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
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
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
More From This Movie

62 Critic Reviews

6.7 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL