Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017) by Vds — 06 Jul 2017

I liked the 1933 King Kong, and the silly 1976 version, but not so much the pompous Peter Jackson affair. And if you happen to be reading this PJ, King Kong isn’t giant gorilla, he’s a King Kong, a thing in his own right – ok, natural history lesson over. Where does this version sit? Well, lower than ’33 and ’76, but way ahead of the 2005 CGI-fest from New Zealand.

I straightaway liked this version of Kong (the creature). He’s a standy-up beastie, and therefore towered over the puny humans. Something he was always meant to do. But the said puny humans themselves weren’t that great, acting/characterisation wise.

Larson – forgettable. Hiddleston – cardboard. Jackson posting in the same character he’s played since Pulp Fiction. Rilley and Goodman helped to save the day, but the latter was written out way too soon and in a rather heavy-handed manor. Kong was king of the film, and quite rightly so. But a bunch of pixels still weren’t in the same league as the ’33 stop-start motion monkey.

Having said that, I liked the ending. It was refreshing to have a Kong film end without his highness being splattered all over the New York sidewalk. There was a nice post credit scene setting up a Kong/Godzilla grudge match.