Review: Kong - Skull Island

Runtime: 1hr 58min
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Release Date: 9th March 2017
Rating: 12A (UK), PG-13 (US)

Better than expected, a not-too-shabby attempt at yet another (insert eye-roll here) King Kong picture, starring Tom Hiddleston, John C. Reilly and the beloved Samuel L. Jackson.

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Predominantly set in 1973, the flick follows a purpose-built team of soldiers, scientists and stragglers as they head for the undiscovered Skull Island in search of the unknown. Here they stumble upon a beast trapped on the island known as Kong - a potentially misjudged anti-hero.

Highly-anticipated by many, this sequel was - in my mind - always going to be either a complete masterpiece or bucketful of disappointment. To my surprise(/delight/sadness), it turned out to be neither. Whilst on the most part I would praise its' solid cinematography (some beautiful landscape and action shots), as well as Kongs' expert-use of CGI throughout, these couldn't save it from what appeared to me a watered-down premise with fortune-cookie-cliches being pulled out of a hat and inserted into every appropriate crevice.

The acting standard as a whole is admittedly not bad - I have to give particular nod to Samuel L Jackson for finally producing a well played-out character (seriously, name me a role he's played well since Django Unchained and I'll be a monkey's uncle) - but I can't particularly criticise much of the performances throughout. Toby Kebbell (yes, that guy that's been in everything recently that you never remember the name of) and Brie Larson were probably the most bland - with Tom Hiddleston outshining most of his fellow cast members.

The fight scenes were indeed the most entertaining part - well-timed, well thought-out and, at times, epic! Other than a slight overuse of slow-motion features, and a couple of ridiculous shots, I honestly quite enjoyed seeing not only the fights with Kong himself but the other internal exchanges (no spoilers, I promised!).

Also, entirely blameless of the creators, but yet another movie this season with the insertion of JFK, Vietnam and 60's culture was really not needed (sorry guys!). Despite this, it redeemed itself slightly with some fairly enjoyable music throwbacks. Alongside these were plenty of well-utilised sound-effects and editing that I found rather enjoyable (a complete renunciation from the script).

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I was pleasantly surprised to find Kong: Skull Island didn't leave me wanting 2 hours of my life back; that said, given the choice I wouldn't waste another two rewatching it. Okay to pass the time, Kong exists. If you're after something more worthwhile, perhaps skip this and shove on Predator (terribly brilliant) or Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (brilliantly terrible).

6/10

Review: Sing

Runtime: 1hr 48min
Director: Christophe Lourdelet & Garth Jennings
Release Date: 27th January 2017
Rating: U (UK), PG (USA)

From the pure standpoint that this movie is designed for children, Sing absolutely serves its purpose; however adult viewing sees a cliché, cringeworthy picture that leaves much to be desired. 

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A clear cash-grab, with its release sandwiched between Moana and LEGO Batman (both awesome!), I deemed Sing very dull and obvious. The plots' reality-TV/talent show model didn't overly appeal to me, and I feel if it weren't for the characters being members of the animal kingdom, it wouldn't appeal to many others either; an unoriginal decision for an animated kids' movie.

Scraping together some sort of storyline, Sing trails Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a theatre-owning koala, whose attempts at staging a city-wide singing competition in order to try and save his business from bankruptcy go far from smoothly. Despite the title and premise, I was disappointed to learn how overlooked the dialogue was - the vast amounts of poorly-performed pop music covers saturated the almost-two-hour-long screening (seriously, they must have forked out a fortune on rights).

Each creature that enters Busters' show has an unoriginal backstory and there is minor storyline lead-up to their reasons for entering; the constant switch back and forth conveys fear of losing the viewers' interest. Johnny the Gorilla's (Taron Egerton) father is a robber and wants his son to be part of his gang, when all Johnny is obsessed with is singing; Mike (Seth MacFarlane) is a loud-mouthed mouse, living on the streets performing jazz and swing numbers; and Meena (Tori Kelly) is too shy to perform in front of anyone despite being an elephant. The list of yawn-inducing, eye-roll-worthy character profiles go on - not a single differentiator from many a children's movie before it.

The performances the actors give are barely of note, nothing provided was particularly engaging or enchanting at all - most gave it their standard presentation and nothing more; the voice-acting wasn't horrible, but it certainly wasn't great either. 

On the other end, as far as animation quality goes, Sing is definitely up to scratch with the modern day; there was no point in the film where something looked unnatural in any way, so that can certainly be commended. Character movement and reactions are organic and fluid - the animation team are the ones to praise the most for this movie. 

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As harsh as I may have been to Sing, I cannot deny that children will love the movie - it is intentionally tailored to the under 11s of this world, of which it more than meets expectations: but unlike other children's movies which understand that parents will watch the movies with their kids, Sing does not decide to throw any adult humour in to make the movie more of a family film; Sing will leave any adult with common sense with a lot to be desired.

What Sing leaves us with is a movie which (most importantly) isn't very enjoyable. If I was forced to poke fun at the film in order to make my viewing time entertaining, there is certainly an issue with the film put before me. Watchable (barely) but hardly a classic.

3.5/10