Kong: Skull Island is a 2017 American monster film directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. The movie stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, and Brie Larson, among others. After the Vietnam war, a group of scientists go on a journey to a uncharted Pacific island where Kong shares domain with a number of creatures all adopted to survive in their own environment. Kong: Skull Island (2017) movie review
The entire movie is visually stunning. The colors are bright and stand out so well, almost giving the movie a happy undertone. It was filmed in Northern Vietnam with a lot of beautiful scenery. Like mentioned, the creatures all vary in size and aggression. They are adopted to their surroundings, which makes it hard for the human characters to spot them. As for character themselves, they are varied but not very interesting. They have little to no scenes that give us insights into their life, which makes them little more than disposable characters for the creatures to munch on. One exception is John C. Reilly’s character Hank Marlow. No wonder he is the character that most of the audience really liked.
The creatures themselves are also creative. Besides Kong, who is the biggest he ever was (and still growing according to one of the movie lines), the rest of the creatures are enormous in size and see humans as snacks instead of a threat. There is a reason this island is uncharted. You either coexist with these creatures or get devoured, no third option. This is where the conflict of the movie arises. The humans have this need to be on the top of the food chain, while these prehistoric creatures, especially Kong, want to be left alone and fend for themselves. Kong is especially lonely on the island, but he doesn’t kill everything that he can kill. He kills to keep a certain peace but tries to leave most of the creatures to roam around undisturbed.
Some scenes are a tad bit cliche (such as skull scene being spit out in front of the main characters, bad guys getting their comeuppance, Asian girl not given anything to do but be there for Asian audience, etc), but it overall succeeds in being a great spectacle where giant monsters duke it out and humans serving as hindrances to their fight. Kong also receives a lot of blows and we see him as this protector who is also vulnerable. The visual effects are stunning and in some way make the monsters as secondary focal points among the dense jungle that hides a multitude of mysterious characters. The interaction between Kong and humans is good and it has a satisfying conclusion.
Overall the movie is a great watch. While some characters are not well developed, you got your standard good and bad guys, and that is as much as you usually get in an action movies. The focus should not be on the humans, but rather on the creatures. They are done very well with clear distinctions and some solid action representation. Kong, the main player, is also huge and intimidating. He is a solitary creature, the last of his kind who keeps a vigil of everybody on the island and fights anybody interfering with the overall state of the place as well as other peaceful creatures’ survivability. The director decided to make him massive to subtly prepare audience for the 2020 movie where he fights Godzilla. Let’s just hope that one has great fight scenes we can actually see (I’m looking at you Godzilla 2014).
