PRESENTS

This is a fun blockbuster, but it's nothing more. I am a huge fan of the light hearted action movie. Especially if you throw in a bumbling anti-hero. It's something you don't see a whole lot of in early 00's films up to presents. Things have started to split to either dark realism action or goof ball, slapstick. Because of this there are a couple moments of Kong: Skull Island that bordered on refreshing. Unfortunately, those moments were not near frequent enough to make this a stand out in any regard. The budget is astronomical, so everything looks amazing from the locations to the propping to the costuming to the makeup and effects. Even so, they went for a very stylized look with the CGI, almost comic book-ish. When it works, it works really well, but often it feels forced and comes across as hokey. There's a similar issue with the dialogue. There are a fleeting few lines of fun quippy back-and-forth that really fit the light heartedness of the genre, but there are many more moments where the jokes feel forced and stale and just didn't need to be there. Case and point, Sam L. saying "remember Hold on to you butts". Cheap shot that most likely felt annoying to those of us who were raised on Jurassic Park and was over the heads of the majority of this films target age group. In the end, it's extremely enjoyable if you can just stay on the surface and be ready to forgive a few sins and focus on the important stuff that Kong: Skull Island knocks out of the park. Namely, WWE style giant monkey fights.