Storyboard with no inspiration

Rating: 2/10 (11 January 2018)

SKULL ISLAND isn't a terrible movie. It's just lame.
This depiction of another adventure for King Kong, involving modern day military and civilians, along with a WWII castaway, has many problems, but it boils down to two main ones that affect any possible enjoyment of this action adventure.
First, there is not one piece of credible motivation other than some running from monsters. Not one character is believable, particularly the one played by Samuel Jackson. For the actors, this has to be a huge embarrassment.
Fans will claim it's meant to be just dumb fun, but it isn't "fun" when it alienates the viewer the way this movie does. The "likable" character has to be from Chicago, which is just another of the three big cities (the other two being NYC and LA) that alienate everyone else. There has never been a likable character from the three cities of self righteous superiority complex beings, and only the geeks keep them in power.
Aside from a few bits of running and fear, nothing is credible. And so there is nothing any person can relate to.
Which leads to the second problem. The movie abounds with the usual ho hum overuse of action shots that just deaden the air. The people who make this ignorance and the people who enjoy it are apparently the people who try to eat an entire wedding cake in one bite. Aside from those people, this movie alienates everyone else.
The problem is obviously that it is maintained first by "storyboard" first, with story second. This failure is the result of that philosophy. There is no inspiration, which leads to no credible character motivation.
Best example is the "storyboard" depiction of Sam Jackson glaring at carnage. It looks more like a comic book artist at work, not an inspired writer. People whose hands can make pictures don't necessarily have inspiration, as we see here. It's just goofy poses for pre-first grade thinking.
The movie doesn't stink. It just doesn't do anything special. It's a waste.