When I first heard that Skull Island would be the MonsterVerse's first TV show, I thought, whoa, bold choice.
Now, this isn't because King Kong is some obscure Kaiju or something like that, but why not start with a Godzilla TV show first? Obviously, Big G must be more important to Legendary since they jump started the MonsterVerse with 2014's Godzilla rather than with 2017's Kong: Skull Island.
But, that's when I remembered that Toho already produced a Godzilla Netflix show with Godzilla: Singular Point, which I also had thoughts on. So, I suppose King Kong really was the next best character to continue their venture into the realm of television. But, is this really a King Kong show at all, or, does it just feature King Kong? Well, it’s a little bit of both, which I both like and dislike for a number of reasons.
Oh, and spoilers up ahead.
What I Disliked: Kong Coming So Late In The Series Is Unacceptable
Being a big Kong fan who loves pretty much every live-action King Kong movie (I've even gone so far as to argue that the next MonsterVerse flick should have just been another solo King Kong movie rather than anything featuring Godzilla) I really want to see as much of the big ape as possible.
I thought I would definitely see that in Skull Island. A major reason why we don’t really see much of the monsters in the MonsterVerse movies - or, at least, so I assumed - was because CGI is expensive. So, we'd get a lot of boring human interaction, and only intermittent periods of monster mayhem.
But, the super cool Godzilla vs. Kong featured tons of Godzilla and King Kong. So, why is it that a live-action movie featured more of him than an animated series? Look, I didn't count the raw minutes when it came to this Netflix series, but King Kong doesn't even make an appearance until Episode 3, and doesn't really even do much until the last two episodes!
Like, huh? Why is King Kong in less than half of the episodes? I get that the show is just titled Skull Island rather than Kong: Skull Island, like Legendary Picture's first King Kong movie, but having him in so few episodes in a show titled Skull Island is seriously criminal, and simply unacceptable for this big King Kong fan.
What I Loved: King Kong Is So Expressive In This Series
Now, I just mentioned how King Kong is barely around (which is, again, unacceptable), but the one thing that really rules about this series is just how expressive he is.
We saw some of this in Godzilla Vs. Kong, where Kong got to really emote, which was great. But, since Skull Island is animated, we get to see even more of these emotions play out on his face. So, whereas in GVK, we got to see him being depressed, in this animated series, we get to see the nuances of his depression, such as him being sullen, annoyed, and even distraught.
Not too long ago, I got my kids into King Kong (among other movies), and my son really liked him in this series; feeling bad for him when he was supposed to feel bad, and even joy when Kong was happy (brief as it was). So, yes, in that regard, the show definitely succeeded.
What I Disliked: The Human Characters Take Up Way Too Much Screen Time
As mentioned earlier, the one thing I kind of despise in the MonsterVerse movies is just how much screen time the human characters take up. Now, as a HUGE Godzilla fan who’s seen every Godzilla movie TOHO’s ever produced, I’m well aware that, yes, the humans always take up the most screen time. I get that. But, I just find them especially boring in these Legendary movies. Because, while yes, I do like Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, and Ken Watanabe in other movies, I don't like them in the MonsterVerse. In other words, I could definitely do without them.
Surprisingly, though, I loved the human characters in Kong: Skull Island. I really enjoyed the people played by Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, and John C. Reilly, and King Kong being the badass that he was, was just the icing on the cake. I mean, there’s a reason why, when I ranked the MonsterVerse movies, I put Kong: Skull Island at the top.
However, I unfortunately don’t feel the same way about the characters on Skull Island. Most of the main characters are teenagers that I find annoying, and I don’t much care for the adults, either. They take up almost the entirety of this show, with whole episodes centered around them. Some of these episodes straight up draaaged because of these human characters, and I really could not stand them. I definitely didn't watch this series for them.
What I Loved: Skull Island Really Feels Like A Lived In Environment In This Series
So, this is where I’m torn, because even though I really wish this show had a lot more King Kong, I do like that Skull Island actually feels like a living, breathing environment. We definitely got a sense of this in the movies, but I feel like the show really makes the best use of the flora and, also, the fauna…somewhat (which I’ll get into next).
The jungle really does feel strange and unnatural with its red plants and temple ruins. The animal life that shouldn't be monstrous is also quite interesting, as it feels like this is an unexplored territory that these hapless explorers happened to end up in. So, overall, I do dig the overall look of the setting, but when it comes to the monsters…
What I Disliked: I Was Hoping For More Interesting Monsters In The Series
Lastly, I was greatly disappointed by just how few monsters are actually here. Yes, we have King Kong (somewhat), but what we mostly get besides him is a giant dog creature, a big bird, a centipede monster (gross, by the way), and a huge kraken-like creature, which we see hints of in the first episode, but don’t fully get to see until the end. And, that’s pretty much it.
There is a skullcrawler, sure, but I thought we’d see tons of them given that they are essentially the main antagonists (besides Samuel L. Jackson’s character) in Kong: Skull Island. Overall, I really just wished we saw a ton of monster mayhem over the course of the eight episodes, but we got barely any monster action at all, which is immensely disappointing. If we do get a second season, which the end of this season teased, then can we at least get a lot more monsters? I really don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Did you get to see Skull Island, and, if so, did you have the same gripes that I had? For more news on all things King Kong, make sure to swing around here often.
