First off in my house growing up Kong was a bit of a big deal, no pun intended. It's without a doubt one of my mother's favorite films of all time so we saw it a lot. As kid growing up in NYC there used to be a fairly strange when you think about it tradition of WWOR channel 9 on thanks giving. We weren't a sports household so we didn't watch any football on Thanksgiving. No, we watched the all day giant ape marathon on channel nine which featured, usually in this order, the original King Kong, then Son Of Kong, followed by Mighty Joe Young and finally King Kong Vs Godzilla. Godzilla from his heroic and admittedly goofy late 1960's/1970's era was a constant in my childhood and Kong and the various follow ups and re-makes were also part of my life. The 70's Lange/Bridges film was a syndication perennial and while it's cheesy it's a somewhat enjoyable cheesy to me, though I am sure to most who are younger it's just bad cheese.
The 1998 Godzilla was a terribly executed movie all around. I don't even have an issue with the design so much as the story and the other terrible elements and things excised that are essential to the mythology... LIKE BREATHING ****ING NUCLEAR FIRE! But I digress... I also have to say that I am not much of a fan of the Jackson film of Kong. It is one of maybe three films tops that actually put me to sleep in the theater, and so I had to go see it twice when it was in wide release. Upon finishing it in total I was still underwhelmed. And it's not that it's terrible, but it's bloated, self indulgent, with uninteresting for the most part characters. There's some real magic and wonder in that film, and the sequences with Kong are outstanding but the other elements are really weak tea or attempting something that was not necessarily what I as an audience wanted or thought a Kong film needed. I may also be one of the few that actually really liked the 2014 Godzilla film while totally admitting I understand when others point out it's short comings. The early loss of Cranston, the hiding of the star of the film for so long, the wasting of the rest of the cast like Watanabe and Strathairn. Also, Johnson was somewhat uncooked in his performance as the lead, though I did appreciate the sort of "Perils Of Penelope" situation this guy found himself in at every turn in trying to get back to his family. Still I did think it was mostly well done and thought a successful start to a new Godzilla franchise.
Now we come to the release of this film KONG: SKULL ISLAND and I was apprehensive as the reaction seemed a bit mixed even if the BO was solid. Interestingly both my mother that lives in Pennsylvania and myself saw it in theaters on the same day, which is an odd coincidence. I have to say... I couldn't be happier or more entertained in general with this movie. It delivered what I wanted with a modern Kong film and did it with very little fat and with production values and performances that worked well and were pretty well done, especially the setting and VFX.
I think the film for sure had at it's mission statement to NOT commit the errors of the previous Kong and Godzilla films. You can see that simply by comparing the lead up to the approach to the island in this film and Jackson's film. Here we get to it fairly quickly with barest of background on the characters. Which is not always bad especially in a monster movie. You don't need backstory all the time, you can have if the creators are deft enough, development just through the actions and dialog during the meat of the film with no need for an intricate set up. Which I think is what was done here. I think it's legitimate for some to say the characters were bare bones but that doesn't equate to bad. I do think Larson and Hiddleston were a little under cooked but... I honestly usually could care less about the human couple in these sorts of films, which actually already gives the film an extra point because they didn't bog the proceedings down with unnecessary romance sub-plots. While if they had been better developed that would be a nice bonus, they also didn't handle them in any way that was offensively stupid or terribly cliched (though the film had it's share of well used cliches for sure). The gaggle of characters were handled well I thought with just enough development and heart to sustain interest but not undermine or steal the spotlight from the real stars of the film: Kong and his island.
The island environment and the insane fantasy ecosystem was such a highlight. This was a savage land where human life was cheap populated by wonderfully creatively designed creatures of all kinds. And we get to this upside down paradise fairly quickly in the film's run time (again learning from previous films) and the star attraction makes his presence known. Kong is a massive monster, there's just no other way to describe him. The design, which is a well done modern day version of the 1930's original doesn't rob Kong of his status as a thinking creature, but he's not just a big ape. They added an interesting to my mind reasoning of Kong's species' place on the island and there were battles aplenty and great B movie styled wonder abounded. Kong was certainly presented as something that might have been understood as a "god" by any ancient people and the things he fought were certainly diabolical in presentation. There were mysteries that seemed to tease the set up for future films and there was even the barest of messages about looking for a fight after you've been wounded despite it not being in your best interest.
Were there issues I had with the film? A few but they pale in comparison to the film as a whole. I think John Goodman could have gotten some more scenes for sure. There might have been too many non-military members of the expedition that I would say are too underdeveloped, especially the female Asian Monarch agent. Hiddleston as serviceable as the character probably did elevate what he was given but another actor like say Jason Statham would have done a better job with the character type than Tom. Reilly's character could have done with some more backstory but honestly Reilly was a highlight of the film. I was very worried about him thinking this would be the type of character Reilly has played in raunchy comedies too often simply dropped into a Kong film. Well, I was wrong and his comedic ticks totally fit for a man stuck on this insane place for so long. The film handles him with enough seriousness but he also brings good levity, and the ultimate fate of the character is surprisingly heartfelt. All in all though the film delivered. It's enjoyable as an action film with some scares, some laughs and what's more it helped to continue the expansion of what was started in Godzilla 2014, with a tease of a re-match decades in the making along with some more Toho legends coming out to play. This fan was well pleased with this movie.
squeeknessI'm a poor lost puppy
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