We
all know by now that movie remakes seldom work out so hot and yet
film makers – especially in recent years, it seems – keep going
back to the same well again and again. Where remakes work best is
when a particular story/concept isn't just re-hashed but rather when
it is “re-booted” with some sort of fresh spin on the original
concept. The BATMAN/DARK KNIGHT trilogy comes to mind as a good
example of this and, more recent and more directly related to this
article, 2014's GODZILLA is another.
That's
what the producers of KONG: SKULL ISLAND did. They took the basic
concept of Kong and his mysterious, uncharted island … then threw
away the old plot with the movie crew and the golden-haired “beauty”
who ultimately leads Kong to his demise from atop the Empire State
Building and re-booted all that with a whole new set of characters,
an updated time period (mid-1970s), and a whole new reason for going
to Skull Island, complete with a military helicopter squadron
escorting them. The motives for the expedition get to be a little
complicated and silly (but, hey, this is a
giant-prehistoric-monsters-in-modern-times movie so it's not fair to
look for hard scientific reasoning) and, of course, there's more to
'em than everybody is at first led to believe.
Upon
reaching the island, the team's transport ship cannot land because of
the fierce “perpetual storm” that surrounds and obscures the
place. So they go in via the military helicopters which are able to
penetrate the storm. Once through, they immediately begin dropping
explosives from which the accompanying seismologists can test one of
the theories (a hollow earth) that brought them there. What they get
instead is a pissed-off Kong who doesn't like uninvited guests
showing up and setting off bombs in his back yard. To show his
annoyance, he attacks the copters, destroys them all, killing many,
and splitting the surviving members of the expedition into two
groups.
From
there, the movie becomes a long chase sequence with the two groups
trying to reach a rendezvous with a re-supply team due to arrive at a
point on the north end of the island in three days. Along the way,
they have several clashes with various prehistoric monsters still in
existence on the island – most fearsome of all being the
underground reptilian horrors known as the Skullcrawlers. Kong, it
turns out, is the island's protector against these predators and
other threats.
I
enjoyed this movie a lot. I was really looking forward to it, and did
not come away disappointed.
The
ensemble cast plays well off one another, particularly the banter
amongst the soldiers. The male/female leads struck some subdued
romantic sparks, though nothing overt came of it. Brie Larsen made an
impression as a spunky, somewhat sassy big-time photographer who
looked quite fetching in a very tight tank top; Tom Hiddleson, as a
former British Special Air Service captain hired as tracker-hunter
isn't really given a lot to do as the lead in an action movie, but
conveys a certain presence and adequately handles what is
asked of him. Samuel Jackson, as the commander of the helicopter
squadron, intently portrays a man seeking revenge for the men he lost
on the island and also revenge for having to “abandon” the
Vietnam war. John C. Reilly, as a WWII pilot stranded on the island
for all these years, nearly steals the movie (from the live-action
performers, that is) by providing equal measures of humor and grim,
sage advice for the newcomers.
The
special effects are excellent and, when they are on display, there
were two things I really appreciated about them: One, they were
filmed in such a way where you could actually follow
the action that was taking place (as opposed to, say, the
TRANSFORMERS movies, where the screen is just a blur of colors and
motion and you have no idea who the hell is doing what to who); and
Two, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has a keen sense of how long to let
these action set pieces play (as opposed to , say, Peter Jackson who,
in his 2005 KING KONG remake, let some of his action scenes go on and
on and on, until they were squeezed dry of all excitement and
actually became boring).
All
in all, a terrific popcorn-action-fun movie to kick off the summer
movie-going season. And, perhaps best of all, Kong is left alive at
the end (I don't think this is too much of a spoiler because the fact
has been widely mentioned) to be appearing again a couple years down
the road when he's scheduled to duke it out with another heavyweight
contender from the past … Godzilla!
