“You don’t go into someone’s house and start dropping bombs unless you’re looking for a fight…”
Despite initial marketing – including a perhaps ill-advised ‘from the producers of Godzilla‘ tag-line – suggesting that Kong: Skull Island could be the first in a slate of big but basic ‘monster’ movies heading our way in the next few years, there is a definite and deliberate Apocalypse Now vibe to the latest trailer for the film which is due in cinemas on March 10th 2017.
The helicopters, the explosions and the somewhat indiscriminate bombing form the very big backbone to an epic story set in the Vietnam era and fully-embracing the complex politics and attitudes of the time. But if anyone was worried this might have done a complete u-turn from an action-based monster mash to political parable, then the trailer offers more than its fair share of high-concept theatrics as the biggest version of Kong ever seen on the screen dominates each and every frame he’s in.
Jordan Vogt-Roberts is something of untested director in this genre, his previous efforts being smaller and sometimes comedic tv-based projects such as various Funny or Die videos, You’re the Worst and Death Valley. But if the visuals and beats of the trailer are anything to go by he seems to have nailed the pacing and potential for high drama and classic one-liners. The visual effects give us a monstrously-sized Kong but place him as the injured party in a place where the incoming human strangers are causing all sorts of havoc and destruction to his home. It’s also a strong line-up of performers in that human side of things… Tom Hiddleston (Thor, The Night Manager and possible future James Bond), Brie Larson (Oscar-winner for The Room and alsothe upcoming Captain Marvel), the ever-cool Samuel L. Jackson,the ever-reliable John Goodman and master of timing John C. Reilly all look to be bringing their A-game to a film that could yet defy early expectations.
