Exuberantly Stupid

Rating: 1/10 (25 June 2017)

The real story is that Kong: Skull Island cost $185 million to make and raked in, as of this writing, $566.2 million. This is the only metric for "success" that concerns the studio, and by this measure the film performed well. But what have the makers given the world? Nothing but trite clichés and utter stupidities. What is lost in the equation is the capacity for narrative film to be idiosyncratic and critical. One might object that a rendition of King Kong on a Skull Island was never intended to provoke thought or be relevant to our social or political lives, to which I say "exactly!" This piece of garbage is a grotesque exercise in market speculation, one that vampirically draws upon the talents of very capable technicians, actors, designers, etc. by virtue of its bloated budget alone. The two-fold effect of the film is first the empty distraction it provides to all concerned, and second, as previously mentioned, the all-important revenue generated. This ultra-cynical operation of the corporate/industrial culture machine is rife throughout the box office, Kong: Skull Island is not distinguished along these lines either. In fact, Kong: Skull Island is the epitome of the consolidation and creative bankruptcy of film on this gigantic monetary register.