All Fail The King......

Rating: 4/10 (9 March 2017)

A team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers unites to explore an uncharted island in the Pacific.
isolated from everything they know, they venture into the home of the titular beast, igniting a battle between man and nature.
As their mission becomes one of survival, they must fight to escape a place in which humanity does not belong.....
First things first, if you see this, and can be bothered to stay until the end, there is a pretty nifty sequence that is better than the entire film.
The problem with the film is that it concentrates more on the effects rather than fleshing out the characters. And when you have a cast of such calibre, it frustrates even more, because we are subjected to these seasoned actors playing stereotypical roles that you would have probably seen in a Cannon produced eighties action film starring Chuck Norris.
In fact, the only character to have 'Character' is ironically John C Reilly, the comedy relief of the film.
I really believe that the makers wanted to show Kong earlier, rather than fully revealing him in the third act. If they had done this, and made the film a little longer for more focus on the characters, you would probably be more invested in the story
Because frankly, there isn't really much story to talk of.
It's nothing more than a subtle allegory to the Vietnam war, outsiders invading a peaceful place declaring it as theirs, because the outsiders have achieved so much. In one scene, a character says to a Senator 'you want us to find it before the Russians', which is basically saying, you need our country to shine once more, by taking something away from someone else.
Hiddleston is wasted, he looks like he's auditioning for the Uncharted movie, he's your atypical mysterious guy who fights in bars, but will do anything for a price. He has absolutely no backstory.
Larson is wasted too, the Lois Lane of the piece, and again, no backstory, she's just there to take pictures, bond with the titular beast, and be the voice of reason.
And then there is Jackson, who is just replicating his character from 2003's 'Basic', and he is absolutely shocking in this. He's the metaphor of the bitter soldier, the metaphor of not wanting to fall back and relent. He's a man on a mission, in typical big mouth form, and guess what? Because the film is 12a/PG13, his most famous utterance gets cut halfway. This trope is quickly becoming tedious.
And the film takes itself far too seriously.
The effects are amazing though, and there are a few shots that are so genuinely awe-inspiring, they do not deserve to be in this film.
There are two really good set pieces, the helicopter scene everyone saw in the trailer, and the obligatory 'end of game boss fight' in the final act, but you can only be entertained by seeing soldiers being flung like rag dolls no more than three times.
There are hints of Predator in this, and even a few references to Apocalypse Now, but all in all, this is one film that could have done with a little bit more monkeying around, rather than aping much better films.
It felt longer than Jacksons Kong.