Movie Review - Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Image courtesy of Empire Online

The key to a great monster movie is having the right balance (and right kind) of character development and giving enough time to let the monster of the movie shine. The best example of this was Gareth Edward’s Godzilla, which allowed (albeit flatly-acted) characters to grow while constantly giving glimpses and teases about the true form of the monster; when the climax arrives and Godzilla’s power is fully displayed, it does so in a very satisfying and awesome manner.

Unfortunately, Kong: Skull Island does only half of that.

Read more after the jump.

After a short prologue showing Lt. Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly) crashing on the island where Kong lives, we get transported to the 70’s at end of the Vietnam War. There, we follow William Randa (John Goodman) and Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) attempting to convince the US Government to fund an expedition to an uncharted island near the Pacific. Randa tells a US Senator (a cameo from Richard Jenkins) that they need to chart it before the Russians do; we all know that’s not necessarily the case. Soon, both Randa and Brooks are seen assembling a team to join them on the mission: British Tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), “anti-war” photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), and Lt. Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) along with his team of Vietnam War helicopter pilots/ Kong fodder.

Just to get it out of the way, the movie gives you absolutely no reason why you have to care about these group of people we're stuck with (minor exceptions being Reilly and Jackson's characters). It only shows you what they do, thinking that and a couple lines of dialogue will justify their joining the mission. If done right, that’s all we need to get behind the characters and cheer for them to succeed on their mission. However, the way the movie shows what they do is so forced and the lines of dialogue itself so stilted that it makes you ask yourself if people actually talk like that in real life.

The situations in which the people utter their lines don’t help one bit; when we first see Hiddleston’s character, he’s in a bar in Vietnam playing pool with a couple of crooks who are looking to skip off with his money. Since he’s supposed to be the “badass” of the movie, he just does off with the crooks in a very shoddily-edited sequence involving a cue stick. Immediately after, he’s talking to Randa and Brooks about joining the mission. The movie just assumes that since we saw him hit two dudes with a cue stick, he’s good enough to go to toe to toe with Kong. We don't see the same "badassery" again until later in the movie when he decides to just grab a gas mask and a sword, and go all Neo on a couple of monsters. Same goes for Larson’s character. We see her developing a couple of pictures in a dark room, so we’re supposed to assume she’s a photographer. During this tiny scene, she spouts off anti-war sentiments, which is supposed to mean she’s anti-war. Thing is, nothing she does right after backs up her “anti-war” personality. Closest thing she does that represents her pacifism is when she strokes Kong in the face and looks at him longingly.

And don't get me started about the Chinese character who does absolutely nothing but pander to Chinese audiences. Ridiculous and pathetic, I know.

I can go on all day about why this movie doesn’t work, but that would be unfair to the things that do.

John C. Reilly’s Lt. Marlow is the only character that has an actual arc, showing how he gets to the island, how he’s been changed by the island, and how he helps the newcomers get out of the island. It’s no accident that Reilly was signed on for the role; his comedic chops were needed to bring much-needed levity to the proceedings, but it’s hit or miss. He's got a couple of lines that illicit a chuckle, but a scene where he starts the joke ends up being cringe-worthy, not because of Reilly, but because of how his co-stars try to riff off of him. Pretty sad, if you ask me.

Then there’s Samuel L. Jackson with Col. Packard, who’s enlisted to air the explorers in this dangerous mission. Portrayed as a man slowly losing his purpose because of the end of the Vietnam War, he’s first shown in the midst of his men celebrating finally going home. With only his medals to remind him of what he does best, he’s filled with obvious joy at having to fly the chopper one more time. Problem is, Kong starts picking his men off in bunches when they start dropping bombs on the island. Turning into a Captain Ahab chasing his own Moby Dick, Packard swears to avenge every one of his men, even if it costs him his sanity. Jackson was obviously brought in not because of his range, but because he's Samuel L. m***********g Jackson. It's Jules Winnfield/Frozone/Mace Windu going up against Kong. He knows his lines are head-scratchingly awful, but he just makes the most of everything by hamming it up. In a weird way, he almost saves the movie. Almost.

So it’s just him and Reilly given barely substantial roles, using their charisma and star power to get through ridiculous lines of dialogue. Unfortunately, the others just can’t seem to make it work. The other humans just suck, period.

But again, enough about the bad. We’re in the part of the review that attempts to shed light on whatever good happens on this movie; when the movie does show its effort to make great things happen, things really turn out great.

As expected, the star of the show is Kong, the king of Skull Island. Mo-capped by Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell (kick-ass character actor, sadly relegated to being one of the sacrificial lambs for the island here), Kong is shown as the animal equivalent of Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino – scarred, weathered, made old and hardened by time, but can still kick some ass if needed. Honestly, the screen just lights up anytime he’s on it. Notary and Kebbell, notable for already portraying mo-capped primates in the rebooted Planet of the Apes series, give Kong a certain physicality that speaks volumes. No line of dialogue is ever uttered by him, and nor should he ever – just his hulking presence tells you everything you need to know. When the inevitable monster smackdowns do take place, it's awesome. It's wonderful. It's everything you'd want to see in a monster movie. No spoilers, but there's a moment in the climactic monster fight where Kong just executes an amazing finishing move that made me shout "Wow!" You'll know it when you see it.

One more good thing about the movie is how beautiful it all looks. Larry Fong, Zack Snyder's resident cinematographer, is on hand to just provide drop-dead gorgeous visuals. Some of the shots in this movie are beautiful enough to be paintings on their own, including one amazing shot of Kong in front of the sun while a trio of helicopters fly towards him. There's another shot of Packard and Kong facing off while fire rages on around them. Again, gorgeous visuals. Many of the “set-up” shots try to evoke some of the shots in Apocalypse Now, which was an obvious influence in the aesthetics of the movie. The music serves the movie just fine, though it's nothing to write home about. I liked though how the 70's era tunes just start playing at random during the film, which just underwrites how ridiculous everything is.

I really wanted this movie to succeed. I really did. It had everything working for it - retro setting, great visuals, and a movie monster that will definitely sell out any movie theatre. Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious that this movie lives to serve as a cog in yet another "shared movie universe". The post-credits scene (there's one) sets up an encounter with another iconic movie monster, but one can just imagine what more could've been done if Kong's (rebooted) introduction was given more time and complete effort. When Gareth Edwards rebooted Godzilla, he was able to get the job done without having to show the monster in the movie at all; Kong is in about 80% of this movie, and yet things still barely get by. Oh well. I hope that Mothra movie doesn't suck.

RATING: 3.5/5 stars