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One early critic of Kong: Skull Island worked himself into a lather complaining
about its “nearly shot-for-shot” rip-off of the Ride of the Valkyries scene from
Apocalypse Now. He misses the point… by a wide margin. Kong: Skull Island takes
its mash-up concept seriously, and its full-bore embrace of Vietnam movie
clichés – topped by Samuel L. Jackson’s ( 2015's Avengers:
"Age of Ultron” )
helicopter unit going toe-to-toe with a 100-foot gorilla – becomes as important
as the ape itself. Military jargon, musings about what we lost in the jungle, CCR and Jefferson Airplane pounding from the soundtrack… these aren’t bugs,
they’re features. And the results are highly entertaining.
Every Kong movie grapples with the reality that it can never approach the 1933
original. Remakes tried to do their own thing without actually changing much,
while outliers came across as embarrassing misfires (Son of Kong) or just plain
weird (King Kong Lives). Skull Island is the first film to really escape the
shadow of the original, basically by refusing to compete with it. It does more
by doing less: enhancing the pulp origins of Kong’s world and focusing on having
a good time instead of reminding us how much better its immortal predecessor
was.
It actually owes its biggest debt to the massive push behind the disastrous Dino
De Laurentiis remake from 1976. In an effort to turn that film into the next
Jaws, De Laurentiis oversaw a big marketing campaign that promised the moon
(which the film itself infamously failed to deliver on). Skull Island takes the
vibe of that moment and connects it to a battle royale worth watching. The
gunships and napalm make a perfect pop-culture counterpoint to the 30s-era
adventure material, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts uses the resulting tone to
cheerfully blow our socks off. There’s no deeper message here, besides the
obvious one about humanity’s arrogance in the face of Mother Nature. It’s
basically a grand excuse to watch two heretofore separated genres charge each
other like bull elephants.
Indeed the only thing he actively cribs from the ’33 version is the structure.
The first act sets up the human characters – serviceable, but largely
perfunctory – to give us a rooting interest, then the rest of the film just lets
‘er rip. John Goodman’s (2016's
"10 Cloverfield Lane") wild-eyed conspiracy
theorist sees an opportunity to prove his thesis when satellite images provide
evidence of a new, unexplored island in the South Pacific. He and his partner
rustle up an air cavalry unit getting ready to rotate home from Vietnam, as well
as a gaggle of other (presumably tasty) scientist types to go exploring. Turns
out, the island is full of giant bugs, giant lizards and one REALLY cranky giant
monkey all-too willing to defend his turf.
Vogt-Roberts varies the mayhem appreciably, and while Skull Island exists solely
to watch various throw downs between Kong, the humans and a never-ending stream
of enormous CG creepy crawlies, it never becomes dull or repetitive. On the
contrary, Skull Island enjoys ramping the insanity up to 11 in as many ways as
it can, then cackling like a lunatic while its hapless humans run for their
lives. It treats its concepts with just enough respect to enjoy them while
allowing the fun to creep in by letting the air out of pseudo-pretentious lines
like “we don’t belong here.”
Casting plays a vital role in keeping us grounded, since the characters remain
thinly-drawn archetypes at best. Skull Island compensates with a lot of
movie-star charisma, and the likes of Goodman and Tom Hiddleston (2013's
"Thor:
The Dark World" ) appreciably hold the screen when Kong and his rivals
periodically vanish back into the jungle. Although Hiddleston is perhaps a bit
too posh for this mercenary role. Jackson gets his Ahab on as the army commander
obsessed with avenging his lost men, taking advantage of his ability to speak
volumes without saying a word. Brie Larson (Oscar winner for 2015's
"Room")
forms a nice rapport with Hiddleston as the anti-war photographer tagging along
for the ride. (She lets a few lovely Fay Wray moments sneak up on us as well.)
And character actor Shea Whigham ( 2013's
"The Wolf of Wall Street") reminds us
why he’s welcome in almost any project, as a bent helicopter pilot who finds Zen
acceptance in a completely bonkers worldview.
But the real scene-stealer is John C. Reilly ( 2014's
"Guardians of the Galaxy" ), going full-bore as a WW II fighter pilot stranded on the island for the last
30 years. Equal parts plot expositionist, audience surrogate and comic relief,
he encapsulates the film’s tone perfectly: gonzo, over the top and just
respectful enough to give us a rooting interest in the outcome. He even finds a
little pathos and sympathy for his character amid the prehistoric chaos swirling
around him, no mean feat with popcorn this tasty.
That makes the resulting roller coaster exceedingly sturdy: living up to its
commitment and never taking the eye off the ball. Warner's seems to have learned
its lesson from the disastrous DCEU rollout, and while we see a few shout-outs
to the larger “monsterverse” to come, it doesn’t need any of that baggage to
justify itself. We’ll wait and see whether they can keep that energy up, but
between this and Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, the opening steps have been confident
and sure-footed. In an era defined by false-promise advertising and cinematic
reach far too often exceeding its grasp, it’s nice to see a film just doing what
it does best. 2017 has already seen some great genre efforts; Skull Island earns
its place among them simply by taking pride in its B-movie credentials.
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