It's a movie, that's for sure

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2017)

Kong: Skull Island is fun, no denying that. I was hoping for a little bit more depth than it offered. That's not to say anyone was bad in it at all, they were simply not brought together in a very strong manner.
Being a fan of Peter Jackson's Kong it's hard not to go into this wondering how it might compare. Whilst Jackson's Kong is a nice retelling of the original, this is definitely your Die Hard 5 version of King Kong. That is to say, the characterization, the sense of doom, even the tugging of the heart strings in Jackson's Kong do not cross over into Skull Island at all.
The characters here are 2 dimensional, with only one having a name I remember (because it's the same as a computer manufacturer) and I'm fresh out of the cinema earlier this evening. Oh and Kong of course, he's one I can name...! "That's what I call them... You call them what you want" line in the movie can definitely be applied to the characters in this film, they honestly could be called tom dick and harry and it'd have no different effect.
But, given that this is a more in-line with the Godzilla franchise (and apparently a setup for a Godzilla sequel?) it does provide much more thrills and spills than the more recent Godzilla movie, giving a hint that at least the Kong vs Godzilla movie could be entertaining enough.
There are a few nice action sequences. I'm not really sure what made up the rest of the film, in my mind, some silly stuff, like covering several miles in seemingly seconds, second-rate banter & monsters coming out of nowhere clichés left right and centre.
So it's fun. Come the ending I was ready to leave and didn't bother with whatever showed over the credits. It was fine as a no-brainer action movie, but it was a very mediocre ride for the Kong fan in me. Worth a watch, if you can flush any interest in any earlier Kong film's first - but that's just my opinion. 6/10!