Kong: Skull Island review

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 118 minutes

Big, dumb...fun?

Kong: Skull Island is the second entry in the planned MonsterVerse, which will eventually bring the giant ape up against Godzilla for an intended release date of 2020, only a year after the release of Godzilla 2. 

For all intents and purposes the story is copying from tropes we have already seen before, set in 1973 just as the Vietnam War has finished. A government sends out a geological expedition to a mysterious, uncharted Island, simply known as 'Skull Island', to help them is British Secret Air Service captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), as well as a discharged army unit from the Vietnam War, which is led by Preston Packard (Samuel Jackson). Also coming along for the ride is Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), a photojournalist.

It isn't long before the expedition goes awry, and the special effects extravaganza and action set-pieces begin to string the film together. Much of it is entertaining at the very least, you can really see where the money went, but so much of it is also unsurprising and falls a bit flat. There is little build up to the appearance of Kong, and although the action is fun there is no tension or subtlety to anything. Despite its flaws, the most recent Hollywood version of Godzilla had tension and plenty of human stakes involved. So much of Skull Island just looks like computer generated characters hitting one another, or humans running away from them.

This isn't helped when none of the characters are particularly interesting or developed in any way whatsoever, no one here has much agency, everyone is just reacting to their surroundings. Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston have little to do, Samuel Jackson is okay as the manic Colonel who wants to avenge his fallen comrades, but that's all there is to his character. John C Reilly shows up as a castaway on the island, having crashed from air combat in the second world war, but his comic relief character feels a little out of place.

The visual effects and locations are illuminating and really capture the eye, 'Skull Island' feels like a place that is of another world, it's helped by a great use of wide shots to bring everything into focus. You can also tell that they have shot on real locations, and the variety of different creatures is impressive, much like Kong, they all have a scale and wonderment to them.

But it's a double edge sword, there are unfortunately one or two moments when the CGI isn't particularly convincing, and it is painfully obvious that the actors are just standing in front of a green screen.

When all said and done, Skull Island is a decent, popcorn flick that is worth your time on a late night out to the cinema. It's an unashamedly B-movie with monsters, but it could have been so much more. But it does leave me excited for where they go next.

Verdict: 3/5