Nice monsters, weak script

Rating: 5/10 (7 December 2017)

A passable enough action film if you just want to plug into some decent battles between giant monsters, but be forewarned, I think even an action junkie will have to overlook quite a bit to love this film. I'm open-minded about sequels and imagine that Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (directors of the outstanding 1933 original) would have loved to have the technology that went into this film available to them, but for me, ultimately 'Kong: Skull Island' wasn't all that satisfying. Unfortunately, far more effort was put into the CGI, battle scenes, and setting itself up for sequels than there was in the script, creating what are more than one-dimensional characters, and giving those characters motivations that made sense. It's too bad that the creativity used to create cool monsters wasn't used to avoid plot holes and clichés. Taken in the right spirit or with the right people (e.g. friends who can laugh at the silliness or maybe a young teen), there is some entertainment value here, but one can't help but wish the film was a complete package.