Ultimately it’s just the multiple hues of color, the eye-pleasing animation and the fairly appreciable voicing that keeps you awake here.

This callow outing for stars like Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, is big and slick, typically Hollywood, but it’s no fun at all.

This film is nearly two hours long with a storyline that wouldn’t be much of a challenge even to a 6-year-old kid and zero funnies to go with it.

The narrative in fact feels lazy and stilted. Charlize Theron tries her best to look like and act like a venomous seductress black widow but fails . Kurt Russell is wasted here, Scott Eastwood plays officious like a joker while Helen Mirren just about manages to light up a few distinctive moments with her august presence. The script is fatally flawed and the direction seems out of sorts. Frankly there’s not much to hold on to here.

The problem with this film is not the choice of actors but the fact that it’s overwhelmingly flashy slickness renders everything else almost inanimate.

There’s no suspense, the comedy is painful to watch and the action is downright embarrassing – violence and gore that becomes unattractive when there’s an overdose. The plot is generic and has too much irritating banter shepherding it through a minefield of unattractive miasmas. This one is pathetic no doubt about that!

Genre thrills are all very well only if they come in a sound package. This one’s merely pretty, brief, aesthetically designed and maybe just a trifle enjoyable!

The desperation to find hooks for all age groups is visible in the entreaty that involves an old school look, action sequences themed on ‘S.W.A.T’ and other ’70s TV shows and a weird nod to Tolkein’s Gandalf. The visual style is fun but it’s not enough to spell entertainment. Baldwin gives it his all through his badass voicing but its benefits are lost in the unexciting extended outlay of rivalry and vengeance. So, cute is not always what you make of it!

‘Skull Island’ is no doubt impressive in terms of FX and CGI and has pop-culture references that could tickle the funny bone of those brought up on American culture but there’s hardly any tension or adrenaline rush to be had. I just wish Roberts’ had taken more pains to make this one more gainful and invigorating.

The narrative is cuts away one too many times, the tension is not pervasive and there’s no ending as such. Split hopes to parcel out into a franchise and that’s obvious from the unfinished ending sequence.