Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Kong: Skull Island
STARRING: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, Brie Larson
DIRECTOR: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: PG-15
118 mins
Kong: Skull Island is a movie that I really didn’t think I needed to see. Did I want to sit through a couple of hours of yet another Hollywood rehash of a classic that had already been remade terribly a decade earlier?
Not really, but I’m very glad I did as this is a rollicking, enjoyable flick that flies through its run time, providing thrills and spills to kick off the summer blockbuster season in style.
The first thing to establish is that if you’re expecting the 1930s, the Empire State Building, biplanes and blonde damsels, you’ve come to the wrong place. Try a 1973 napalm-scented Southeast Asia instead.
It’s a time when the US has officially decided to abandon the Vietnam War and the fight for national security is as frantic as ever. Monarch, a corporation dedicated to hunting down unidentified terrestrial organisms, has discovered new satellite photos of an uncharted island said to be as legendary and cursed as the Bermuda Triangle.
After convincing the government to finance an expedition to the island, a group of highly-trained military escorts set off to investigate. They are led by Colonel Packard (Jackson), anti-war photographer Mason Weaver (Larson), and a former British SAS tracker James Conrad (Hiddleston), the latter of whom has been hired to be their guide on the island itself.
Of course, as common monster movie logic should indicate, things quickly go awry when they arrive via helicopter on Skull Island, dropping bombs to try and map the terrain of the island, much to the chagrin of a certain 100-foot ape. From there Kong: Skull Island kicks it into high-gear, as the helicopters engage in an unexpected battle with Kong himself, who emerges from the mountains of Skull Island standing against a searing red sunset that truly emphasises his status and power.
King certainly is both visually and physically impressive. This film manages to give the character something that none of the previous live-action films have - a pre-existing reputation and mythology before he even sets foot off of his beloved homeland. To the native people of Skull Island, Kong is a god, protecting them from the other dangerous creatures that roam the land.
Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has done a terrific job ramping the beast up to be a skyscraper-sized simian; a truly awe-inspiring force of nature that returns to the imposing bipedal, upright design of the original rather than a four-legged anthropomorphic gorilla as seen in more recent efforts.
This is essentially an adrenaline-fueled montage of carnage and destruction, and Vogt-Roberts wastes little time introducing Kong, showing off the character’s power and design with a confidence that only makes this version of Kong seem that much more terrifying and dangerous.
There are moments when it feels more like an amusement park ride than a traditional monster movie origin story, taking full advantage of the set piece and stylistic opportunities available. The fact that the film buys into its B-movie aesthetic and runs with it just makes it even better. I honestly can’t remember having this much pure fun with a movie in a long time.
The film’s characters and emotional moments don’t match up to the visual and stylistic aspects of the film, unfortunately, and a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that Skull Island has too big a cast. A plethora of supporting characters come and go, and the most prominent flaw is that too much time is spent trying to flesh these guys out for little gain.
You have the ‘been there, done that’ veteran who isn’t fazed by anything anymore, the pilot who’s been stranded on the island for years, and a handful more. They get a few minutes of screen time, an emotional speech, then chomped by a monster. Meanwhile, the main cast are largely ignored, and seem to exist to be slapped on a marketing poster to entice audiences with their famous faces.
This is a minor quibble though, as ultimately, we’re here for Kong and awesome action and not humans crying about the state of the world and their lot in life. On this note, Kong: Skull Island delivers on exactly what it sets out to do, which is deliver a gorgeous monster movie filled with the kind of action and destruction that audiences have never seen from a King Kong film before. It’s hard to imagine it doing a much better job than it does.
Showing at: Cineco, Seef I, Seef II, Saar, Wadi Al Sail
