Visit Skull Island, and you'll see soon enough that King Kong reigns supreme. Outside of his home turf, Kong hasn't had the best of luck. The latest blow to the giant gorilla came yesterday at the Vietnam premiere of Kong: Skull Island, where a 16-foot model of Kong went up in a burst of flames, and one of the folks in the crowd was on hand to capture the model going down in a blaze of glory. Take a look.
As part of the Kong: Skull Island premiere in Ho Chi Minh City, where much of the blockbuster was shot, the giant King Kong model was constructed to celebrate the occasion, as was a simulated volcano. While the above video states that the fire was started by a torch discarded by one of the dancers performing in front of the set-up, Sky News reports that the flames came directly from the volcano. Either way, once caught ablaze, the Kong model burned down within five minutes. The onlookers at a shopping center nearby at first thought the giant fire was part of the promotion, but after realizing this was unplanned, they got away as quickly as possible. Fire fighters came and put out the fire after about 15 minutes, and no injuries were reported.
Look, I get that that for this Kong: Skull Island premiere, the folks who planned the whole thing wanted to go for an exotic feel to simulate Skull Island. But if you have a 16-foot Kong model, maybe it's not the best idea to have fire anywhere near it, let alone include artificial volcano spurting out little bursts of flames. That giant gorilla would have been more than enough set the mood just right, and no one nearby would have been put in danger...assuming the model didn't spontaneously collapse, of course.
I can't help but wonder if this is foreshadowing of what will go down in 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong. This will be the first time these two beasts have clashed in American media, and aside from being able to maneuver around better, this iteration of King Kong is 100-feet-tall to help even the scales a little bit. That being said, Godzilla is still not only much larger, but he can also breathe fire! One misstep and King Kong is going down just as fast (if not faster) as that artificial model from the Vietnam premiere. There's still a couple more years before that epic battle will hit the big screen, so the creative minds involved still have some time to figure out how to make sure the gorilla stands a better chance against the destructive reptile.
Kong: Skull Island is now playing in theaters, and click here to read our review of the movie.
