Tag Archives: Apocalypse Now

My Review of Kong: Skull Island

17 Mar

March 17, 2017

Before we begin, I’ll tell you right upfront that though I am going to try to keep the spoilers at a minimum I have a terrible track record so expect me to spoil this film for you.

This is a fun film and I enjoyed it a lot, and although it is set in the same universe as Godzilla, there is no comparison at all. Godzilla was pretty good but ultimately disappointing, this one is very good and not disappointing. Unless you want to see him climb the Empire State Building. But what do you expect? This film isn’t called Skull Island for nothing. He doesn’t go to New York.

In a nutshell, a bunch of soldiers and scientists land on Skull Island. The soldiers are there to help the scientists with a “geological survey,” which was just a lie to flush the monsters above ground. And it works. It works really well. It works too well. Out of nowhere Kong decimates them and from there on it is a trek for the survivors to the other side of the island while dodging monsters and beasts, but for one man it becomes an obsession to kill Kong. (And of course that man is Samuel L. Jackson. The subtitle of this film should be King Kong vs. Samuel L. Jackson.) Will he kill Kong? (No. See? I told you I’d spoil it.) Will the humans make it to the safety of the other end of the island? (Some of them yes, most of them no.) Does Brie Larson spend most of the film in a tank top, often soaking wet? (Mercifully yes.) 

So here’s the good:

  • This film is faithful to the original from 1933, despite being a reboot and having no relation to the original. No, I am not drunk. Let me explain. This film is set during the 1970’s and details the first time outsiders set foot on the island. Take the original film- the island, the natives, the wall, Kong, etc., but now leave out Carl Denham and the rest. Imagine that they never set foot on the island. In Skull Island, it is easy to believe that this is what the original island would be like if no one else ever set foot on it. Sure, they updated it a bit, but this is clearly the same island. Also, the film opens with the sound of old airplanes and machine gun sounds over the credits, which leads into the first scene of a WWII air battle, but I also found it to be a homage to the climax of the original film.
  • It can actually be compared to Apocalypse Now. Yes, really, and I am not just talking about the posters. 
    Skull Island generally follows the same basic plot as Apocalypse Now. A group of Vietnam-era soldiers in an untamed jungle doggedly moving upriver and through more and more danger to a climax with a mad colonel. True, Apocalypse Now doesn’t have a giant ape, but it does have Marlon Brando, so I call that a tie.
  • The first action sequence with Kong vs the helicopters is awesome. You will love it.
  • John C. Reilly is hands down the most fun character in the film. If you know him from Adult Swim’s Check It Out, his character is about 60% Dr. Steve Brule. If that means nothing to you, go to YouTube right now. Seriously, go. I’ll wait for you.
  • Kong is all over this film. This isn’t like Godzilla where we had a few murky shots and were constantly waiting for the monster to show up again. 
  • The soundtrack is all 1970’s classic rock. Grace Slick! Black Sabbath! The Hollies! 

And here’s the bad. But it isn’t too bad. 

  • There were no dinosaurs. In every King Kong film, even the ones from Japan where he fights robots, he fights dinosaurs. And although I said above that the island is identical to the original, this is the one exception. No dinosaurs. Kong did fight a lot of reptilian skull crushers, but they looked more like those lame MUTOS Godzilla fought in his last American film than Dinosaurs. And while that makes sense since they are set in the same cinematic universe, it was a glaring omission. King Kong fights dinosaurs! (That will be rectified when King Kong vs. Godzilla comes out in a few years.) 

This is the real problem I had with the film: It had no heart. You didn’t root for Kong. There was no “humanity” in him as there was in every other version of the giant ape. This Kong is just gruff. And it is understandable since he is an orphan who spends his life fighting other monsters. But it doesn’t make you root for him. He protected the humans in this film but never seemed to like them or have any connection to any other human. The film tried to make up for that by giving one of the human characters a tear-jerker ending and it worked, if the intent was to make everyone leave the film feeling good, but it did nothing to make us like Kong. 

Like the original, the female lead ended up in the ape’s palm, but unlike the other versions this was a rescue and there was no connection between them. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Kong just dumped her back in the water. 

