ACTION | 'Kong: Skull Island' Film Review
‘Kong: Skull Island’ features some of the best good CGI in cinema, but but falls short of it being a great film.
Scientists, soldiers and adventurers unite in ‘Kong: Skull Island’ to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. Cut off from everything they know, they venture into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle between man and nature. As their mission of discovery soon becomes one of survival, they must fight to escape from a primal world where humanity does not belong.
SPOILER ALERT!
This is the second film in the legendary ‘monsterverse’ following Gareth Edwards’ ‘Godzilla’, with the plan to eventually have a ‘Kong vs Godzilla’ in the future. This version of the film showcases the biggest Kong ever seen onscreen – and definitely the best aspect of this hit and miss adventure film.
Kong shows his strength and power by swatting helicopters out the sky, and showing his great depth of personality far more than most human characters in the film.
Besides Kong, there are other giants and small creatures like spiders, stick insect and a squid. It might seem like a minor detail, but finding out that Kong’s parents were killed by skullcrawlers makes for epic tension and suspense in certain scenes.
A fair number of humans head out to Skull Island, and many faceless ones dying in the initial battle with Kong in the first half hour of the film. At the end of this battle, Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) is awestruck, watching Kong as he destroys the rest of a lone helicopter flying about nearby. The audience sees Packard’s expression – one of madness and revenge, and instantly recognises the rising tension between the two.
But the best part of this scene is when Kong smashes the helicopter straight into the ground – providing viewers with an awesome example of cinematography: Packard’s salience dominating a shot, fire before him, and both man and beast looking to each other with fury; this felt like a real ‘Moby Dick’ moment.
Though ‘Kong: Skull Island’ features exceptional CGI and an outstanding fight scene, there were unfortunately some aspects that didn't sit well overall.
With the film spanning under two hours, it felt as though the story was rushed, only to be saved by its incredible action scenes. With more character development, ‘Kong: Skull Island’ could easily have gained the applause of critics, and earned a larger legion of fans.
In the end though, ‘Kong: Skull Island” is a decent film, just falling short of ‘great’.
