Kong: Skull Island Review

PG13: Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence and Action, and For Brief Strong Language

Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Tencent Pictures, 

1 Hr and 58 Minutes

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary, John C. Reilly

REVIEW: I remember back to 2014 when San Diego Comic Con announced the new reimagining of King Kong. Before the Deadpool test footage leaked that summer,  Kong: Skull Island was the ultimate film I was excited for. A NEW KING KONG MOVIE THAT TAKES PLACE ON THE ISLAND? FINALLY!! I’m exhausted of seeing Kong doing the same shit film after film. You see one King Kong film, you see them all. I wasn’t even impressed with Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong either. I thought it so dull and bland, mainly because I saw the original so many times as a kid. It was a cheap creature feature, but it was my first and I loved it. Now we have Kong: Skull Island, the second film in Warner Bros.’ Kong/Godzilla cinematic universe which pretty much is Warner Bros. second cinematic universe (you know besides the DCEU). Will Kong reclaim his title as King or will we have to wait for another reimagining?

In 1973, a secretive organization known as Monarch finds an island that is shrouded in mystery and identified as the origin for new species. The resulting expedition to the island reveals that a giant monstrous ape named Kong is at the centre of a battle for dominion over the island, against the apex predators, nicknamed "Skullcrawlers", responsible for wiping out his kind. As the expedition crew makes plans to fight for survival against Kong and the other monsters on the island, some of them begin to see that Kong is worth saving.

THE GOOD: What I like about this film is right off the bat it expresses wholeheartedly that this is a 100% new reimagining of King Kong. “What 1930s? There’s no 1930s film,” The film takes place in the time span between 1944 and 1973 during WWII and the Vietnam War. It’s like director Jordan Vogt-Roberts just saw Peter Jackson’s version and threw it in the trash like--

It's amazing the way they got Vogt-Roberts to direct the film. From directing indie comedy The Kings of Summer to Nick Offerman’s Netflix comedy special American Ham to four episodes of the FX comedy series You’re the Worst, it’s amazing to see him go from projects of small budgets to something that cost $190 million dollars and managing to excel at it mercilessly. It’s the same way how we saw the Russo brothers direct episodes of Community to being the directors of some of the best Marvel movies including the past two Captain American movies including Infinity Wars. It was a smart move on WB’s part because you can feel Vogt-Roberts’ love and passion for this character as he attempts to exert many reasons why Kong is King. Vogt-Roberts expressed how much he wanted to get to show the creatures instead of teasing them. It’s heavily influenced by different pieces of media from old King Kong features to Studio Ghibli films and Pokémon.

The feature is filmed like a roller experience that is perfect for IMAX 3D. The film features a ton of expositional set piece shots,  long one shot pans and angles so the audience can be in awe of the creatures, Skull Island, and most importantly Kong. Right when you get to Skull Island, you quickly get a large variety of creatures scene of after scene.  Not only Skull Island is beautiful, but Kong is beautiful as well. He makes 2005 King Kong look like shit. This Kong doesn’t play around as he’s the protector of the innocent creatures on Skull Island. 2005 King Kong ain’t got shit on 2017 King Kong. 

The visual effects are astoundingly breathtaking. The VFX team put all their best into the film as it tests the barrier of it being a PG13 film. People get dismembered, torn, eaten, squished, in many brutal ways. The action sequences seem like they’re directed by Zack Snyder and Michael Bay, but Vogt-Roberts does it in the best way. There are many shots of slo-mo action in the vain Snyder’s 300 was and plenty of explosions in the vain any given Transformers movie is filmed. What makes it work though is its setting. The film takes place on SKULL ISLAND where small humans are fighting against the creatures of larger scale. There aren’t any innocent civilians in the action. It’s only the soldiers vs. these creatures. Explosives are entirely necessary for this situation and the slo-mo makes a lot of the action a lot of fun in the same way Guillermo Del Toro did in Pacific Rim. There is no other way to see this film other than in IMAX 3D. 

