Kong: Skull Island is essentially about a group of scientists, soldiers, and researchers who go to Skull Island in pursuit of finding new species like Kong. But, when they get there, they make a mess of an ordained island which is protected by the king himself. The movie has an all-star cast, which includes Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brie Larson. The movie takes place in a post-Vietnam War time and is also set in the same universe as Godzilla (2014). This was a very entertaining movie with monumental action, but seems to fall short in the dramatic and human elements.
Foremost, there were many things in the film that worked. For instance, Kong looked magnificent. This version of Kong differed than that in Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), for it was bigger, less-hairy, and more vicious. The brilliant CGI brought this character back to life once again with phenomenal action sequences. The one that stood out the most was at the end when Kong took on the big "skullcrawler". I could not help but be entertained when Kong ripped out the monster's insides by gripping his tongue, which was disgusting in its own cleverness. In addition, the green screen of the island, in its entirety, truly looked real. This movie is a prime example of how far visual effects have come and why they are necessary in movies today.
However, there were things that did not work. First, the humor seemed unfitting and unnecessary. Comedy, something that most blockbusters seem to force nowadays, took away from the dark, frightening feeling that should have been present in the existence of these terrifying creatures. I would have been okay with John C. Reilly's character having a one-liner now and then, but not the soldiers. The chemistry between the troops never really clicked as, throughout the whole movie, they were constantly throwing out corny jokes that did not fit. Thus, this movie could have benefited from having a more harsh and comfortless tone. While it had this a parts with Kong, it mostly lacked with the human characters as they did not seem to be affected by anything that happened. This probably was a combination of mediocre chemistry mixed with a bland screenplay. This makes it hard to care when people would die or if they would survive throughout the film.
This is by no means a bad film. In fact, I came out of the theater being very happy with what I saw. But, it just seems to fall into the same category as most successful blockbusters nowadays, which is a combination of amazing action, two dimensional characters, and forced humor. This then brings me to my point. Hollywood and its fans are too set on making a movie "fun" rather than making a good movie, as dark as it may be. The production team did the right thing in not doing this though for it would have been unsuccessful with critics, fans, and in the box office. Critics and fans must be more open-minded to allow a more emotionally toned movie to be made. Therefore, a monumental concept for a movie like this should be allowed to take risks with its story to create a higher quality movie, without fearing the audience's disapproval.
Rating: 7/10
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