What do you get when you cross the guy who wrote Godzilla with the guy who wrote Nightcrawler and the guy who directed, well, Funny or Die? You get Kong Island. You get a film that is (pardon the pun) more than meets the eye.
The movie is written and filmed as if the makers knew their particular audience needed an extra nudge to get the base message of the film. It wasn’t hidden. In fact part of the clue to the deeper meaning of things is the fact that the film is shot in two ways. For every straight on shot you get another that is off angle enough to let you know that meaning is shaped by one’s relative position to the context.
Beyond all of that, it is a monster movie. It is a big budget film that is about a giant gorilla-like creature. It is also part of a series of monster films centered around a governmental organization (how American of us) called Monarch–yes, we are talking about Mothra.
The reviews have been all over the place. The films clear allusions to Apocalypse now and Heart of Darkness either point out the deeper intricacies of the human condition or just make for some cooly reminiscent visuals. For my two cents, it is a bit of both. Kong has a message but lets you know that you get from it what you have in you.