Great Monster Battles Make This a Must See

Rating: Null/10 (10 March 2017)

Kong: Skull Island (2017)
*** (out of 4)
A monster hunter (John Goodman) leads an expedition onto Skull Island where they come across various monsters including the mightiest of them all: King Kong.
KONG: SKULL ISLAND is an attempt to get the giant monster back onto the big screen and it was obviously trying to get everything set up for future films. Look, nothing will ever beat the original KING KONG, although I did enjoy the first remake and even films like KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. With that said, I found the Peter Jackson film to be downright terrible and when I walked into this movie I was just hoping for something better than it. Thankfully, KONG: SKULL ISLAND is much better than that as long as you turn your brain off at the door.
I thought for the most part the film worked quite well. For starters, the filmmakers appeared to realize that what movie fans want are giant monsters who battle one another. You don't have to wait too long for the first glimpse of Kong and this here is a major plus. Once we reach the island is when all of the fun starts and it really goes for the throat as there's a very fun adventure on the island. I'm obviously not going to spoil everything that happens but the entire running time takes place on the island and this leads to some very fun monster battles.
There's no question that the best thing about this picture are the monsters including Kong. Yes, the King Kong is CGI but he looks terrific and very realistic. I thought the entire creation was an extremely good one and the film perfectly allows you to believe that what you're seeing is real. The other monsters also look terrific and I thought the filmmakers really nailed the look of the monsters. The battle scenes are certainly a lot of fun and especially the final one where Kong must go up against something much bigger than him.
As far as the cast goes, no one is spectacular but they're at least fun. Tom Hiddleston is a pretty laid back lead but he does fine. John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson are both good, although they're both pretty much playing the type of character we've seen them do countless times before. Goodman is fun when he's on the screen. The only real dud is Brie Larson as the photographer. She's good in the film but I must say it's a pretty bland and boring part and especially coming after winning an Oscar for ROOM.
Technically speaking the film is quite impressive and we've got a rousing score to go with everything. The plot is certainly very simple but I'm actually glad. I mean, I've never believed these types of movies need to clock in at two and a half hours. This one is just under two-hours and that's the perfect time for this type of action movie.