Oversized primate is Skull’s main attraction
Kong: Skull Island (M) Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts Starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson 118 mins YOU can blame Peter Jackson as much as anybody for this latest empty creature feature. If he hadn’t inserted a scene where the big ape wrestled T-Rexes in his 2005 take on King Kong, nobody would have conceived of the blockbuster-audience-baiting idea.
Set in 1973, this sees a team of scientists, backed by a military escort, attempt to chart the mysterious island of the movie’s title.
However, things go sideways pretty quickly after they discover its unique flora and fauna and that not everyone in their party has the same agenda.
What follows is a mixture of Tremors, Pacific Rim and Madagascar 2, as our heroes find themselves battling just to stay alive and reach their one chance of extraction in time.
But while rookie director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (a slightly odd choice given his background is in TV comedy) has assembled a terrific ensemble, boasting everyone from Samuel L Jackson to John C Reilly, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston, the humans quickly become secondary to the headlining primate.
And the problem is that while Kong is certainly a commanding presence, his gigantic proportions (he’s four-times the size of Jackson’s incarnation, presumably so his impending ‘‘Monsterverse’’ battle with Godzilla in 2020 is more evenly matched) make him far more of a special effect than the audienceengaging character of the past.
That’s not to say that Skull Island is without its charms.
There are some nice nods to Apocalypse Now and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in both the storyline and character names, while Vogt-Roberts conjures up some clever match shots and does a nice job in evoking the period setting via both soundtrack choices and political backdrop (although the opening line, ‘‘There’s never been a more screwed up time in Washington’’, is also surely a dig at the current plight of United States politics).
However, in the end, that all just feels like window-dressing for a sadly predictable last act wrestling match between two CGI creations. – James Croot