Kong: Skull Island is pretty much what you can expect from a movie that costs $185 million. It’s big, huge to be honest, and so is Kong. The classic monster is no longer dwarfed by skyscrapers. Now he’s almost just as big. Unfortunately, the plot is shallow and left unexplored. The island itself is as big a mystery as Kong, and just as interesting as well, but the story only brushes the interesting bits and leaves most of the screen time to fights or long walks through the jungle. Skull Island is full of mystery, but only Kong and a few other details are truly uncovered for the audience.
The classic story of King Kong has been ditched. No longer does it take place in the 30’s but in 1975, just one day after the end of the war in Vietnam. Scientists, Bill Randa and Houston Brooks (played by John Goodman and Corey Hawkins) bring the secret discovery of Skull Island to the U.S. Government in a request for exploration. In a jealous effort to beat the Russians to the punch, the government agrees and off goes a melting pot of scientists and badass army men, led by none other than Col. Preston Packard (Played by Samuel L. Jackson).
Kong: Skull Island is full of great action moments. Classic rock plays as choppers fill the stormy skies. The orange sun fills the background as the towering Kong rises up, splitting the sun in half. Those classic Vietnam vibes are most definitely captured well and intertwined with the insanity of fighting a 1,000-foot tall gorilla. If Apocalypse Now and Peter Jackson’s King Kong had a love child, this movie would be it. Unfortunately though that love child ends up being more of a ignored step child as the movie loses it’s momentum.
If action is all you want, then Kong will deliver (Don’t waste your time not seeing it in IMAX). However, if you’re searching for a deeper story into who Kong is, you won’t find much of it here. In the beginning of the movie the setup for a great story is created. A new plot and unheard of discoveries are talked about plenty in the first half. I waited for those discoveries to be explored, but they never were. All of the most interesting and new plots that had been talked about in the first half had been ditched for action. Don’t get me wrong. The action is great, but only the action is great. If you’re going to spend $185 million wouldn’t you want a great story, too? It feels like the studio played it safe this go around, and that feels all too common in film nowadays.
One of the movie’s greatest pieces also tends to be its worst- the cast. Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Shea Whigham, John C. Reilly all are in Kong: Skull Island. The acting is good, but it feels like too many cooks are in the kitchen. These notable actors are known for filling big roles, but in Kong they seem dwarfed and uninvestigated. When a character dies it feels contradictory to what is normally felt when a notable actor’s character dies, and it distracts from the movie as a whole. Maybe it’s just an over-prestigious standard we’ve placed on actors, but I couldn’t help but feel an emptiness to a character’s death. Some deaths just seemed like the studio was just trying to get rid of them. I never thought I’d say this, but there were too many good actors. The money would’ve been better spent on developing emotion on just a few characters and exploring some of those cool, but unexplored, plot lines.
The movie overall is very entertaining, though few moments left me with chills that weren’t expected, and that’s always the best thing a movie can do. It’s also very much worth saying that Kong: Skull Island is also attached to the same universe as the newest Godzilla movie, the one with Bryan Cranston. This means we can all expect to see the two King of Monsters duel it out on the big screen in a year or two. One can only pray that it ends up being better than Batman V Superman. If you like action, then see Kong: Skull Island because it’s a 3.5 out of 5 stars.