KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017)

Studio:       Legendary/Warner Bros.
Director:    Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Writer:       Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly, John Gatins
Producer:  John Jashni, Alex Garcia, Thomas Tull, Mary Parent
Stars:     Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary, John C. Reilly

Review Score:

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Summary:

An expedition to chart a mysterious island in the South Pacific uncovers evidence of the existence of giant monsters.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

1944 – Lt. Hank Marlow unknowingly parachutes onto Skull Island when his plane is shot down over the South Pacific. Japanese pilot Gunpei Ikari also crashes on the island. The two enemies engage in hand-to-hand combat until both men are unexpectedly shocked at the sight of Kong rising over a cliff.

1973 – Just as President Nixon publicly announces the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Bill Randa of Monarch and geologist Houston Brooks arrive in Washington D.C. to seek funding from Senator Al Willis for an expedition to Skull Island. Randa’s reputation for chasing mythical monsters precedes him as he cites his belief that a nuclear test in the region in 1954 was actually a mission to kill something, and he wants to find evidence that giant creatures exist. In spite of Randa’s wild claims, Brooks is able to convince the senator that the United States needs to map the uncharted island for its potential science and medicine discoveries before the Russians do.

Colonel Preston Packard is tasked to lead a team of soldiers as a military escort and helicopter transportation for the survey job on Skull Island. In Saigon, Randa and Brooks recruit former British Spec Ops officer James Conrad as their jungle tracker. Photojournalist Mason Weaver joins the crew as a photographer. San Lin complements Brooks as the expedition’s biologist.

A satellite imagery team from Landsat briefs everyone on the mission. Because Skull Island is surrounded by a perpetual storm system that keeps it hidden, the group’s choppers are forced to fly through a hurricane to reach their destination.

Testing his ‘Hollow Earth’ theory about ancient species living underground, Brooks has soldiers release seismic charges into the jungle to gauge the terrain. Kong emerges in anger and destroys every helicopter. Watching Kong obliterate the convoy, Packard begins seeing the giant ape as a deadly monster that must be killed.

Packard and several soldiers including Cole, Mills, and Reles recover together on the ground. Packard confronts Randa at gunpoint and demands to be told the truth about the island. Randa reveals that he was the only survivor from the USS Laughton following a monster attack that was covered up. Randa knew the island was inhabited by giant creatures and has been intentionally aiming to obtain concrete evidence ever since.

Helicopter pilot Chapman ends up stranded with the convoy’s munitions cache. Packard takes his group through the jungle to find Chapman and they engage in battle with a giant spider.

Conrad, Mason, Brooks, San, Victor Nieves from Landsat, and young soldier Silvko form another party and encounter an enormous water buffalo. Following Conrad’s lead to find a beach where they can signal a search party, the group discovers ruins inhabited by the Iwi tribe. Stranded on the island for 28 years, Hank Marlow calms the natives and greets the newcomers.

While hiding, Chapman watches Kong cleans his wounds in a river. Kong then fights a giant octopus, tears it apart, and eats it.

Marlow shows Conrad’s party to the village, which is protected by a giant wooden wall. Highlighted by primitive paintings in the tribe’s temple, Marlow explains that Kong actually protects the Iwi from the island’s more dangerous monsters and they treat Kong as a king. Marlow identifies a species of large lizards that live underwater as the greater threat, which he calls ‘skullcrawlers,’ and says that they killed Kong’s family, leaving Kong as the last of his kind. The bombs woke them up to emerge from underground and Kong reacted. Marlow adds that one skullcrawler is larger than them all, and Kong is the only thing preventing the beast from rampaging.

Conrad explains that if they are to escape the island, they need to make it to the north end within three days when the refuel drop arrives. Marlow counters that it is impossible to cover the distance on foot in that time. However, Marlow shows Conrad’s crew the wreckage of his plane, which he recovered with Gunpei’s help when the two former foes became friends, and suggests they can turn it into a boat.

Mason has a brief encounter with Kong when he lifts a fallen helicopter to rescue a trapped water buffalo. Distracted by a giant insect mistaken for a log, Chapman is eaten by a skullcrawler.

With Slivko’s mechanic skills, the converted boat finally begins working. Marlow says goodbye to the Iwi tribe as the group sets out on the river. Slivko makes radio contact with Packard’s crew and arranges a rendezvous.

Bird creatures attack the boat. Steve from Landsat is taken into the air and torn apart.

