Get Your Stinking Paws Off Me

Throughout the course of cinematic history there has been a desire for movies featuring huge creatures that leave a path of destruction in their wake and cause mass human casualties. From the 1950's when we were treated to giant ants and spiders (among other mutated creepie crawlies) all of whom were a cause of some form of atomic accident to the stop motion genius of Ray Harryhausen all the way to the modern day with the most recent iterations of Japanese legend Godzilla and the never ending stream of made for tv films that show up on the Syfy channel the appetite for this genre has never waned.

Now of course none of the recent editions have been particularly great, the SyFy stuff is what it is and Hollywoods last two Godzilla movies have been fairly terrible for different reasons although as previously discussed the Japanese Shin Godzilla from 2016 is bloody brilliant.

Godzilla of course is one of the two best known movie all the way back in 1933 in RKOs beloved King Kong. Since then however Kong has appeared in only seven further films compared to Godzillas output which has seen the release of 35 films since his debut in 1954.

Following the much revered King Kong it is safe to say that there has not really been another good movie made of everybodies favourite primate. We have been treated to delights such as Son of Kong, King Kong vs Godzilla and a female Kong in 1986s King Kong Lives. In 2005 Peter Jackson followed up his phenomenal success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy by remaking the original King Kong and whilst it was a moderate box office success $550 million taken against a budget just north of $200 million it divided audiences as some loved it whilst others (myself included) thought that it was a real let down, especially since expectations were so high following his brilliant imagining of Middle Earth.

Skipping forward 12 years leads us to this years Kong Skull Island which is not only a reintroduction to the Kong character but also serves as part of a wider universe alongside Gareth Edwards lackluster 2014 Godzilla, the end goal being to get the two monsters onscreen together in a few years time.

I have to admit that I was really looking forward to Skull Island as the depictation of Kong in the trailers was brilliant (he looked a lot bigger than he had done in Jacksons film) although I did have some reservations about the casting of Samuel L Jackson as it has been a long time since I have seen him in a film where his performance hasn't merely been almost a parody of himself and the worst thing in the movie as he follows the Nicolas Cage path to awfulness. In fact its been a decade since I really enjoyed a Jackson performance and that was in 2007s Black Snake Moan.

Jacksons casting aside I was still feeling positive going into Skull Island as along with the awesome looking Kong John Goodman is in the film and if 10 Cloverfield Lane is anything to go by then its clear that he has some serious acting chops (though we knew this already).

So to the film which opens in 1944 where we see an American pilot crash on an island along with the Japanese pilot he had been fighting with. They have a bit of hand to hand combat before Kong shows up and seemingly kills them both which leads us to the movies present day of 1973. Here we meet Goodman who is a government agent with an interest in all things mythological and his assistant who approach an agency to obtain funding for an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island. After a bit of arm pulling they get the green light and so get together their team which comprises of Samuel L Jacksons platoon, Tom Hiddlestone who plays an expert tracker and Brie Larson who is a photographer and of course the token female for the inevitable romantic undertones between human and ape.

They reach the island and start dropping bombs because you know thats what people do, particularly jarheads like Jackson and co. All of the noise rouses the islands resident keeper and the crew get their first look at Kong as he smashes the crap out the helicopters buzzing around him, killing the majority of the military part of the exploration team. This doesn't sit well with big Sammy J who survives his helicopter crashing and stands in the midlle of several explosions staring at Kong who through the fire stares right back, this was the first moment in the film where I put my head in my hands and knew that Skull Island was not going to be the film I had hoped it would be.

So the team are seperated across various parts of the island and by following the two surviving teams we realise that Kong is not the only giant beastie on the island as we encounter massive wildebeests, ginormous spiders and huge lizard creatures that we later learn are known as Skullcrawlers. Unluckily for him John Goodman finds himself with Jackson and what few men he has left so has no option other than to follow him across the island to a weapons stockpile that Samuel intends to use to kill Kong. Not that it matters as Goodman doesn't last too long before becoming just another human casualty as he is eaten by one of the local wildlife.

Meanwhile the other survivors are being led by Hiddlestone and they come across John C Reilly who is the American pilot from the films opening. He has been living on the island with the local tribe of jungle dwellers and explains that Kong is the islands protector against the Skullcrawlers who live underground and who now are going to the surface thanks to the explosions caused earlier on (DOH).

During the next part of the film the two teams make their way back towards one another and once they find each other they decide to once more go their separate ways as Jacko is determined to kill Kong whilst the more level headed of the team want to get the hell out of dodge. It is around this point that Larson and Hiddlestone come face to face with Kong who chooses to leave them alone after making a connection with Larson, though not unlike Naomi Watts and Kong in the 2005 movie it doesn't really come across with the same conviction as as the 1933 version between Fay Wray and the simian king.

The final act of the movie sees Jackson trying to do away with Kong which of course fails miserably and then the mother of all Skullcrawlers emerges to do battle with Kong for overall supremacy and rulership of the island. During the battle Larson tries to help Kong which inevitably ends up with her in his grasp as he fights the Skullcrawler which was the final nail in the coffin for my enjoyment of this film as it wasthis very issue that put me off Peter Jacksons 2005 King Kong film. Watching massive monsters battle whilst a tiny, fragile human lies supposedly unscathed within the gorillas grasp just takes me out of the film as it is frankly ridiculous even within the confines of a movie about an ape that is hundreds of feet tall, but that of course is just me.

The film ends with the few humans left alive leaving the island and Kong standing tall as the King of all he purveys, waiting of course for his show down with the American version of Godzilla which is set for release in 2020.

So was Kong Skull Island any good? Well for me it is certainly alot better than the 2005 King Kong but at the same time it leaves a lot to be desired. Kong looks amazing and is portrayed here as bigger than he has ever been shown before. For some perspective he was 25 ft tall in Peter Jacksons film but here he is over 100 ft tall and the spectacle is far greater. The other oversized creatures also look fantastic and the overall aesthetic of the movie is amazing but then the same could be said for Edwards' Godzilla dn we all know how that turned out.

The acting in Skull Island is good too but then you'd expect nothing less from the people involved. On the flipside of this equation however is of course Samuel L Jackson who as I've already stated gets my back up every time he appears on my screen. Earlier in this review I compared him to Nicolas Cage which in retrospect is probably not an ideal comparison to make. Cage is bad no doubt but then looking back over his career I don't think its unfair to conclude that he has never been a great actor and that he has made a living playing the same over the top character in every movie he has starred in. Jackson on the other hand has in the past been a good (if not quite great) actor but in more recent times he has been phoning it in and not unlike Cage he has been playing the same character in every appearance he makes. This argument extends to his role in Skull Island and it does for me detract from the overall effectiveness of the film.

Taking all of this into account I have to say that Kong Skull Island is ok but that that is not what I was expecting or wanting from a film that I was hoping would blow me away. This is even more disappointing in the grand scheme of 2017s movie output as it is just the latest in a string of films that left me cold. Passengers, Arrival, Life and now Kong have promised much but in my opinion failed to deliver (though I'm certain there are many who would read this and disagree).

All of which leaves my score for Kong Skull Island and it is going to come in at 7 out of 10, defiantely worth a watch but don't get your hopes up that you'll be blown away.