Kong: Skull Island is the latest reboot of the King Kong franchise and the second installment in Legendary’s “MonsterVerse”
shared cinematic universe (the first of which was 2014’s Godzilla reboot). The movie
follows an expedition – composed of tracker/adventurer ex-British SAS Captain
James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), U.S government agent Bill Randa (John Goodman),
photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), U.S. Army helicopter squadron
leader Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), and other scientists
and soldiers – into an unexplored, fabled island in the Pacific called “Skull
Island”, which they soon discover is the dominion of a gargantuan ape named “Kong” (probably the largest incarnation of the iconic film monster yet. The same thing was done with Godzilla in Godzilla Resurgence. I guess the trend is “bigger is better”). As their undertaking unceremoniously becomes
a struggle for survival, they meet World War II pilot Hank Marlow (John C.
Reilly), who has been stranded in the island for nearly three decades, and
encounter various strange, deadly creatures never before seen by men – chief of
which are Kong’s mortal foes, the reptilian subterranean monsters called “Skullcrawlers.”
The part I enjoyed most about the
2005 King Kong movie was Skull
Island. I hoped then that the movie had spent
more time in that mythical place and explored it more. So the fact that Kong: Skull Island is exclusively set on it is a sort of fulfillment
of that wish, and thus, is a big positive for this movie. Indeed, all things Skull Island are what I
like most about this movie. I just wished
it showed more variety of monsters (I counted only seven extraordinary kinds of creatures, including Kong and the Skullcrawlers).
Unfortunately, aside from the
mythical appeal of the setting and creatures, there’s nothing else much to be
loved about this movie. The plot is
predictable. The script is dumb. There’s a noticeable amount of moments in the narrative that are pretentious, needless, or don’t make any sense.
And despite having an impressive casting of beloved actors, the film’s characters
are completely bland.
It’s still a decent monster romp,
though. The action scenes are
fist-pumpingly gratifying, which is probably the most important thing about this kind of movies. But other
than that, it lacks any sense of real noteworthiness. It just feels like an obligatory stepping
stone to that “Godzilla vs. King Kong” event that Legendary is building
towards. Considering the potential of its grand premise, I wish it had been epic.
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