KONG: Skull Island

            With the success of Legendary Pictures’ take on “Godzilla,” it would make sense that the studio would attempt to bring a new take on a classic giant monster to life. Maybe more creatures in the “Godzilla” universe, or…maybe it could try an attempt to resurrect another giant monster we all know. Like say…KING KONG MAYBE?!

            Yes, people, Legendary Pictures set out to bring forth King Kong onto the big screen again, over a decade after Peter Jackson’s 2005 epic remake. However, instead of redoing the same story we always do with King Kong, we decide to go into full on B-movie territory and have fun with this creature, so we can build up to “King Kong vs. Godzilla.”

            At the tail-end of the Vietnam War, a group of scientists and a squadron of soldiers are sent to investigate the uncharted territory known as Skull Island. What they find there is an island full of oversized monsters and their guardian, Kong. After the team separates, we now have one side that wants to take the big ape down, and another side that believes there’s more to this than they think.

            Now, the question is, did I like the movie? Well…look, I know this film was supposed to be a B-movie, so perfection was not on its mind, but I still felt the film was a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, I like the film fine, but I just wished that it was a bit more of the fun blockbuster I was hoping it’d be from what we saw in the trailers. Or if they were going to do things a little more serious, you could have gone completely in the tonal direction of the previous “Godzilla” movie.

            I know the film is supposed to go for the whole classic B-movie monster adventure flick, so not everything is going to be top notch and you want to save the monster scenes sparingly, but I can’t really have fun with it, if I’m not enjoying the characters. While it does have an all-star cast attached to it,  powerhouse character actors like Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, that…kid from “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” and Toby Kebbel, they play such generic stereotypes in such a flimsy script that it doesn’t give them much to play around. For instance, Toby Kebbel’s character is on his own, and he witnesses Kong and the skullcrawlers before they’re introduced into the movie, but he’s killed off so it makes you ask, what was the point of him being there. Tom Hiddleston’s character is said to be this ultimate badass tracker, but with how bland his performance is, you could have easily cast it with someone else like Shia Labouf or any of the expendable cast members from “The Walking Dead,” and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference. Same with Brie Larson, who plays this Vietnam War photographer…and that’s it. Come on, you’ve got an Oscar winning actress in your hands, and you don’t do anything with her?!

            Despite this, there are three actors that make the film enjoyable. Two of them are John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson. These two are such powerhouse actors that whenever they pop up on screen, they just dominate the scene, and when they’re both in a scene going back and forth with one another, between escaping to prove monsters exist and one wanting to stay and fight the monster to the bitter end, it really makes for some interesting scene work. And the third actor that makes the film enjoyable is John C Reilly, who plays a WWII pilot who crashed on Skull Island and had been stuck there since. Considering he appears when Hiddleston and Larson’s team show up, he adds a good balance of enjoyment to be had with each team now, even if it only comes from one or two people. May not be much, but I’ll take what I can get.

            The film is also incredible to look at. It has the feel of a classic old Vietnam film, like “Apocalypse Now!” Hell, people have been dubbing the film “Apocalypse Kong,” and fittingly so. I especially love the shots when Kong is on screen, where he stands in front of the setting sun or full moon and he’s silhouetted, or when he’s towering over someone and you’re looking through that person’s POV, it looks incredible. They really knew how to make Kong look like a massive force of nature to be feared. Some of the monsters are also pretty cool...although, much like how the MUTO looked like a mix between Mothra and the Cloverfield monster, the skullcrawlers look like a mix between the creepers from “Code Lyoko” and the skull-monkeys from “The Neverhood” series, so it loses points of originality. But at least Kong has more screentime than Godzilla did.

            Overall, is “Kong: Skull Island” a film worth seeing? Yeah, but I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it. It’s worth renting, especially since it does establish Kong in the Godzilla universe by the end, but unless you want to feel the full emphasis of Kong on the biggest screen you can find, I’d say see it at a low matinee. It’s disappointing to say the least.

Rating 6/10