The much anticipated action movie Kong: Skull Island has finally hit theaters, and critics and students alike are raving, both for and against the film. First appearing in the 1933 film King Kong, created by Edgar Wallace, the massive “eighth wonder of the world” has appeared in many media, and multiple spin-offs and sequels, and now in a new film, with a fresh perspective on the massive beast.

In the original movie, King Kong is a simple minded monster, ransacking New York City, and ends up falling in love with a human woman. Now in the newest addition to the King Kong series, Skull Island puts a new lense over the primate. Set in the 1975, right after the end of the Vietnam war, a group of scientists and soldiers travel to Skull Island, in the hopes of finding the beast that lives there, but they end up finding much more. Rather than following the pattern of its related movies, this film portrays Kong as a tragic antihero, whose purpose is to protect the ecosystem and native peoples of Skull Island.

With all the hype surrounding the movie, there was a lot of mixed reviews after it hit theaters.

Sophomore Tyler Trissel saw the movie a few days after it was released, and had plenty to say.

“The new King Kong was nowhere near an original, however it was a good movie,” Trissel said, “I’ve seen the other [movies] and it is nowhere near as good as the original but with what they had to go off of it was very well written and well directed.”

While few had this view point, many critics disagreed. Renowned critic, Eric Kohn reviewed the film with a rather negative viewpoint.

”There’s enough material to fuel a string of reboots,” Kohn said, “but the swing toward diminishing returns has already begun.”

There is an even mix of reviews, but many are leaning towards boredom. There are lots of complaints of the unoriginality of the film, since it holds similar characteristics to the 2014 reboot of Godzilla, where the creature discovered ends up being an antihero in order to defeat another large and terrifying creature and thus save the world.

While there is no complete consensus whether or not the movie was a success, many will agree that the King Kong franchise is coming to a slow and rather dreadful close.