THE BAD: Where the action and visuals elevate the film up, the dialogue drags the film down. The film has a light and silly tone which is welcoming to a film like this to an extent to where it works, but the humor here is terrible. The film relies on Jason Mitchell and Shea Whigham as the comic relief and boy are they unfunny. Mitchell tries his best too, but his dialogue he’s given is painfully unfunny. 

Even the characters are given so much vague and lackluster dialogue to say that you’re just there cringing. It has a large ensemble, but the poorly written screenplay undermines their performances. I love Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson, but they’re not shown nearly as much as some of the other characters in the film. You see more of Jason Mitchell than of Hiddleston and Larson. I mean, it’s a Kong film and the main focus is on Kong, but if you’re going to have leads as talented as them, at least give them something meaningful to say. The humor is so off where the things that are intentionally funny aren't where the things that are unintentionally funny are hysterical. Its humor is on par with Fozzie Bear telling a joke. He’s only funny when he’s not trying to be.

The humor gets better when John C. Rielly is introduced into the film. Out of all the characters, he’s the most likable and the most developed. The film opens with his character Hank Marlow in 1944 getting washed up on Skull Island with an enemy Japanese soldier during WWII. When we see Hank in 1973, we already feel sorry for him because you see how much he’s lost his mind, so this leads to a lot of funny dialogue for Reilly to say. He’s the most charismatic and funny character in the film. It's strange that in a movie starring Loki, Captain Marvel, Nick Fury, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E, it takes Wreck-It Ralph to be the most developed character in the entire film. 

What makes it a bit heartbreaking is seeing the screenplay is written by Dan Gilroy, who was nominated for in an Academy Award writing the 2014 film Nightcrawler (one of the best and most underrated films of that year), but then he’s not the only writer credited. Oh yes, this was written by Gilroy and Max Borenstein, who wrote Godzilla 2014 and several episodes of the short-lived FOX Minority Report series. So you know which one probably messed up with the screenplay. Because of this, the film’s dialogue ranges from cool to incredibly cringe AND GOD is a lot of the dialogue cringe. 

It’s not even subtle when it’s setting up its character types. You know the type of character Samuel L. Jackson is right when he’s introduced due to the score being played so ominously and loud. If every aggressive soldier stereotype was possessed into with Jackson you get a chilling antagonist who is given the best dialogue in the entire film. It’s like he and Reilly were the only characters with dialogue written by Gilroy and everyone else was written by Borenstein.

THE RENDY:  Personally I was waiting for that scene where Toby Kebbell finally interacts with Kong and communicates with him by saying “hey, I know how to speak ape too.”

Believe it or not, but besides Terry Notary providing the motion capture for Kong, Kebbell provides motion capture for him as well. What is up with Kebbell playing as apes man? I mean Andy Serkis was 2005 King Kong so it makes sense to have Kebbell as this Kong. The best follow-up to the guy who plays Caesar can only be the guy who played Koba. It’s a small mo-cap world for playing monkeys.

Despite my complaints is the perfect creature feature released in the 21st century. It’s a blockbuster that is stylistic and thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end. It's a period piece with a killer soundtrack that features popular psychedelic music during the time that plays so well with a lot of the action sequences similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. Where Colossal was a smart indie film of a creature feature, Kong is a turn your brain off blockbuster that works on every level. It's a film that takes part in a larger universe but plays so solid enough to stand on its own.

LAST STATEMENT: Despite it’s poorly written screenplay, Kong: Skull Island is a fresh of breath air of creature feature films that differentiate from every version of Kong and the standard narrative norm of creature features. With effective visuals, brilliant action sequences, and masterful direction by Jordan Vogt-Roberts who thoroughly proves in every way why Kong remains King of creature feature films. 

Rating: 3.5/5 | 72%

Super Scene: Plane Vs. Kong
 

Pros	Cons
KING FRIGGIN' KONG KICKING ASS	Cringefest Dialogue From Beginning To End
Skull Island	Jason Mitchell and Shea Whigham Comedy Hour
Unique Creature Design	Intentional Humor
VFX	Waste of Hiddleston and Larson
John C. Reilly's Hank
Samuel L. Jackson (Not His Character Just His Performance)
Action Sequences