Been on a Kaiju kick lately (2 of 3)

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2019)

[8/10] - "Exceeded expectations"
Kong was surprisingly good. Not amazing, not something I think everyone should watch at least once (or I'd have given it 9 stars), it doesn't speak to me in an extremely personal way (or I'd have given it 10), but it is very good. I would recommend it for any monster movie fan and any fan of Vietnam War movies.
It wasn't really doing the standard King Kong story. Much of the "Kong protecting a blonde lady from dinosaurs" plot is left out completely, though smaller story elements remain. The new elements they added to replace the old story cast the original story elements which remain in a fruitful new light. It ultimately isn't much like the 30s film or Peter Jackson's remake at all. Instead, it was more like the 70s monster movie stylistically. However, in terms of its themes, it is a clear student of *Apocalypse Now*. In all seriousness, you will definitely enjoy this movie more if *Apocalypse Now* is in your recent memory.
The movie takes place immediately after the retreat from Vietnam. As such, the moral status of that war linger in the subtext throughout the movie. As a direct result, this movie's interpretation of the Skull Island natives is much more charitable than any other version. They are thoroughly sympathetic characters rather than the almost farcically mindless "savages" from Jackson's version. The filmmakers also don't project a fetish for whiteness onto them like the 30s version does.
Vietnam figures into the film in a second, more important, way. In the wake of our defeat (by a less "civilized" enemy), the American military's masculinity has been wounded and humiliated. Their attempt to destroy Kong in order to prove to themselves that their "civilization" is still powerful is the film's heart. I was worried, from the trailers, that the movie would just be a hyper-masculine contest between "Man" and "Kong," but it instead completely re-frames this in a more self-aware and critical light.
In the 30s, when industry and civilization seem to have conquered nature, it was appropriate for King Kong to be a story of the tragic defeat of natural force at the hand of machines. But after Vietnam, it is appropriate for the story to have significantly more doubt about our own control over the world. This movie turns this doubt into a legitimately compelling anti-colonial allegory.