Kong: Skull Island - Review

I would like to start this review off by saying that the only reason I sat through the entire film was to ensure that this blog remains as professional as possible. Now with that said Kong: Skull Island is the worst film of 2017 by far. With most films I can find a few positives among the large amount of negatives but Kong had nothing I enjoyed.

Lets start off by saying that this film is annoying from a film making point of view, this film brings nothing new to the table, not every film needs to be original but a film should have a sense of identity and this film feels like someone tried to make Apocalypse Now and failed so badly. Setting this film in the 70's was a big mistake because it distracts from the film and really hammers home the fact that they wanted to make Apocalypse Now without understanding what Apocalypse Now is.

More and more contemporary films have the same problems with characters, Kong has too many characters without setting them up properly and most are redundant to the story. Some characters are fully set up then killed off without any impact and it makes you wonder why we spent so much time setting these characters up. The only character that was bearable was Tom Hiddleston but even he had barely anything to do until the last 40 mins of the film. I felt as if he should have been the main character and had him as the Martin Sheen character if we need to parallel Apocalypse Now . John Goodman and Samuel L Jackson felt misused and underdeveloped until the story requires them to do something and one other actor who I shall not name for spoilers is a carbon copy of Dennis Hopper from Apocalypse Now.

Lets talk about King Kong himself and how he is misused in this film, the first problem is his reveal there is no true reveal shot he is just kind of there and it ruins the point of having this monster creature in your film, the film lacks creativity and just throws monsters out there without setup or pay off. Rather than the monsters and Kong being a threat they came across as an inconvenience to the characters. Every monster encounter plays out the same way and it becomes frustrating to the point where the action no longer has impact.

The soundtrack is annoying its almost as if Warner spent too much money on the rights to the Suicide Squad soundtrack that they had to lump anything from the 70's into this film for "world building" when it just comes across as a way to seem hip and cool. If King Kong (2005) was the romantics King Kong then this is the hipster King Kong. The actual score to the film is also forgettable not one track stands out apposed to the Peter Jackson film where the main theme is rather memorable.

Overall I would not recommend seeing this film at all, if you want a good monster film re-watch Pacific Rim if you want a good King Kong film watch the Peter Jackson version and if you want a good Vietnam film watch any other Vietnam film. This film is devoid of any personality other than what is artificially created to come across as "deep" or "cool". Too many characters clutter this forgettable slog of a feature. Avoid this film as if it were Skull Island itself.

4/10

Written By
Ashley Harvey