A Film That Contains Some Extremely Entertaining King Kong Throwdown Scenes, But Has Everything Else At A Dull

Rating: 4/10 (7 April 2017)

I kept an open mind going into this film considering the trailers caught my attention since they made the film look extremely energetic, but there still was a possibility of this film flunking. I know it kills me to say this since I actually wanted this film to be solid, but I honestly think Skull Island was mediocre at best. This is an action film that is full of some super entertaining monster and of course King Kong action, destruction scenes, but in its entirety, it was a very flawed film. Now what I did however like about this film were a couple of things. One was the whole idea of the Skull Island aspect. All the monsters in this movie look super cool and have a very intensifying aspect to them that caught my attention. A majority of these monsters also have some pretty cool chaos scenes. Also Kong in this film had some pretty cool moments of destruction particularly the first time you see Kong. The scene lasts around 5 minutes and it is glorious, I absolutely loved that scene. Now that I've got that out of the way, I'm going to tell you why this film really didn't work for me. This film feels like it was rushed. For one the characters in this film are extremely poorly developed, I honestly couldn't care about any of them. The acting in the film from most of the actors and actresses, were for the most part really good. It's just that there was nothing for me to latch onto, or relate to with these characters since they have such vague character development. There is no sense of suspense when these characters are in danger, because I really couldn't care if they died, and that was hugely disappointing in my opinion. The only character that was slightly developed was surprisingly, John C Reily's character. Even so, John C Reily's character still didn't have that much of a pull on me, he was just the only character the film actually tries to make you care about. Now one thing that really upset me was Samuel's Jackson's character. Now I am a huge Samuel Jackson fan I've loved almost all of his performances in every film he's been in even the bad ones. For the first time ever I actually think I have found a Samuel Jackson role I have hated. Samuel Jackson's character in this film at first is just alright, but then he progressively becomes this over the top, un-charismatic, and unintelligent character who does some really stupid decisions with his military men, that bothered me so much. Something else that really bothered me in this film was the comedy. For me at least, 10% of the jokes land, and they are actually pretty funny. The other 90%, feels extremely forced. Almost every single scene in this film is always trying to be funny and it just got super annoying and repetitive after a while. This film also contains a really good soundtrack, with some extremely good 70s war songs. Well, unfortunately this movie decides to play these songs whenever they want at the most random times. Kind of like Suicide Squad, the soundtrack is good, but the way they interconnect that soundtrack with the film is done poorly. Also, some of the editing and plot points in this film are done a bit poorly. The editing isn't choppy too many times in this film, but when it is it's very noticeable. There are also some really bad green screen usage in this film. Some of the green screen looked really fake. This film at times looks very artificial an unrealistic, and I really wish they actually used natural backgrounds more often for this film. Even some of the CGI looks bad at times, which is bad considering this film mostly relies on CGI. But by far my hugest complaint about this film is without a doubt, the final decision that happens at the very end of the film. I have scene many movies in my life, but the certain decision that a couple of characters make towards the end, is one of the most random, unanswered, and pointless decisions, I have ever seen on film. I don't want to spoil it in case you haven't watched the film but when you see the film you'll know it. Hint, its the extremely random decision that is made "after" another group makes a stupid decision. My final flaw with this film is that at times it tries to be Jurassic Park. I know I shouldn't compare a film like Jurassic Park, with a simple monster movie like this one but I need to mention this. A couple of scenes in this movie are almost exact rip offs of scenes from Jurassic Park, and if you've scene Jurassic Park you will most likely know what scenes I'm talking about. Guys, Girls, I don't think I have to say anymore, Kong Skull Island was a huge disappointment. Right now at the time I'm writing this review, it's got a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.1 on IMDb. To be honest I don't understand why this film is getting solid praise, especially from critics, but honestly if you like this movie, good for you, I am legitimately happy for you. To me though, I honestly found Kong Skull Island to be a huge mess that contained some really awesome monster destruction scenes thrown into it. If you like films like Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you might like this film cause it falls under the same line as a mindless CGI extreme action festive. I'm going to give Kong Skull Island a grade of a C- and a IMDb score of a 5/10.