Rule Of Cool for its lunch money, and man does it pay
off. If you ever wanted to see Loki slice flying dinosaurs to pieces with a
katana in the middle of a toxic gas cloud, this is where you’ll find it.
But what about the writing? Is it any good? Does it even matter with how good the surface is
already? Well, again considering this film’s place in a narrative universe, the
writing should at least serve up something interesting. What initially made me
put off watching this was that, even from the trailer, there was a very heavy
stench of anti-war propaganda. Despite how much I railed against Billy Lynn,
that doesn’t mean that I’m automatically going to love the opposite. And yeah,
there genuinely is quite a bit of that in the film proper, all tinged with this
Vietnam War afterglow that is somehow both refreshing and tired, but it’s not all bad. Hell, it’s not even mostly bad.
Through the juxtaposition of
Kong’s sort-of war against the Skullcrawlers (the film is on the fence about
that name, but I personally love it) and the just-concluded Vietnam War, we
actually get some rather poignant moments, especially when we see just how
human Kong really is. Not only that, it ends up fuelling a fair bit of Sam Jackson’s
character motivation, making him this almost Spartan general that may be doing
the wrong thing but you definitely understand why he would feel the way he
does. Hell, if I was sent in unawares
to The Land That Restraint Forgot, I’d be pretty pissed too. Ignoring the
ironic sly jab at today’s current political landscape in the U.S. near the
start, because it is honestly really useless, this film does pretty well with
its subtext too.
All in all, I never could have guessed that this film would
be this amazing. With a tremendous cast list giving some of their best
individual work here and a host of screenwriters also on their A-game, this
film features the kind of action beats that I doubt anything for the rest of
this year will be able to match up to. Not only that, it also has enough
bubbling under the surface to not only build on the foundations that Godzilla
left it as the next step in this monster-driven universe, but also be a pretty good
war film in its own right. True, its visceral thrills may outweigh its more
subtextual musings but it wouldn’t hurt to dig a little deeper.
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