Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017) by Truth_Of_Pisces — 26 Mar 2017

When I found it this was a prequel to 2014's Godzilla, I was super excited. This movie does an excellent job of expanding the universe they're trying to set up. Visually it's pretty damn impressive. Kong himself looks just as should for what they're trying to make him out to be.

He's not just a giant silver back gorilla like Perter Jackson envisioned, he's a giant up-right walking ape that knows how to do some serous damage, and it's just an awesome display. A lot of the other monsters are beautifully presented, with the exception of the movie's "Skull Crawlers" which just fell a little flat for me in terms of design.

The actors do a really great job, but they feel sort of wasted, as if they cast simply because their names would draw in viewers and not based on their acting talent, but this is just a personal gripe; Tom Hiddleston is charming as ever on screen, John Goodman performs as good as expected, and Samuel J.

Jackson...well you don't need me to comment on a performance from SLJ. Overall, Kong: Skull Island is a much more "fun" film than Godzilla. You get to see a lot more of the title character than in the latter film which is a plus.

However, the film's main problem is tone; it's a bit all over the place being tense one minute minute followed by camp and comedic the next. Still, it's a great build-up and if you stick around for the end credits, you'll see why.