Clearly keen on young independent filmmakers, Jordan Vogt-Roberts was handed the reigns of this latest outing, tasked with creating something very different from the Peter Jackson version we saw 12 years ago, and also keeping in mind that this has got to fit in with future sequels down the line. So the first thing Vogt-Roberts has made sure to do is to make Kong much bigger, a hell of a lot bigger in fact, because if he's got to fight Godzilla in future then he's not going to last long if he can only get shots in around his shins, but that's not the only thing that's different.
The film focuses on an exploratory mission to Skull Island lead by government agent Bill Randa (John Goodman), he recruits some assistance from former British Special Forces James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and a Military escort in the form of a Vietnam War Helicopter Squadron led by Lieutenant Colonel Packard (Samuel L Jackson). After napalming the island to map its geographical structure (or something along those lines that makes even less sense) they awaken a collection of creepy creatures on the island and run into another one in the form of Kong.
There are some genuine pleasures to be taken from this film. Vogt-Roberts is clearly an enthusiastic and passionate guy, he seems to revel in its 70s setting and although a lot of it are cliches that have been in a thousand films before, there is still some enjoyment to be taken from them. He is also a very cineliterate director, and he litters the film with intertextual references, obviously to vietnam war films but also many beyond that. Similarly to Gareth Edwards Godzilla it suffers from all the same problems. Visually Gareth Edwards was able to create some moments of real beauty but as a film it didn't really hold up, and yes you will come out of this and remember the stunning shot of Kong stood with the sun setting as the helicopters approach, but it's not enough to have good moments, you can watch them in a trailer.
It is also, objectively, one of the most poorly written blockbusters this year. Its characters are so poorly formed and one note that it is genuinely impressive they managed to assemble such a good cast to give a good old stab at selling this tripe. Samuel L Jackson's military man is a bit angry, John Goodman's government guy is a bit untrustworthy, John C Reilly's crash landed pilot is a bit crazy and Brie Larson's photographer likes taking pictures. As poor as those characters are, nothing comes close to the staggering dullness of Hiddleston's James Conrad. For starters, it is the most miscast role in recent memory and he sticks out like a sore thumb for the whole film, there is never a reasonable explanation given as to why there's a need for him to be there in the first place. He's introduced in a bar shooting pool and getting in a scrap, so we guess he's a bit of a rogue and he's not going to listen to the rules. He gets to the island and it becomes genuinely exhausting to try and figure out what he's offering other than occasionally bending down, looking at the floor then standing up and saying "it's so many clicks this way" or "we need to go so many clicks that way". Hiddleston is a talented actor, but this is perfect example of why not to shoehorn an actor into a film just because they're a big star.
The real star of this film, as should always be the case, is Kong himself. For the most part the redesign of the character is a fairly successful one. After Andy Serkis provided so much personality and warmth to Kong in his last appearance there was always a risk that this was going to completely eschew that level of effort. However despite Kong being physically much larger and theoretically much younger, there is some effort to give him a personality that can be developed going forward, helped ably here by Toby Kebbell's performance capture. If there's a problem its with Vogt-Roberts' direction. There's almost a lack of respect shown towards the character in the way that he is presented. A character of Kong's caliber needs to have a slow build reveal, teasing the audience before eventually having a hero shot that shows him in all his glory. Here however, Vogt-Roberts opts instead to blow his load in the opening prologue scene, there may be something to the notion that this is a refreshing approach, but you're then left feeling more impatient with the earlier scenes knowing that we've already seen the big star.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is set for release in 2019, after a very slow start with these first two films, hopefully they can take note that the visual spectacle of a giant monster is less engaging when there is no well formed human characters selling it. There are promising moments, but there needs to be more than that to result in promising films.
(3 Stars)
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