Kong: Skull Island

Because this blog is in mostly chronological order, we're now only covering American films through the rest of the year. To start this new streak, we're talking about Kong: Skull Island, the 2nd in the MonsterVerse films. A follow-up (but not sequel) to 2014's Godzilla, we're reimagining what I would argue is the original kaiju: Kong. The titular Kong is portrayed by Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell, with the human cast being rounded out by Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, Brie Larson, and Toby Kebbell. That's a big cast, but that's my honest attempt at shortening it as much as possible to just the important players. I guess when you're bringing King freaking Kong back to the big screen you can sign on lots of big names, because most of that cast couldn't have come cheap at all.

The writer seemed to have a little tension with the studio. Initially wanting a film that took place during the Vietnam War era and then jumping forward, that was rejected and the Vogt-Roberts wanted a story that took place before the original 1930's based story which was also rejected. Despite all of this back and forth, eventually the director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was hired and they ultimately settled on an immediate post-Vietnam War setting. Skull Island is, like Godzilla before it, a reboot. No other Kong or Godzilla movies have taken place not within this continuity, so everything is "brand new" despite being a retread of old concepts. That's enough background, now let's investigate whether this reboot was as solid as the first MonsterVerse film.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- To open our film, 2 pilots in WWII era planes crash/land and attempt to kill each other using guns, fists, and swords. When coming to a conclusion, they are interrupted by the arrival of the giant ape (King) Kong.

- Cut to the 1970s and Monarch representatives go to Washington DC to try to save their funding with a mission to Skull Island to find something mysterious. They get approval, but this is the last favor they are getting before Monarch is completely shut down.

- A crew of scientists, specialists, and soldiers is assembled to go on this expedition to Skull Island. This includes tracker Conrad, journalist Weaver, and US Army Lieutenant Colonel Packard.

- After arriving on the island through a hurricane, bombs are dropped on the island in an attempt to prove the Hollow Earth theory of the lead geologist. While this initially goes well, a tree is launched at one of the helicopters and Kong is revealed to be the culprit.

-After being attacked by the soldiers, Kong kills almost every soldier and does destroy every helicopter.

- The survivors are split into two groups, a small contingent comprised primarily of soldiers with Packard leading them and Conrad leading the others to join the soldiers and make it to the extraction point.

- Packard's group is on a quest for revenge against Kong and comes across one of the horrors of the island in the form of a giant spider. Conrad's team is taken in by the native people of the island, where one of the surviving pilots from the first scene helps explain things.

- Conrad's group is warned that Kong is the king/god of this island who just wants to live in peace and to be wary of underground-dwelling lizard creatures called skull-crawlers which are incredibly dangerous. They are also told that if something were to happen to Kong the "big one" would appear next, as he keeps the skull-crawlers in check.

- Successfully meeting with Packard's squad, everyone heads to find the one missing soldier who we the audience already know to be dead. They are attacked the skull-crawler that killed that man and barely survive. 

- A schism forms between the two groups as Packard insists upon retrieving the weapons this last soldiers was guarding and killing Kong. Conrad's group heads in their own direction since that is a terrible plan.

- Packard's soldiers take Kong down, weakening him before planning to kill with with explosions.

- Conrad's group decides to actually interfere with Packard's, defending Kong from their plan to kill him. If for no other reason than to keep the skull-crawlers from being able to take over the island. 

- With Kong weakened and down, the "big" skull-crawler arrives to take advantage. Everyone except Packard flees to have a chance to make it off Skull Island, Packard remaining to try to kill Kong but being smashed by him before he gets a chance.

- While all the humans try to escape, the big skull-crawler and Kong have their epic duel to the death. Getting tangled in chains from a shipwreck, the skull-crawler nearly wins but is interrupted by the humans firing at it with a gatling gun. It doesn't do any significant damage but manages to distract it long enough for Kong to extract himself from the chains.

- The chains having been attached to the propeller of the ship, Kong now actually has a weapon which he uses to take down the skull-crawler once and for all.

