The MonsterVerse’s first venture into television through Netflix’s Skull Island comes with a crew of original characters and a bold exploration of the namesake peninsula, which is home to King Kong and several other dangerous creatures. While the series isn’t light on monsters and jokes, it doesn’t let the two marinate and, instead, leads to confusion regarding the overall story. Are giggles and 10-second glimpses of giant crabs enough to keep viewers entertained?
Opening Shot: Fade in from black, a large ship comes into focus and the sounds of breaking glass, heavy panting and general chaos fill the background. A young girl runs onto the screen and is being chased by a group of armed mercenaries. She darts through the ship to escape them but becomes trapped in a corner. When she realizes there isn’t a way out, she waves a lit lighter in front of them and tosses it on the ship, watching in fear as it goes up in flames. Eventually, she uses her belt and a sturdy rope to zip-line onto a small, motorized boat that’s attached to the ship. The young girl revs the engine and escapes.
The Gist: Skull Island follows a group of humans who find themselves navigating the creature-lurking titular isle for a variety of different reasons. First introduced, there’s the runaway teen Annie (Mae Whitman), followed by the father-and-son pair, Cap (Benjamin Bratt) and Charlie (Nicholas Cantu), who, along with Charlie’s friend Mike (Darren Barnet) and his father, set off to explore an “undiscovered” island before the two young adults leave for college. Lastly, there’s an armed military group led by Irene (Betty Gilpin), which is chasing Annie.
From his boat, Charlie spots Annie floating on a piece of rubble in the ocean and he tosses a flotation device towards her, but she is unconscious. He jumps into the water and rescues her while alerting the attention of his boat mates. Once rescued, Annie asks the explorers if they are “good or bad,” and is adamant against using radio signals. The runaway expresses genuine confusion about the resources they have onboard, including coffee. Annie tells the crew that she “escaped” from a boat and dissuades them from rescuing the other survivors in the ocean to no avail. When pushed for further explanation, she piques Cap’s interest by telling him about a giant creature that once attacked her boat and he promises to protect her as long as she is honest with the group.
As the newly-united group chat, one of the rescued mercenaries wakes up from being unconscious and brandishes a knife at Annie. They argue and a giant tentacle appears from the water and strikes the boat, sparking a fight for survival between the humans and the creature. With the ship destroyed and lives threatened, Charlie and Mike wash ashore on a nearby island.
Our Take: Skull Island tries to tackle a lot in a short period of time and falls victim to a number of common issues when it comes to expanding a popular franchise into a television series. The debut season consists of eight 30-minute episodes and introduces far too many characters and storylines. The animated adventure can’t seem to decide if it wants to invest time in its character or the monsters and, ultimately, gives both of them the short end. The story plays out with quick glimpses of the fascinating creatures and cheap one-liners from the characters, which doesn’t give the viewers much to work with.
On top of that, the series fails to justify why it needs to be a series and not a movie, and why it needs to exist among the growing movie franchise. The general plot feels overplayed and predictable, given that we’ve seen curious humans explore the infamous island before and what the results look like.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the characters are quite lovable — albeit annoying. Charlie and Mike’s bromance and young person energy is delightful, especially in contrast to Annie’s lack of understanding of the modern world. While Cap is an overbearing, pushy father, he also really loves his son – which induces plenty of “aws.” And the creatures? In their brief screen time, they are ambitious and terrifying, and leave you craving more.
Sex and Skin: None – get your head out of the gutter. This is a family show!
Parting Shot: The first episode ends with a bone-chilling cliffhanger – the boat group was separated after the tentacle attack, and only Charlie and Mike washed up on the island. Who else is alive? Screw the mercenaries, what about the parents and Annie? While still onboard, Mike was struck by the growing creature, which has electricity coursing through its tentacles. He falls off the boat and into the ocean and Charlie follows, despite his father calling out for him.
The boat sinks and Cap becomes intertwined in a net. After floating around in the deep ocean, Annie appears and cuts him out of the trap, and the two are last seen swimming towards the waterline. On the island, however, Mike has tears in his eyes and he looks at the ocean and sees that the boat – nor their fathers – are anywhere to be found. Charlie embraces him as somber music plays. He asks “Where are we?” to which Charlie replies, “I don’t know.” The camera zooms out and they are shown to be kneeling on a large footprint, seemingly belonging to a creature that lurks on the island. Spooky!
Sleeper Star: Skull Island hones in on its star-studded ensemble cast, all of whom hold their weight in the series, but Darren Barnett stands out with his boyish charm, which shines just as bright in this anime series as it did in Never Have I Ever. Also, the scenes where he speaks in Japanese with his father are very cool!
Most Pilot-y Line: When Charlie and Cap are first introduced, they are arguing about the teenager wanting to go to college as the dedicated explorer would prefer for him to follow in his own footsteps. “I can’t just spend my life chasing your monsters,” Charlie tells his father, who responds, “I understand, you have to chase your own monsters. Tell you what, take a walk and think it over.” Big tropey energy, big dad energy… love to hate it.
Our Call: It’s going to be a reluctant STREAM IT from us. The series has a lot left to accomplish to roll the tide, but if Netflix invests time in the show to establish the characters and build on the storyline, it can easily build towards something bigger and scarier, and less mismatched.