This was a fun film and a good action film. This may not be the Kong that you remember or the Kong that you want, but it works. You get your money’s worth. And since we already know that King Kong vs. Godzilla is going to be made, my geeky fanboy take on that after seeing both monsters in action, is Kong will easily take out Godzilla.

Just like Kirk would beat Picard in a fight.

Here’s Brie Larson in a tank top. Think I’d leave you hanging? That ought to sell some tickets. Tell ’em Mr. Blog sent you.

 

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Apocalypse Now, a happy little film. My review

7 Nov

from July1, 2006

A.N. is a film that makes statements about war in general, the men who fight it, and the nature of conflict. Although set during the Vietnam war, it says little about that war. It comments some on the racism toward the Vietnamese, but that’s mostly limited to verbal slurs and condescension, nothing explicit (and that’s an important point. This is a subtle film.) A.N. never attempts to get into the underlying reasons for or against the war. It manages to stay a-poliitical towards the larger forces behind war, only commenting on the soldiers themselves. (As in why Brando has to be killed but the surfing Colonel, who obeys orders but is running just as much of a cult as Brando, is respected and honored. Brando, at least according to his writings, is very much a great solidier, but he doesn’t play in the same political sandbox, so he must be executed.)

The French sequence doesn’t fit for many reasons. Here, they get explicit (no longer subtle) about the Vietnamese conflict, unlike the rest of the film. Here, they are trying to make a comment about that particular war, and have moved away from the themes of the rest of the film. It is a sequence that only relates to itself. {Cinematically, Capt. Willard spent almost the whole sequence sitiing directly in front of the open window with his hand over his eyes, “blinded by the light.” Of truth? He was unable to respond to the Frenchman. He had no words. Maybe in the light of the the Frenchman’s truth, he was unable to respond. He had no answers. Again, a great scene, but a commentary on Vietnam that was out of place in this film.}

Secondly, it doesn’t fit on the river. They have been slowly descending into madness. Every stop has been less ciivilized than the first, leading into the ultimate surrender of humanity, Brando’s native idyll, where the men are half clothed, corpses hang everywhere, idols are worshipped, and animals sacrificed. Just watch Lance, who has slowly been abandoning his civilized ways and becomes one of Brando’s minions, without ever meeting him. It was “the horror,” or the nature of war that brought him there. The drugs helped, but it’s implicit that it was the war that brought him to the drugs. However, the French plantation was the height of civilization, plopped into the river at a point where they are nearing the apex of “uncivilization.” They have left the american army behind, and, are next attacked with “primitive” weapons (spears and arrows) by “primitive” people. I don’t see this as an intentional juxtapostion because it doesn’t seem to make any points in that regard, “primitive” versus “civilization.”

It would be more palatable if it took place earlier on the river, but since the rest of the river was under American Army control, it couldn’t exist there. Plus, we hadn’t seen the horrors of war yet, so it would not have as much impact.

Thirdly, at a more basic level, I find it hard to believe that that band of hardy Frenchmen could keep the farm running, even just in a small way for pride’s sake. They were so divided in opinion (and anger) that some of them MUST have wanted to return to France. Why would the men who left the table early stay? What could the quality of life be there? In that country at that time, where were they getting food, clothes, music, anything that they were accustomed too? Who were the men with guns? Some of them were clearly Vietnamese. They are loyal only to the farm, not their country?

Still considering the Dennis Hopper “character” (Isn’t he just playing himself?) He was not in his right mind, and totally loyal to Brando. Is this an example of the blind love Brando engendered in his people? His madness was supposed to be the opposite of Brando’s quiet sanity. As you said, here we have to doubt everything we’ve been told about Brando. However, the things Hopper tells us make us feel more and more that Brando is insane. When we finally see Brando, though, he doesn’t seem insane, but he does seem to have an extreme god-complex, one that was never hinted at in the course of the movie.

Bottom line, Hopper was loud and distracting, very annoying. In a place of insanity, he was the only one who seemed truley insane. Maybe because he was a random element, a civilian who wasn’t a part of Brando’s army. Strangely, he was also the only one who saw Brando clearly, making him the only sane man there at the same time. (Hmm. Now that I write this, there seems to be more to Hopper’s character than meets the eye. Maybe more on him later.)

“Charlie don’t surf!”

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