Conrad’s crew regroups with Packard’s. Despite Marlow’s warnings about the area’s increased danger, Packard insists that everyone head west to rescue Chapman instead of to the beach.

The soldiers and civilians trek through a boneyard containing the skeletons of Kong’s family. Everyone hides from a skullcrawler who vomits Chapman’s remains as well as his dogtags. The skullcrawler swallows Bill Randa and a massive firefight ensues. Bird creatures attack again, prompting Conrad to take them out using the samurai sword Marlow got from Gunpei. Mason uses her lighter to ignite gas from a natural vent in the ground and kills the skullcrawler.

Conrad shows Packard the dogtags recovered from the skullcrawler. Packard still insists on heading to the crash site as it becomes clear that the colonel is determined to recover the weaponry so he can kill Kong. To calm the crew after Packard fights with Marlow, Conrad says he will escort civilians Marlow, Mason, Brooks, and San back to the boat while the soldiers make a napalm trap for Kong under Packard’s orders.

Conrad and Mason have an encounter with Kong on a cliff. Mason touches Kong’s face and the two seemingly bond.

Packard begins detonating the napalm, which attracts Kong’s attention. While Brooks and San make for the boat, Conrad, Mason, and Marlow head to Packard’s location to save Kong.

Packard and his soldiers set Kong on fire. Kong collapses. Packard orders his men to place explosive charges on the ape.

Conrad, Mason, and Marlow arrive before Packard can activate the detonator and a standoff ensues. Packard orders Slivko to shoot Mason, but Slivko turns his gun on Packard instead, forcing the colonel to stand down.

The giant skullcrawler that Marlow warned of earlier suddenly emerges from the water. Everyone runs except Packard. Packard readies the detonator, but Kong recovers and crushes Packard with his fist. Kong then fights the skullcrawler.

Dawn breaks on Skull Island. The skullcrawler resumes its pursuit of the survivors. Cole arms himself with live grenades in preparation of sacrificing himself to buy the others time. However, instead of eating the soldier, the skullcrawler whips Cole with its tail and he explodes on the side of a mountain.

Kong returns to fight the skullcrawler as everyone flees. Brooks and San arrive in the boat and begin firing with a mounted 50 Cal. Marlow takes over the machine gun and Mason fires a flare in an effort to distract the skullcrawler when Kong becomes tangled in chains from sunken freighter wreckage.

Kong breaks the chains, but links become caught on an engine rotor. Kong pulls the blade free and uses it to hook the skullcrawler. Kong then throws the skullcrawler into a cliff, but the shaken ground causes Mason to fall into the water. Kong rescues Mason with one hand and uses the other to tear out the skullcrawler’s insides.

Kong places Mason on the shore and strides away. Conrad comes to Mason’s side and they see Kong turning back to look at them.

Conrad, Mason, Marlow, Brooks, San, Slivko, Mills, and Reles take the boat to the beach and are rescued by helicopters. Kong sees the choppers, beats his chest, and roars in the distance.

Marlow returns home to his wife in Chicago and meets the son who was born after he was presumed dead.

While being interrogated by mystery men behind a mirror, Conrad and Mason are surprised when Brooks and San interrupt. Brooks and San play a film showing tribal paintings depicting Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Godzilla, and warn that Kong is not the only fearsome giant monster identified by Monarch as a king.

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Review:

“Kong: Skull Island” has three words in its title for good reason.  This blockbuster belongs to the island’s inhabitants as much as it does to Kong.  Maybe more so.  And that’s really saying something considering how much the movie makes sure to showcase Kong with every ounce of mammoth majesty the mighty king so rightfully deserves.

Minutes after Nixon announces the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Monarch main man Bill Randa (John Goodman) is in D.C. seeking funding for a survey mission to uncharted Skull Island.  Senator Willis has had it with Randa’s mythical monster chases.  But geologist Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) sells the senator on the idea that if they don’t discover the hidden island’s scientific secrets first, the Russians might beat them to it.

Supporting the academic expedition is a military escort led by Colonel Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), a career soldier in dire need of a war now that he no longer has one.  Randa and Brooks also recruit a military man of their own, British Special Forces turned hired gun James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), to be their guide on the ground.  Completing the crew is photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and biologist San Lin (Jing Tian).

With core cast introductions conducted, “Kong: Skull Island” is unshackled to get into the grittiness of full-blown monster mayhem.  Fans unimpressed with “Godzilla 2014’s” (review here) piecemeal reveal of its star attraction don’t have as long to wait here.  In addition to a pre-credits prologue of Kong filling the full screen within the first five minutes, the survey crew passes through a hurricane to hit their destination and the first thing they see is the oversized ape.

