Kong: Skull Island
Universal Pictures | Release Date: March 10, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
19
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 8, 2017
Any movie with the sense, the wit and the visual instincts to introduce Kong the way this one does is fine with me. Read full review
83
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonMar 11, 2017
Kong: Skull Island is an offering to the hungry mouths at the multiplex who want to cheer a movie that doesn't insult, or tax, their intelligence. Read full review
83
The PlaylistDrew TaylorMar 2, 2017
It also cannot be overstated what an asset [John C.] Reilly is. The moment he shows up, the movie feels enlivened and energized; his mere presence adds a tremendous amount of oddball charm and humor. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 9, 2017
The picture is grand and nutty and visually splendid: Vogt-Roberts knows he's gotta go big or go home, so he treads boldly. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Mar 8, 2017
The new Kong: Skull Island really gets it right — the exotic adventure, the spectacular special effects, the towering terrors. It’s a big hunk of nostalgic fun, reminding us of the 1933 original even as it monkeys around with the classic story. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 2, 2017
The surprise is that “Skull Island” isn’t just ten times as good as “Jurassic World”; it’s a rousing and smartly crafted primordial-beastie spectacular. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 2, 2017
A large part of the enjoyment comes down to the sheer earth-shaking lunacy of Kong’s daily grind, even before the human intruders are factored in. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 2, 2017
This highly entertaining return of one of the cinema's most enduring giant beasts moves like crazy — the film feels more like 90 minutes than two hours — and achieves an ideal balance between wild action, throwaway humor, genre refreshment and, perhaps most impressively, a nonchalant awareness of its own modest importance in the bigger scheme of things. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMar 2, 2017
Kong: Skull Island is a grand cinematic adventure powered by furry fury, as the horrors of war blend with chest-beating creature confidence. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 10, 2017
The action and special effects are mostly first-rate and Vogt-Roberts maintains a vaguely satiric tone that sidesteps schlockiness. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 9, 2017
It is the platonic ideal of big, smart-dumb B-movie filmmaking – and, like Kong himself, it must be seen to be believed. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 9, 2017
If Reilly’s presence gives Kong: Skull Island its playful, gonzo edge, it’s the title character himself who gives it soul, morphing from a monster into a brooding symbol of the colossal folly of military belligerence and hegemonic hubris. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMar 9, 2017
If you’re looking for a film that offers pure escapism, Kong: Skull Island should definitely meet expectations. Read full review
75
The Film StageDan MeccaMar 9, 2017
In this digital world that allows for Kong to be as big as a building and believably so, Roberts is smart to pull out all the stops. And if some of the story and character motivation gets left in the dust, so be it. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMar 9, 2017
Kong: Skull Island is fast, playful and ridiculous, a big-budget extravaganza with the soul of a spirited B-movie. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 8, 2017
Kong: Skull Island isn’t a remake or a reboot or a re-anything. It’s just a Saturday matinee creature feature with a smart, unpretentious script, a handful of solid supporting players, and a digital Kong who feels big enough and real enough to provoke the necessary awe. This is all to the movie’s credit. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMar 8, 2017
The monsters are brilliantly designed and skillfully animated (except for a few shots where Kong looks a tad cartoony), and the army of visual and sound effects artists convince you that that these CGI titans live and breathe and weigh hundreds of tons. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 8, 2017
It’s wildly entertaining and it has a sense of humor about itself. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 8, 2017
Kong: Skull Island is a smart SciFi action movie that doesn’t rely on a handful of monsters and random scenes of computerized destruction to run out the clock. It has a smart script, imaginative filmmaking and a cast of fine actors that actually get to act. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 7, 2017
The dialogue is clunky, the A-list actors are slumming and, yeah, you've seen it all before. But Kong: Skull Island is a creature feature that's damn near irresistible. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 7, 2017
Skull Island has a lot of globe-trotting fun assembling its team of expendables. Read full review
75
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMar 2, 2017
Perhaps the most satisfying thing about the film is what comes after, when you stop to realize how darkly comic and sickly fun the film was after you’re done reeling from all the impaling and dismemberment. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMar 2, 2017
In the struggle between sober subtext and monster-movie goofiness, the goofiness mostly wins out. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 2, 2017
Hiddleston and Larson are especially let down by the script, which wants to be jokey in the way that something like Predator was, but can’t pull it off. The same lack of care goes into the period-specific song choices that have as much imagination as a Time-Life Songs of the ‘70s set. Read full review
65
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMar 2, 2017
It lacks neither fun nor polish, but it has the square tidiness of a compartmentalized fast-food meal. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMar 28, 2024
