Review:

Kong: Skull Island does a lot of things right. The movie looks great and the CGI was better than I had expected. There is a lot of solid action and it's spaced well enough that the movie never dragged for me. Aside from a great performance from John C. Reilly (there are some clear Steve Brule references) everyone does an okay job, everyone but Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson. I have never seen Jackson do anything other than the same loud character he does in every movie. There is no real acting going on in his performance here: he has no emotion in any of his lines, there is never anything conveyed through his dead facial expressions, and I'm pretty sure that they either cast him because he's a popular name (for some reason) or they really like it when he says "Mother Fucker!" and felt that that was something they needed in their film. Brie Larson is just there. Her character is unnecessary and she seemed to embrace that. A good chunk of the cast are less seasoned, but I was pleased with everyone else. Jason Mitchell did well with what little they gave him and Shea Whigham feels like he was straight out off Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now. The story is fine. There were a few elements that I was unprepared for, but for the most part, Skull Island is exactly what you would expect. Skull Island probably won't top any "Favorite Movie" lists, but it's a fun popcorn movie and I'm interested to see how the "Monsterverse" builds from here.