Kong: Skull Island - Review

I saw this trailer back when this film was released back in Spring of 2017. However, since that was my final year of film school and exam season, I didn't end up seeing this in a theatre. I saw it around 9 months later on a flight from Seattle of the United States of America to Cancun in Mexico for my family vacation. I'm glad I finally saw this, but I saw it on an iPhone and I can safely say that you absolutely need to watch this film on a big screen with a giant sound system. This film is made for the big viewing experience because it looks and sounds beautiful. In my notes I was taking while watching the film, I wrote down, "Apocalypse Now & Independence Day." I think that sums up the movie right there. The Apocalypse Now comparisons are fairly obvious from the spectacular visuals and Vietnam War time period and soundtrack. The Independence Day comparisons come from the fact that there are a bunch of characters that are loosely tied together on one mission... survive! And yes, they do have to survive from big giant creatures and one of them obviously being King Kong. The character dynamic between all of them feels very similar to Independence Day with all the characters having fairly flat personalities. You do end up caring about some of the characters, but I'm almost certain it's because of the A-List cast this movie puts together. John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, the two dudes from Straight Outta Compton, this film has got some names attached to it. The only person I ended up really investing in was John C. Reilly's character who is a pilot that crashed in WWII and has been living on the island ever since and he turns into this kind of cooky, wise mentor type to our stranded heroes. You can tell he is just having so much fun in the role. The film student part of me says that I shouldn't like this movie because the backstory is rather thin and there are many characters that are pretty one-dimensional and flat. Why should I care? Well thank god I still have the film lover side of me (a side I swear to god many film students I know throw away once they entered "film student" status) watches King Kong throw a palm tree right through a helicopter and wants to scream "Holy crap! Awesome! This is so much fun!" BOOM! That's the word I'm looking for! This film is so much fun! You become fine without having deep rich characters and a compelling backstory once you realize you're watching a movie called "Kong: Skull Island" where helicopters and giant "skull crushers" are fighting a giant ape. If you want to see a movie that is epic and massive and fun, look no further!