Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017) by Boskowitz — 15 Mar 2017

I have to say, I do not like the titular character that much, I went to see the movie for the Vietnam Era. It is there. From helicopters to songs and scenery. Fire and darkness, Apocaliptic (now!) red rising sun, door gunner who bombs the pristine jungle with a grin. One might not expect a monster movie to be about character, but Kong makes it shockingly true. Hiddleston as Conrad and white woman as white woman with a camera are not exactly spectatucal. The soldiers are. Mills, Chapman and Cole are great characters. And Jackson as Packard. They are men who are about to go to their families and beds after enduring horrors of jungles of Vietnam, but are given one last mission before they can go home. One last mission that sends them to hell itself. The story. The movie is a re-told Mobi-Dick, with Jackson/Packard as Ahab and Kong as Mobi-dick. I mean, there are other characters, but the story of decorated officer who accepts a seemingly innocent mission, only to lose his men one by one to the nightmarish island and his quest of maddening, insane need to extract revenge upon a creature that killed his men in self defence is not something one sees every day. The image of Kong and Packard staring at each other thru fire and smoke of wrecked helicopters, eyes swirling with unmendable hate is very powerfull and sugestive.

What I did not like was the unecesery "romantic involment" or what is that supose to be between Wear and Kong, but I guess it was necesery not to older films. There is the last fight scene where giant monsters duke it out and from time to time there is cut focused on a woman faling into water. That is not good. But other then that, if you want to be entertained, go and watch it. It is an unique film with unique scenery, story and characters.