Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017) by Peter R — 02 Aug 2017

Don't bother complaining about the boring characters or weak storyline or whatever it is that you find lacking in this movie because you and I both know that that isn't what we came to see in the first place. Let's stop bullshitting ourselves.Ã, .

Let's put all our pretentious film critic twaddle away for a moment and face the fact that we came to see a giant gorilla break shit, and god damn it if that isn't what we got.

Off the bat, this movie is leagues better than Godzilla. There's no teasing that leads up to nothing, you can see Kong in all his glory, the night scenes are very few and serve a purpose, the characters aren't boring and have clear personalities (even if you don't actually remember any of their names) and, as an added bonus, none of the actors you wanted to see died within the first thirty minutes. And, thank god, there's not nearly as much dust and smoke all over the place.Ã, .

The action is very good. Very very good. If you want to see a great big monkey go apeshit, you've come to the right movie. You see Kong beat up a bunch of helicopters, you see him beat up a bunch of giant lizards, and you get to see him beat up a bunch of stupid soldiers, and it all looks very nice. The CGI is good. It's enough to suspend your disbelief, and there were a couple scenes of the Skullcrawlers that I honestly thought looked pretty damn near real. You can tell that the animators and CG artists put in a lot of love and attention, and were given a lot of room to mess around with some neat monster designs. The scene with the giant daddy longlegs in particular was one of my favorite bits, purely because it was something I didn't see coming, and it's honestly a cool idea.Ã, .

Overall, I had a good time. I came to see a monster movie, and I got one that was surprisingly clever. All the big name actors give satisfactory performances. Samuel L. Jackson, as always, is stellar in this. That man always gives it his all unless it's a shitty Star Wars movie. And that soundtrack is giving Guardians of the Galaxy a run for it's money.

If you want mindless popcorn entertainment, please, do yourself a favor and go wild. It's a really fun movie. And, if you're the wannabe Gene Siskel type, please also take the time to do yourself a favor: just shut up and enjoy yourself for once.