This metaphor was filtered through a Japanese perspective. Historically, the testing of the hydrogen bomb has been more closely tied to Godzilla than to King Kong. The opening credits focus on the development of advanced weaponry following the Second World War, including the development and deployment of the hydrogen bomb.
Throughout Skull Island, Vogt-Roberts seems to be drawing rather heavily from the iconography and themes most closely associated with classic Godzilla movies. This is an interesting approach to take with King Kong. Screenwriters Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, and Derek Connolly position Skull Island as a commentary on war and its place in human nature. Anno constructed Shin Godzilla not only as a commentary on the horrific Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but also on the ways in which bureaucracy ultimately suffocates those it is meant to protect. In contrast, both Kong: Skull Island and Shin Godzilla have a much deeper understanding of what their monsters are actually saying.
King of the Monsters gestures broadly at the idea of environmental apocalypse, but with no more nuance than Geostorm. Godzilla might be read as a metaphor for the reaction to trauma both personal and cultural, but it fails to hammer that theme. However, the most immediate point of distinction is that Godzilla and King of the Monsters struggle to be “about” anything in any meaningful way. There are multiple reasons why such comparisons fail to flatter Godzilla and King of the Monsters. While there are aspects to recommend either film, both Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) suffer greatly in comparison not only to Vogt-Roberts’ Skull Island, but also to Hideaki Anno’s Shin Godzilla (2016). The studios have struggled somewhat with the other films in the series. Skull Island is the highlight to date of the so-called “MonsterVerse,” the reimagining of classic gigantic monsters produced by Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.
Cinematographer Larry Fong has described Kong: Skull Island as “a mash-up between Apocalypse Now, Thin Red Line and Bong Joon-ho’s monster movie The Host.” This unique combination accounts for a lot of what makes Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ 2017 creature feature such an unexpected delight.
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