Kong: Skull Island Review
Summary: It's not groundbreaking by any means, but the visuals and humour really do make it a cinema-going experience that you'll walk away from with a smile.
3.5
A fun outing!
Sandro Falce’s Spoiler Free Review
Kong: Skull Island isn’t necessarily a “good movie”. However, it is incredibly entertaining.
Going into this film, I wasn’t expecting much. Especially seeing as this is the successor to the incredibly dull Godzilla, with both movies being set in Legendary’s MonsterVerse… Which is a thing for some reason?
And it took a while for me to warm up to it. The first half-hour or so is quite slow going, with long scenes of exposition establishing characters and future locations, but once they got on the island the wait was worth it.
This movie is incredibly self-aware, and, in my opinion, that is the best way to make these monster films.
The humour from this doesn’t come from straight-up jokes, although there are plenty of them to be had, it comes from small moments like characters acknowledging how ridiculous the premise really is, or action set-pieces that are so much fun you can’t help but laugh.
It doesn’t take itself that seriously, but when it does, it really works.
The humour balanced out well with quite a number of tense battle sequences and a few jump-scares, which weirdly don’t feel out of place or cheap. (Because jump-scares are always cheap. I’m looking at you, every single mainstream horror movie that’s bound to come out this year.)
The cinematography also looks incredible. There were a couple of scenes near the very start when they first arrive on the island that felt “fake”, but after that, I didn’t have any issues.
Much like Godzilla, the way the scenes are put together are glorious. They really capture the beauty of Skull Island and have fun with different styles of lighting in pretty much every major set-piece.
Now let’s talk about the cast. There’s a fantastic lineup in this movie, but were they used to their full capacity? In short, of course not. This is a monster movie. It’s all about watching Kong smash things.
Saying that though, this movie proves why John C. Reilly needs more roles. He owns every scene that he is in, bringing great humour with him while also being the most human character in the entire film.
Samuel L. Jackson is also another highlight in this, although his character starts to lose steam near the end. He has some fun moments, though.
The rest of the performances aren’t that memorable. Tom Hiddleston and John Goodman are fine, Toby Kebbell and Shea Whigham have a few good moments, and Brie Larson is criminally underused. Corey Hawkins is good though and proves once again why he deserves to be in more movies like this. And he’ll be free for more very soon, once 24 Legacy gets cancelled.
Final Thoughts?
In closing, if you feel like a fun couple of hours, then go see this.
It’s not groundbreaking by any means, but the visuals and humour really do make it a cinema-going experience that you’ll walk away from with a smile.
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