"King Kong: Skull Island" continues the character characteristics of King Kong in previous works: irritable but kind. However, the film devoted more space to showing King Kong's super-strong fighting power and Kong Wu's powerful and strong body, and the emotional shaping of King Kong was just a touch of the water, with a single stroke and a shallow taste. The strong King Kong, who fought from the beginning to the end, has become the overlord of the island beyond the knowledge of human geographic exploration. He has an old enemy and a skeleton lizard that kills his father. Come on, the protagonist of the bombing.
The film sets the plot to take place right after the United States ended the Vietnam War, but not everyone welcomed the decision at the time. The officer played by Samuel L. Jackson is obviously not of the anti-war faction. After receiving a new assignment, he inadvertently revealed a glimmer of joy that illustrates his desire to win and conquer. Seeing that the helicopters were destroyed one by one by the hands of King Kong, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, he couldn't wait to find a new enemy for himself, so he broke with the protection of King Kong's camp represented by Hughson and the actress Brie Larson. However, many characters have not had enough time to leave enough impression in the audience's mind before they sacrificed. The unknown character and motivation of the characters greatly weakened the film's appeal in the tragic degree of death, resulting in a kind of pure reliance on the dead. Contrasting the feeling of the environment is dangerous.
In fact, even though the presence of the male and female protagonists Shiverson and Larson is not very strong in the film, what "Kong: Skull Island" wants to depict is all kinds of strange, ferocious and rare monster creatures. Even if the fully-armed human legion came to the island aggressively, in the end, they could only flee for their lives in despair. By throwing a group of people with different interests on Skull Island, the film mobilizes the audience's emotions with a perilous adventure in a dangerous jungle, and warns those extremists who are blindly arrogant and regard human beings as masters of the earth, And this is precisely the most charming and dangerous charm of monster movies: the invincible monsters show the fragility of human beings, and the impossibility of getting out of the desperate situation shows the greatness of nature. So, it's time to put away that arrogant and belligerent face, learn to be in awe of all things, and get along well with them.
Yet selfishness, disagreement, and violence have kept humanity mired in war time and time again. The most absurd of them is that sometimes people almost forget why they started the war, and just repeat the killing numbly and mechanically under the drive of inertia. At the beginning of the film, American soldiers and Japanese soldiers fell to the island, and when the two fought to the death and they couldn't get to grips with each other, King Kong appeared, and the two stopped fighting in shock. In the decades that followed, the two became friends instead and lived with the residents of the island until the death of the Japanese soldier, and the protagonist broke in. The American soldiers who are out of touch with the real world have in turn taught the protagonists the rules and justice here. For him, Skull Island has unexpectedly become a pure land away from national wars, so he also resolutely opposes burning the fire here and destroying the original operation. orderly ecology.
In "Kong: Skull Island", there are a large number of black and white photos taken by the heroine, which together with the blurred images of American veterans returning home at the end, highlight the strong sense of age. Although the film is classified as action fantasy in terms of genre, it makes people smell a strong anti-war sentiment and ethereal nostalgia for the homeland in the plot, which seems to be the private goods entrained by the director and screenwriter. The American soldier who came to the island early was a symbolic character, and when he was asking if the war he fought for was over and whether he won or lost, he learned absurdly that his country had begun a longer and more tormented war. war. These two delicate time points constitute an allegory of modern history, as humans with unprecedented power are fighting each other and the nature they once revered. Officers like Samuel L. Jackson resorted to violence, preferring to kill rather than allow conflict to be resolved through communication, collaboration, and mutual assistance.
Personally, I feel that the image of King Kong has the meaning of challenging human beings at the beginning of its creation. The growing conceit of its own strength, mainly militarily, and the ambition to extend its sphere of domination have made humanity extremely restless over the past century. And King Kong, who climbed the top floor of the city and shot down the plane of human pride, is a natural force that technology cannot yet control. The most ironic thing is that the monster in people's eyes understands love and protects what he loves, but human beings degenerate like half of an aggressive animal, unwilling to give up without taking the other's life. Whether it was the black officer who insisted on killing King Kong in the film, or the American veteran who realized the absurd meaning of war, they all paid the price for this belligerence-one was trapped for decades, and the other stayed on an island forever. superior. This may indicate that if a war is waged against nature, human beings will only be the loser; if a war is waged against other countries, there will only be losers.
Of course, this is just one of the implied meanings of the film. "King Kong: Skull Island" is still a Hollywood high-concept commercial film that pursues visual spectacle and viewing pleasure to a greater extent. Due to the endless emergence of dangerous creatures, blue-blooded monsters, long-legged giant ants, and skeleton lizards have attracted most of the attention, and the human characters will inevitably become the background version. The scientists who wanted to prove to the world the existence of monsters were just as blunt as the soldiers who chose to blow themselves up and die with the monsters, so that their existence was a bit baffling. The much-watched Chinese actress Jing Tian is no better than them either: it doesn't matter if she is removed. After playing the role of the heroine of soy sauce in the commercial action film and the lead actress in the co-production of the costume drama, Ms. Jing Tian finally found the most suitable way of acting for her - quietly and quietly behind the starring role. At the same time, the opening of the vase should be as little as possible to interfere with the direction of the plot. And her appearance is still necessary, she is the embodiment of the capital game in the process of filming. From this point of view, we may have to thank Jing Tian, if she hadn't acted, we might not have seen the movie.
As the outpost of the monster gathering, Godzilla appeared in the easter egg at the end. This also means that under the increasingly tricky taste of the audience, monsters have to be in a group to sell well. I can't help but think of the scene in the film where Brie Larson touches King Kong's cheek. It was one of the few tender moments in the film, and it was also the moment closest to the essence of the old version. But obviously, this is just a tribute segment. Awaiting King Kong is a series of movies, so it also needs to defeat more enemies. Sometimes I suddenly miss the King Kong who climbed the skyscraper, fighting alone in a world that doesn't belong to him, just for someone he cares about. Such a King Kong is very silly and cute. (Text / Zhao Weiqing)
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