Skull Island circles around a number of intriguing ideas—about American arrogance and the post-war military-industrial complex, to name just two—but never quite coheres into anything particularly incisive. The movie gives good Kong though. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 9, 2017
As a big-budget B-grade monster movie, Kong: Skull Island is a home run. It offers all the tropes and clichés one expects from this sort of endeavor, sparing no expense when it comes to special effects. As a King Kong movie, however, Skull Island is less successful. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 9, 2017
Kong: Skull Island won’t win any points for the brilliance of its writing (or for the way it reduces a terrific actor like Larson to a personality-free camera-clicker) — but oh, that ape Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 8, 2017
It’s when there's a distinct lack of King Kong that Skull Island turns into a plodding affair. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 9, 2017
Story and soul are never going to be kings on Skull Island, but they could have fared better than this. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 9, 2017
“Skull Island” has momentum, polish and behemoths that slither and thunder. The sets and creature designs are often beautifully filigreed, but the larger picture remains murky. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 8, 2017
It's a heck of a cast, although the hands-down scene-stealer is John C. Reilly, in a gem of a comic-relief role that, in the interest of remaining spoiler-free, is probably best undescribed here. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 8, 2017
Kong: Skull Island is one of those movies best described as big, dumb fun. Read full review
60
Total FilmJordan FarleyMar 2, 2017
Derivative and a little dumb but consistently fun: there’s personality and panache to spare in this monster blockbuster. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMar 2, 2017
If the film belongs to anyone, it’s creature designer Carlos Huante. Kong is expressive and impressive, both in hair and full-body movement, and his interaction – with water, humans, other animals – is consistently fluid. Read full review
60
EmpireJonathan PileMar 2, 2017
King Kong lives! But only just. This is an uneven adventure that’s saved by the spectacle of its towering title character and the various beasts with whom he shares his island home. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 2, 2017
For all its updated bluster, this update still can’t escape the shadow of 1933’s magical King Kong. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMar 2, 2017
This is a creature feature, plain and simple — and, at least on a visceral level, a satisfying one. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 8, 2017
Kong: Skull Island strips the beauty from a legendary beast, reducing a classic movie star to soulless monster mechanics. Kong smashes, but not much else. Whoever dies doesn't matter. Whoever lives has a sequel promised by the end credits. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnMar 2, 2017
Kong: Skull Island may include some clever period details and idiosyncratic asides, but it’s largely a blockbuster B-movie less interested in depth than scale. Read full review
50
SlateSam AdamsMar 9, 2017
Where Hiddleston seems perfectly at home in the digital trenches, gamely swinging at fiendish foes to be added in postproduction, Larson looks like she’s staring into thin air. That leaves us with the monsters, who are, to be fair, mightily impressive. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMar 8, 2017
On the whole, though, Kong: Skull Island is great big dumb fun. It’s also shockingly beautiful to look at when you aren’t having creature guts flung into the camera. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithMar 7, 2017
Vogt-Roberts never develops the characters enough to make us care whether anyone lives or dies and never whips up even a flirtation between Hiddleston and Larson. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 7, 2017
It’s “Avatar” simplistic, glib and dumb and not nearly as funny as they seem to think it is. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 6, 2017
The thing that breaks the back of this movie, and makes the second half so much less prodigious than the first, is a simple matter of geography. Once the combatants are split up and scattered around the island (Packard here, Chapman there, Conrad and Marlow stuck in their own heart of darkness), the story loses focus and even starts to drag. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 13, 2017
Its combination of lavishness and lack of imagination is the only thing memorable about it. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 9, 2017
I’ve gone on about the creatures because there’s so little to say about the humans, who, in their turn, have little to say about the creatures, because the writers haven’t written enough lively dialogue. Read full review
40
CineVueDaniel GreenMar 2, 2017
Caution should always be taken when branding any film about an 80-foot ape "illogical", but such is the gross stupidity of the film's movable feast - and the abominable dialogue spewing from their mouths - that you'll likely thank the primate deity himself every time one is crushed, impaled or bisected. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJake ColeMar 8, 2017
Every creature here that's intended to burrow themselves into the audience’s nightmares are less wonders of imagination than of size. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 2, 2017
This fantastically muddled and exasperatingly dull quasi-update of the King Kong story looks like a zestless mashup of Jurassic Park, Apocalypse Now and a few exotic visual borrowings from Miss Saigon. It gets nowhere near the elemental power of the original King Kong or indeed Peter Jackson’s game remake; it’s something Ed Wood Jr might have made with a trillion dollars to do what he liked if he’d been given a trillion dollars – but minus the fun. Read full review
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