Tower Music, out now

Legendary Pictures’ introduction of Kong to their Monster franchise is boosted by an exciting score by Captain America regular Henry Jackman.

When underscoring a movie set on a South Pacific island, populated by prehistoric beasts and spear-waving natives, there’s an easy route you could take – bongo drums and Polynesian chanting – but luckily the composer has opted to score the action and emotion rather than the locale. And boy, it’s big, exciting old school music to punctuate the on-screen peril as soldiers and explorers face-off against not only a giant ape but an island of plus-sized monsters.

The composer is used to writing things big – Captain America: Civil War and The Winter Soldier and X-Men: First Class being fine examples of blockbuster wall-to-wall compositions. But Kong is Jackman’s biggest character yet, commanding (and demanding) some monster orchestration. Into the Storm is heavy on electric guitar riffs, representing the cavalier nature of the soldiers preparing to attack, the timpani snarls being a secondary reminder that this is a military-led venture.

The choppers burst through the clouds and spot Skull Island in its breath-taking beauty, and so The Island swells with a sense of wonder, dominated by a recurring, brassy 3-note motif that feels like it’s straying into Jerry Goldsmith’s Voyager, but it’s a dominant theme that’s interpolated across the piece. Kong the Destroyer is a splendid action cue as the eponymous ape swats the helicopter squadron out of the sky. The rat-a-tat spray of the drums acts as gun fire, while a low sustained rumble presents Kong’s battle music. But where Jackman really succeeds is in using the music to emote what the character can’t. Kong can’t talk, and while he is wonderfully brought to life by Terry Notary’s mo-cap work, it’s the melancholy, adagio-heavy theme that surfaces the majesty and the sadness. It’s not just all about the spectacle – track King Kong beautifully grows and grows from the slow strings to a choral and drum explosion as Kong pounds his chest and we zoom into his eye.

The Battle of Skull Island is infused with furious strings, reminiscent of John Williams’ The Lost World, which in turn was influenced by Steiner’s King Kong, so it’s appropriate to go full circle. Monster Mash is the post-credit scene which rewards those who sat through the many minutes of credits to give a taster of what is to come in the next Monsterverse film. It’s brassy, confident and does exactly what a good teaser should do – make you anticipate what happens next.

Verdict: While strictly not a sequel to Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island was always going to judged against its Monsterverse stablemate, and likewise its score. It’s to Henry Jackman’s credit that not only has he delivered a more consistently exciting soundtrack than Alexander Desplat’s Godzilla, but given a humanity to Kong that not even most of the the humans in the movie could engender. Stripped away from the movie’s clunky script and occasional mis-steps you get to appreciate this for what it is – an accomplished work.  9/10

Nick Joy