Kong: Skull Island Review

So I just watched Kong: Skull Island. It's like if you took all the cool monster bits from King Kong (2005) without all that useless character nonsense.

Kong: Skull Island is the latest attempt to reboot King Kong for modern audiences. This time the setting is updated from the 1933 to 1973 at the end of the Vietnam War (complete with at least 3 Creedence Clearwater Revival songs.) A group of scientists is given a military escort to an uncharted island and monster based mayhem ensues.

It's funny that I watched this immediately after watching Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle because they are so similar in so many ways. Yet I liked Kong:Skull Island way more. While they're both jungle adventures with A-list actors getting killed by giant monsters in over the top ways, Kong does it better in almost every aspect.

First off the action. I loved the action in Kong: Skull Island. As soon as the characters get to Skull Island the action does not let up. It's dynamic and varied. It comes out of nowhere, ending the few quiet moments like a punch to the gut. Recognizable actors die suddenly and spectacularly. I love a good over the top death and this movie had all the crazy monster kills that I was hoping for from Jumanji. Nobody is safe. Considering how many people King Kong kills in this film it's really incredible that they made him sympathetic by the end.

Even the humor worked. National treasure John C. Reilly serves as the comic relief in the movie. I don't know if the humor is necessarily better than what was in Jumanji however by using it more sparingly it serves as a welcome reprieve from the action. I actually ended up laughing harder because the humor was more unexpected.

That's not to say the movie's perfect. The main leads are pretty flat. Tom Hiddleston is somewhat disappointing as the traditional action hero. The rest of the characters are only developed as much as necessary to varying levels of effectiveness.

Still Kong: Skull Island was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. I'm still not sure about the sequels that this movie teased at the end, but I'm more hopeful than I was. I give Kong: Skull Island 33 out 41 skull crawlers.