A mediocre cover version of other films

Rating: 5/10 (6 April 2017)

Kong: Skull Island is an updated version of the King Kong story, set in the 70s as the Vietnam War is coming to a close. It makes no reference to any other Kong incidents or story lines, with no continuity from the original King Kong or either of the remakes. The premise is that advances in satellite photography have revealed something interesting on a previously uncharted island in the Pacific, and a scientific expedition with military support sets off to discover its secrets. The era and location in which the film is set draw inspiration from Vietnam films, especially Apocalypse now, alongside Western and Asian monster movies. These inspirations and the look and sound of the film suggest it wants to evoke the atmosphere and mood of the 70s, and of the power of the modern world facing up to the awesome power of the natural world. None of these promises are delivered in the finished film, which only manages to be an average-quality blockbuster with impressive effects and nothing else to commend it.
Part of the problem is that every theme and visual image has been done before, fairly extensively, as has every character and plot trope. This is at minimum the tenth Kong-related film unleashed on the public, along with countless pop-culture references to giant apes swiping at aircraft. Effects movies featuring giant creatures are standard fare for modern audiences, from Jurassic Park onward - and various plot lines from the Jurassic Park sequels show up here. That's not necessarily a problem, as most films these days do their fair share of recycling, but to stand out from the rest a film with such familiar content needs some sort of new element or fresh perspective. Kong: Skull Island simply doesn't have that.
The mediocre end result is all the more noticeable because it makes reference to a number of ideas that could have been interesting if they'd been explored more fully or given any kind of new twist. There are two different groups of scientists with different reasons for being there, and a sceptical government not sure of the value of being there. The military contingent on the expedition has different motivations and responds differently to events on the Island. There are references to the Cold War and Vietnam, and a couple of points about human impact on the environment and the need to look harder at what is the real danger they are facing. But none of it goes any further than a couple of quick references to establish the plot, in the same way that it gives you short bursts of various songs of the era before cutting them off.
The film also fails to do anything with its characters and the potential for conflict or drama between tired veterans of the Vietnam War, an anti- war photographer who might be seen as unpopular with the soldiers, and scientists with various agendas. Tom Hiddleston's character is a great example of how the cast is pretty much left hanging once they've been introduced. He is used pretty much as the theme park guide to shepherd the characters from Act 1 through to Act 3, and otherwise has nothing to do except look buff and stern while all hell breaks loose. It couldn't be more obvious that it's all an excuse for various large computer-generated images to bash seven shades out of other computer-generated images. The rest is just window dressing, an attempt to resonate with other, better films which makes it suffer by comparison. That makes the film a perfectly acceptable way to spend two hours, but no more than that. It will be forgotten long before the films it imitates because it doesn't give you anything or anyone to care about.
There are good things in the film, to be fair. The various action scenes are well-staged, with some lively creature battles and shocks and thrills. The third act is genuinely gripping, and Kong himself is very well- realised. The director makes good use of the locations and produces some striking visuals, albeit mostly referencing other films. Although they are mostly poorly-served by the finished script (Samuel L Jackson and John Goodman have particularly thankless tasks), the actors are all very watchable and make the most of any opportunity they get to shine. Brie Larson does a good job, and it can at least be said that the female characters are no more lacking in depth than their male counterparts. (The film does however conspicuously fail the Bechdel test). Perhaps the best thing in the film is John C. Reilly, who has the job of Basil Exposition filling in the gaps in the story while also providing a quirky charm and emotional core to the film. For all the film's weaknesses, it's reasonably entertaining overall and chugs along at a decent pace; it's certainly not a *bad* film, in the way that Batman vs Superman or the sequels to Transformers were bad. None of which gets past the fact this has all been done before, and better.
With the people involved, behind and in front of the camera, it had the potential to be a lot better than this. In the end the studio seems to have made sure no real individuality or originality was allowed to get in the way of their desire to sell popcorn and put some hollow spectacle on screen for a few weeks. They apparently hope to use this as a launch pad for more creature movies; they are presumably counting on box office returns rather than any real audience enthusiasm to support their plan.