‘Kong: Skull Island’ Mindless monster fun

Kong Skull Island is little more than stunning visual effects and a spectacular fight sequence

It’s another day and yet another reboot. Peter Jackson’s King Kong came and failed in 2005, but here’s another attempt to make the giant gorilla relevant again. With Kong: Skull Island, it’s 1973 and America has abandoned the Vietnam War. Piggybacking on another military operation is government agent Bill Randa (John Goodman) who greenlights the expedition by tricking a senator into thinking they’ll beat Russia at getting to Skull Island. He rallies together a couple of colleagues, a military convoy led by Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) and former British Special Air Service officer turned tracker named James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston). Joining the rag tag bunch is the anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson).

At Skull Island, the explorers drop seismic explosions (to gauge ground depth) and invoke the ire of the legendary giant gorilla, Kong who swats their aircraft like you’d kill pesky mosquitoes. Angered by the loss of his men, Packard vows revenge. A separated faction of the group meets Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), -- an American pilot stranded on the island since World War II – who reveals the real monsters are the skullcrawlers. What follows is the humans’ attempt to escape death, and fight after fight between Kong and said skullcrawler.

Kong: Skull Island

• Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
• Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary and John C. Reilly.
• Run time: 118 mins

Kong Skull Island is a visual treat for the most part. Everything from a dive bar in Vietnam to the sprawling lushness of the island is beautiful. Kudos to the special effects team that paid equal attention to everything. Kong especially is rendered meticulously: right from the anger in his eyes to his fight scenes and the fur on his body. One such spectacular scene (of many) is Kong yanking a giant octopus out of the water only to rip it apart and devour it. And when the final battle between skullcrawler and Kong occurs, you won’t be disappointed at all.

With the exception of the fight sequences and its visual mastery, the rest of Kong: Skull Island, isn’t as hunky dory. An ensemble cast is wasted on a monster movie where the hero is clearly the special effects. Only two characters stand out – one is Reilly as Marlow who has some of the funniest lines of the film. And then there’s Jackson’s Packard, quite rightly a metaphor for most of the human race that blindly wants to destroy anything it doesn’t understand. As Weaver, Larson is negligible. Perhaps, it’s Vogt-Roberts’ way of remaining true to the original story where a woman must bond with Kong. Hiddleston, who will lure many a woman to the film, as Conrad is given only a single inexplicable moment to shine that begins as strangely as it ends that involves slicing up carnivorous birds amidst a poisonous fog.

Kong: Skull Island may be disappointing to those who want more from a monster movie. But this film’s makers have another chance to up their game with the 2020 release that promises a Kong and Godzilla showdown.