Too excited to turn off
spoilers, you’ve been warned.
The coming attractions
calmed me a bit, though having it connect to the same universe as “Where in the
World is Godzilla,” gave me a great deal of worry.
Frankly, it was only by
sheer force of will that I stopping jumping up and down making exciting monkey
noises long enough to write anything coherent for today.
Everything Godzilla 2014 got wrong Kong: Skull Island got right!
The big ape, and all the
other giant things from Skull Island, were on screen for extended periods, and
took center stage.
For the times they weren’t, the story worked, the characters
were interesting and fun, and the pace was unrelenting. Bonus fun points for wise, honorable and
experienced, but still incredibly loopy John C. Reilly as Hank Marlow, as the connection
to the much friendlier natives protected by their god Kong.
I say “things” on the
island, because this film also veered away from Peter Jackson's equally awesome,
but for different reasons, King Kong.
Jackson’s Kong had a
personality and soul, but was clearly an animal living in a complex natural
ecosystem.
The new bipedal, economy
sized Kong is a Kaiju, pure and simple. It lives on an island basically hidden
by a magical storm that has flammable gas spewing vents connecting to an
“underworld” that can release all manner of beasties to the surface.
This is a land of
Monsters!
And giant water
buffalo!!!
NEAT!!!!
One reference the two
films share is a connection to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The
Jackson film did this mostly by way of references to the source novel itself.
Kong:
Skull Island is set
at the end of the Vietnam War as displayed in Apocalypse Now. This provides an awesome soundtrack by pulling
Rock ‘n Roll from 1973. Also, since Sam
Jackson is in better shape than Brando was, his descent into madness is much
more action oriented.
This film was loyal to
the history of the character, but picked and chose elements to heighten the
awesomeness and fun, allowing it to work as part of a new giant monster franchise.
Which means, don’t get
attached to anyone. In a nice variation,
the guy obsessed with going there and getting everyone into this mess (John
Goodman as Bill Randa, instead of Carl Denham) gets entertainingly devoured on
this outing.
There are a handful of
actors that are “go to” people for playing apes. Terry Notary trained all of them. He’s fantastic at bringing life to the big
guy. Plus, he’s got an assist by Tony Kebbel,
his Planet of the Apes co-star, who
additionally shows up in another human role you shouldn’t get too attached to.
It’s as if they chose
the insanely fun mind set of the Toho Kong appearances (there was an octopus)
and King Kong Lives, (death of the
bad military guy) but backed them up with excellent casting, an interesting
romp of a story, and a high end budget to make it look real.
Yes, Kong is a “thinking
animal” demonstrated with his planning and tool use as he combats against the
other denizens of the island, as well as his opening war on a fleet of military
helicopters.
That fight also showed, from
his initial moments, that this still growing Kong is WAYYYY bigger and tougher than previous
outings. The aircraft that knocked the
classic or remake versions off of a New York skyscraper wouldn’t stand a chance
against this far larger and more humanoid ape.
Another tone related
choice is making this a Skull Island picture.
The standard Kong tale, used in all three self titled pictures and both
Toho versions was:
Act 1) Planning to go to
the uncharted island –character introductions, and tone setting
Act 2) Exploring the
uncharted island and finding Kong - weird creatures, lost civilizations,
monster battles
Act 3) Kong in the city-
Nature versus technology and the tragedy caused by narrow definitions of a soul
Kong:
Skull Island lives
almost entirely in Act 2, with cool enough characters and an “end of ‘Nam” setting
to keep Act 1 suspenseful and action oriented as well.
Act 2 is where the crazy
awesome lives, and is the perfect set up for a non stop action story, and a
lead in to a world of giant monsters.
While it doesn’t reach
the “official quality film” levels of the original or the Jackson remake, it’s
not that kind of movie.
It’s an excitement
filled adventure with enough mind and heart to add in a decent amount of
substance.
KONG
is one of those select breed of movies I could have easily walked into the theater and watched a second time as
soon as it ended…
And a third…
And them some more!
OOK OOK OOK!!!!
Speaking of hairy guys
who roar a lot in melee…
I did see Logan.
Sorry for missing the
premier week, but the excitement over the giant ape was blocking my view of anything
else.
It was excellently done,
a worthy farewell to Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman, as well as a fantastic
introduction of Dafne Keen as Laura, the character who is currently “All New
Wolverine” in the comics.
The story could stand on
its own, but packed in enough references to make it also serve as a capstone, including
some to the less loved and mostly abandoned movies. Giving X-24 a Liev Schreiber like haircut was
a nice touch.
The R rating worked for
the action scenes at showing what unbreakable razor sharp clawed combat would
look like…as anyone who played Captain America in our mutli-generation spanning
TSR Marvel Super Hero Battles can attest to.
It had too much heavy emotional content for an instant repeat viewing,
but contained enough quality that I’ll no doubt add it to my collection,
Yet, philosophically, I
still think I disagree with the existence of this film.
Non working healing
factor, broken down Wolverine, and dementia addled Professor X were probably
meatier roles for the actors involved, and I won’t argue that they made for
fantastic storytelling.
But the brief glimpses
of Charles regaining his wisdom, and Logan’s all too short “last hurrah” at full power
tag teaming with his “daughter” made me wish that those ideas was where the film ended up
for a longer duration.
Along with that thought, as a comic geek, I was saddened that the "Reavers" were a group of guys who only had one robotic arm or hand each, instead of nearly complete cyborgs that ranged from looking like metal skeletons in football helmets to tank centaurs.
The “kids” working at the theater were talking about how glad they were with the “R” rating and serious subject matter. Again, it made for fine film, and it works for "kids" like them who have grown up in the seventeen years since the original X-men movie premiered.
The “kids” working at the theater were talking about how glad they were with the “R” rating and serious subject matter. Again, it made for fine film, and it works for "kids" like them who have grown up in the seventeen years since the original X-men movie premiered.
However, it makes me sad
for all the real kids who discover the X-men franchise on disc or download
going forward. They’ll plow through the
series of films in much less than a decade and a half, and then be unable to
enjoy, or flat out not allowed to see the final chapter of these two actors.
On the positive side,
that will give them more time for additional viewings of KONG: SKULL ISLAND!!!!
OOK OOK OOK!!!!
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