- The humans manage to be rescued minus the last few casualties, and an after credits scene hints at what comes next.

Kaiju Notes 

- Kong looks very cool and good, but there's only so much description that can go into "big monkee." Kong is a big ape. Like most primates, he's got very expressive eyes!

- Most of the creatures of the island are similar to Kong: giant version of regular ass animals. We see a giant spider, giant buffalo, and giant insects. There are, of course, regular sized animals as well.

- Skullcrawlers, however, are effectively horrific. Lizard-like but appearing as though they're wearing the skulls of their enemies, they have strangely limber, narrow bodies that they use to swarm and move unpredictably. They have freaky long tails and freaky long tongues and are just horrible.

- Kong is played with a deep sense of both compassion and rage. He's quick to violence and incredibly powerful, but when given the chance is very relaxed and even relatively friendly. Not once does he attack without provocation, clearly wanting to just be left alone. When Weaver falls into the sea during the final battle as a result of helping him out, Kong works to save her rather than just leave her to drown as collateral damage. Kong is as human as kaiju come, and a decent one at that.

Skull Island is a movie about entertainment, first and foremost. And on that front it very much succeeds, bringing us a version of Kong which never falls into some weird love story between a woman and a giant ape. But that's not to imply that it doesn't have other things on its mind, the most obvious of which being the folly of vengeance. Packard is this movie's Ahab, hunting Kong at the cost of everything else. While he does initially force his people to accompany him on his quest, he is ultimately left to face his beast alone and dies as a result. Fortunately for most of the characters, unlike Ahab Packard only gets himself killed in the end. But his thirst for revenge is the driving human motivation of the film, causing most of the problems that Kong is left to clean up.

Important to point out, as I mentioned above, Kong never once starts a fight. He finishes them brutally and quickly when he can, but there are zero incidents of Kong being the aggressor at any point. The closest one could get would be destroying the helicopters as they bomb the island, but as they point out in the dialogue, I think it'd be hard to argue that blowing up parts of someone's home are not an act of aggression. As soon as he's able, Kong always returns back to a life of relative peace and quiet: killing skull-crawlers when they appear but otherwise being a pretty chill ape who just likes looking out into the sea. This is relevant when it comes to Packard in particular, as his obsession begins largely as a consequence of his own actions.

Packard is not the only one, however, as Monarch bears a large amount of culpability in everything that happens including Packard's obsession. While no one would believe them if the officials admitted they were here to test their Hollow Earth theory and also find a giant monster, not telling the various people coming to Skull Island with them that this is a possibility is an absolute betrayal. It makes Monarch seem particularly wicked in this film, counter to how they seemed largely systemically, dispassionately goal-oriented in the previous film. While it's easy to understand why no one was told about Kong, the deaths of almost every person as they entered the island ultimately lies on the shoulders of Monarch. Packard's rage would really be more useful pointed in their direction, and near the end of the movie he does mention this but still seems fixated on Kong.

Kong is, for the most part, reactive in this film in a way that the various kaiju rarely are. Even in this MonsterVerse, for instance, Godzilla is actively territorial, attacks other kaiju, and feeds off of nuclear power. Kong, however, pretty much just chills out until someone comes for him. It's counter to pretty much every other kaiju we've seen to date, even the older versions of Kong. Even the most reactive prominent kaiju I can think of, Gamera, often spends time or effort hunting his enemies once he knows they exist, flying toward creatures even if they aren't actively being a danger to humankind. If it's not happening in Kong's immediate vicinity, he largely doesn't seem to notice or care. It's not a necessarily negative character trait, but it's certainly unique and makes Kong a little bit harder to get a read on.

In the end, Kong: Skull Island is a pretty enjoyable ride. It's a very solid start to the story of Kong in this relatively new MonsterVerse and manages to make him interesting but mysterious. While he lacks much agency, he's an effective example of a kaiju/Titan being a true force of nature: difficult to kill and dangerous to cross while seemingly oblivious to you if you're not bothering him. It's solid characterization and we stan this big monkee. And this movie!

Next: Rampage!