An action movie, and not much else- not necessarily a bad thing

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2017)

I give the film a generous rating, because I firmly believe that this movie accomplished everything it wanted to. From the outset, it's a goddamn KING KONG movie. It's action!
And guess what, this movie does action excellently. I won't spoil anything, but you get to see a massive gorilla beat the pants off of a wide range of well-animated monsters and machines, in a very skillfully choreographed way.
The fight scenes were excellent. Very visceral, very well-shot and animated, and felt overall very satisfying and impressive. There were segments without any monsters that felt like a bit of a step down, but they didn't last especially long.
I understand the characters were flat enough to fit under a door (maybe with the exception of John C. Reilly), and the environmental message was present (and really, it wasn't as in-your-face as most people make out), but in the end, I feel that good acting or a subtle message weren't this movie's intentions. It's action. And it does that very well.
So, if you want to see a great action movie, go see Kong: Skull Island.