Kong: Skull Island Movie Review

Oh boy. What a bummer. This movie looked so good as per the trailers!

(Minor SPOILERS ahead)
Kong: Skull Island is another take on King Kong, and this time to build universes! (Sigh!). I haven't watched the 2005 Peter Jackson's version. So I will not be able to draw any comparisons to that, or any of the previous iterations!

Usually good action movies either have amazing action sequences, with not much emphasis on the story, some have great action scenes with some good character development and a heart and soul to it, some are just to be viewed as "mind-less popcorn flicks". Kong: Skull Island, in my opinion, failed to be either of these!

Good things out first. Kong, visually, looks good. When he is wreaking havoc, it is fun to watch. The locations, and the special effects, were decent. The island was interesting and had a variety of environment, which added some element of anticipation. Some of the monsters were well-designed. Loved that shot of the shadow of Kong rising up, with the sunset in the background, and helicopters approaching Kong. Though obvious, I also liked how Kong took care of the local people, and the other animals there, by being a true "king" of that place. I do wish they had delayed his entrance a little later in the movie though.

The biggest problem with this movie is probably the characters. None are even remotely interesting to at least root for someone in this movie. The background introductions to the many talented actors in this movie, were so rushed and forced down your throat within the first 10 or so minutes. The sad fact is, with great talent like Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, etc, their characters could've been played by anyone else. The movie seemed so unfocused, when it tries to concentrate on some of these characters, such as the photographer (who just likes to take photos, I guess?), the geologist, whatever Tom Hiddleston's character was, the military (Probably the worst part of this movie. What were they thinking? Not even one likable person), and a few others. Dialogues were quite bad, too.

Yes, it contradicts the "you should shut your brain and watch this popcorn flick" argument I mentioned above. However, when you are out of the monster fights, and the cool shizz, you spend lot of your time with these weird characters and it kinda distracts you overall. It pulls you out of the movie, man!
Also, when a movie's characters are so dull, uninteresting, one-dimensional, empty and boring, some even useless, making some stupid and dumb decisions, it irritates you while watching the film! Makes the whole film look kinda lifeless and boring too! I understand popcorn flicks aren't about the characters, but not when they are like this!

Another big problem were some stupid decisions either put in by the screenwriter in the movie, and/or given to some of these characters. For eg. I can probably let go of the fact that they somehow flew through some storm that is hiding this place from the outside world, but I cannot for the love of God know WHY WOULD THEY FLY THE HELICOPTERS TOWARDS KONG and not away from him, goddamnit! What stupid writing is this. Sure, it provided an AMAZING action sequence, but really dumb writing man. One would wait, hold back, assess the threat before blindly shooting at it. In fact, if they'd just left Kong alone, he wouldn't have bothered. Not cool to go into someone's home and throw bombs man, not cool..

Some of the shots were totally unrelated. Some unnecessary slo-mo sequences that had no impact. The execution of the film was done poorly. At one point, it would be slow and mystic, and minutes later, overly upbeat music would hit your ears, and we are treated to magnified slow-motion action. It feels it is trying too hard to get our attention, and once it does, it doesn't know how to sustain it.

Oh and there is an after credits scene, that builds up this Monster Cinematic Universe (MCU? Lol). I'm not that excited for that though, but it felt so lazily written, and clearly showed the purpose of this movie was just to set up this universe. I am excited to see the 2014 Godzilla and this fight, if there is one!

Well, there you go guys! This movie had some amazing action in the 1st and 3rd act, the island and some of the creatures were interesting, but beyond that, it had nothing much to offer. The characters were bland and boring (what a waste of such a talented cast), making this film seem lifeless at its core. I was bored for most of it.
My rating - 4/10.