Mini-Review: "Kong: Skull Island"

A friend of mine convinced me not to bother seeing Kong: Skull Island in the theaters. Wrong he was, and I have since berated him right smartly. It’s tons of fun from beginning to end, and really captures the old-fashioned adventure feeling of an H. Rider Haggard novel.

A mission to an uncharted island unleashes the wrath of a giant gorilla and mayhem ensues — that about sums up the plot. But there are enough story developments and character turns to make it all gripping and exciting.

One complaint — my usual complaint — feminism has ruined all female action characters. We always have to see how brave and strong they are (zzzzz) and can’t ever have the pleasure of watching them rescued by the hero, which renders the hero useless. They also are never allowed to supply a presence of gentleness and femininity, which is actually the only reason to have them there in the first place since men handle the action stuff better. Kong stories are inherently stories of brute masculinity tamed by the Eternal Feminine. Fortunately, the Feminine remains eternal in real life, but no filmmaker is willing to film it. It leaves a big hole in every action film, this one included.

Ignore that, though. The hero and heroine — Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson, both appealing performers — are rendered useless by perfidious feminism, the worst philosophy every philosophized, but a good story, great special effects and the ancillary characters, especially Samuel Jackson, carry it along.