There’s no buildup of minor monsters before getting to the main meal.  Kong immediately rolls out the welcome wagon of building-sized fists and starts swatting transport choppers straight out of the sky.

Everyone is suddenly stranded and their sole hope of survival requires reaching a beach to signal a search party.  It’s a long trek through a jungle full of giant ants, insects, spiders, and worse.  Luckily they find an unlikely guide in Lt. Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), a WWII pilot stranded on Skull Island for 28 years.  He tells them Kong is a protective savior who need not be feared.  The real dangers lurk underground, and the arrival of outsiders has disturbed them.

The “Apocalypse Now” inspired poster for “Kong: Skull Island” is more than mere homage.  With its jungle backdrop and Vietnam era setting, “Kong: Skull Island” is built to be a war movie in creature feature form.

Like any story of soldiers storming a hill to overthrow an enemy, “Kong: Skull Island” is about struggles for supremacy, asserting power, and finding purpose in the face of progress amid conflicting ideologies.  It just happens to take place in a prehistoric paradise where colossal creatures tear each other to pieces.

“Kong: Skull Island” proves that the best way to make a B-movie, ironically, is on an A-movie level with a nine-figure bankroll and an all-star cast.  A big budget with big talent is the only way to do justice to this story, style, and scope, and it works.

The film is basically a behemoth battle royale, exactly how fans want it.  And we take all of its imaginative creature carnage seriously because the cast convinces us to.

When John Goodman deadpan delivers dialogue about clandestine cover-ups of atomic tests that were actually monster hit missions, he erases any urge to snicker through impassioned gravitas.  And Kong’s human foil has to be played by Samuel L. Jackson.  Jackson’s characteristic combination of confidence, charisma, and craziness is essential for matching up against an adversary of Kong’s magnitude.

Running away with every scene he occupies is John C. Reilly as the stir-crazy WWII veteran.  Marlow’s cracking mind makes him a complete crackup.  Reilly’s well-timed humor is the hall pass providing permission to smile wide at certain onscreen insanity, reminding us that “Kong: Skull Island” is escapist entertainment first and foremost.

Cinematography makes the visual feast practically too succulent.  Action seems storyboarded to account for a picturesque moment in virtually every frame.  Fiery backgrounds.  Perfectly positioned characters.  The One Perfect Shot people could fill an entire Twitter feed for months from this film alone.

Digital details on Kong are extraordinary.  Flies buzz around his face.  Broken foliage and matted mud dirties his fur.  Kong has never been bigger and Kong has never looked better.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts additionally treats the audience as ringside VIPs for every single showdown.  Monster melees are dominantly set in daytime.  The camera goes wide and stays in one place.  “Kong: Skull Island” captures the sense of scale so you can see and feel each cracking blow in every confrontation.  Artificial energy from quick cuts, tight close-ups, or whip pans isn’t even on the table.  The full power of towering titans brutally beating each other speaks for itself.

One scene takes place in a smoky setting.  But it is used to surround characters in suspense, not to obscure activity so you only get a teasing glimpse of what is going on.

“Kong: Skull Island” appears deliberately designed around engaging exclusively in excitement, possibly after the fact in the editing room.  The movie certainly has a bigger roster than it needs, and some of those people play oddly underused roles.

Jing Tian is billed fifth even though she has less screen time, and a lesser part in the plot, than at least ten other characters.  Tian appears so infrequently, there should be a prize for anyone who can name her character before her end credit does.

Other edits appear suspiciously snipped too.  With a one-off hold of a hand and some grinning private conversations, Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson seem set up for a romance that never really comes into bloom.

A smart guess suggests “Kong: Skull Island” had other ideas at some point.  Until someone said, “let’s simply see Kong rip apart a giant octopus instead.”  Kong fans can agree the movie is better served by such a delightful decision.

Activity is light on the human side, though soap opera subplots shouldn’t be a reason to book passage to Skull Island in the first place.  Sticklers for seriousness also have to look the other way on contrivances (how convenient is it that a skullcrawler barfs a key item literally at Tom Hiddleston’s feet while another enemy interrupts at the decisive moment of a Mexican standoff?) if they are to get grounded in the fiction.

Plenty of other movies can cover dour drama dripping in realism, if that’s what anyone is actually after.  For fun popcorn fantasy of giant monsters roaring, rampaging, and ripping limbs off each other, “Kong: Skull Island” is king.

Review Score:  85

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