It should be apparent that Godzilla (2014) is a film I love; and since Kong: Skull Island is a shared universe film, I've been very buzzed to see this film that will ultimately kick off the Godzilla-Kong Monsterverse, like very buzzed. Now I've finally watched it, and like Godzilla before it, I was not going in with an objective mindset, it's why I watched it twice.
Kong: Skull Island wastes no time in its introduction, depicting American and Japanese fighter pilots crash landing on Skull Island and fighting their way through its jungles, before having a run in with Kong and realising the futility and unimportance of their war. What follows is some very Godzilla-esque opening credits, which is very nice to see, if a bit obvious, as if they were trying to remind you of something. The film then gives us a semi-alright introduction to its relevant characters; Conrad is one such character; a former special forces guy who can fuck people up with a pool cue, Weaver is another, a photojournalist and anti war photographer. It's bizarre that the film focuses on those two so much, since they are among this film's sizable mass of really uninteresting characters, both of them get very little development, they just are; Conrad has a bit of exposition where he talks to Weaver about his Dad, but that's literally it, Weaver gets some exposition from Packard, but again, that's it. We'll get to Packard in a minute, but first the Monarch agents, Randa and Brooks are the instigators of this expedition, and they get about as much development as Conrad and Weaver, while San literally just appears and gets no development at all. It's worth noting that I'm getting these names from IMDB because I didn't remember them, I'm not even going to try with the soldiers in this film, who do have names, and sometimes are entertaining and funny, but they're obviously this film's fodder for the action scenes and monster attacks. The film does have two saving graces in its characters, thankfully; Packard, a Vietnam war hero with a surprisingly interesting vendetta against Kong, is a very interesting guy to watch, as his personal mission to kill Kong sends him more off the rails. While Marlow is easily the best character in the film; the American pilot from earlier, he's been on the island for nearly thirty years, and the scenes when he's asking people what the world is like now are fascinating, his history with the island is surprisingly touching, as is the resolution to his story, and he is a character I genuinely liked. This being a film in the same world as Godzilla, some changes are going to be made to the familiar Kong story, for starters it's set in the 1970's which means great music, and takes on a story more comparable to a Godzilla movie than any previous Kong movie. Even then this film is considerably smaller in scope than Godzilla; isolating itself and its characters to a tiny island, and replacing the Jaiju apocalypse threat the MUTO's posed for a turf war between Kong and this film's version of the MUTO's, creatures that Marlow calls Skullcrawlers. This is not a huge deal, but it does take away from some of the epicness of Godzilla, even if the Kaiju brawls in this film look more like Pacific Rim. Something else this film lacks that Godzilla had was a sense of finality in its ending, I can't really explain without spoiling it, but I think I know why; mentality, Godzilla was a film made to stand on its own, hence the film actually finishes, whereas Kong: Skull Island is laying the ground work for Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong, it even has a post credits scene, which is as MCU as it gets, and it's clear that the finite amount of effort that goes into these films was more split here than in Godzilla, and it makes the film as a whole weaker.
This film does however have some other saving graces besides Marlow and Packard, one of them is Kong, who you'd think is the star of the show, not some really underdeveloped humans, but remember, Godzilla did that, only difference is Godzilla did it better. The scenes when Kong is destroying things are awesome, obviously; the opening action scene when he obliterates the military escort is huge and violent, and it's massively entertaining. Again trying to remind you of Godzilla, the film teases a big throw down with Kong and the Skullcrawlers, before the big kaiju throw down that is the film's finale. These action scenes are very entertaining, particularly the final fight, while Packard's crusade against Kong also reaches a satisfying peak. The film also has a few action scenes scattered throughout where the humans are pitted against some of the smaller nasties of Skull Island, and they're also suitably entertaining, and pad the film with a bit more action, which is something the more simple part of my brain isn't going to complain about. What my simple brain part will complain about however is how this film does, a few times, become really cheesy. A tiny five and a half foot human trying to connect emotionally with a one hundred foot tall ape is dumb, where it kind of made sense in the older Kongs, this is, again, more like a conventional kaiju film, and seeing that Kong Ann dynamic being played out with Weaver and this new giant Kong looks silly, and is silly. In that the film does betray an element of Godzilla, that being the insignificance and futility of humanity in this larger kaiju ecosystem, apparently Kong is so altruistic that he will go out of his way to save something that is to him what an ant is to us. The film continues betraying Godzilla in other areas, mainly with its shift more towards cheesy Pacific Rim style action over the grounded and serious destruction in Godzilla, is it worth complaining about, yes and no, since the seriousness of Godzilla is one of the reasons I love it, yet it's always awesome to see giant monsters fighting, even better when he's batting things up the face with trees and blades-of-chaosing with a boat propeller. it is something I'm conflicted on, because I did really enjoy this film's action scenes. But really, conflicted is a good way of describing the film; clearly it's trying to be its own movie, to be a monster movie, but at the same time it's trying to set up the Monsterverse and be like Godzilla, it keeps the attention on its humans, but does a worse job with them than Godzilla did, but puts more focus on the kaiju fights, again being more like a typical monster movie. It's humans are flat hero and fodder characters, with a few exceptions the film doesn't explore enough in my opinion, and the film, while having some really satisfying Kong action, is less satisfying overall compared to Godzilla, as it also prioritises setting up for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which, while really cool, is not necessary, and it leaves the film on a Hollow note. All in all though, I did enjoy Kong: Skull island, I had a lot of fun with its monster mayhem, and I did enjoy the film's more developed characters. But this film is not as good as Godzilla, it's much closer to Pacific Rim in its style, if less visually beautiful, which would be a bad thing if glorious giant monster smack downs weren't just innately entertaining. Regardless of its flaws, I still liked my time with Kong: Skull Island, and I'd say it's worth watching.
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