Visually impressive but otherwise mediocre kaiju yarn

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2018)

Similar to a number of Godzilla films from the '90's, 'Kong' turns out to be a guardian monster (despite the carnage with which he greets Samuel Jackson's crew of tough 'Nam vets) who protects humans from some existential threat, in this case, vicious two-legged lizard-kaiju ('Skullcrawlers') from the bowels of the Earth. The film follows the usual trajectory: John Goodman assembles a team of soldiers, a retired SAS spook, a bunch of generic scientists, and hot-shot female photographer to travel to Skull Island, the last undiscovered land on the planet, as part of his obsession to find evidence for a hollow earth and giant monsters. After a 'first act' of mood-drenched slow-mo shots of helicopters, classic 60/70's rock and roll, tough-guy posturing, bro-bonding, and fish-out-of-water shtick, they get to the titular Island, where things immediately go bad. The expedition promptly gets split into two (one group learns the truth, the other is consumed by a need for revenge). All of this sets up a series of action scenes where humans (ineffectively) and Kong (effectively) fight the skullcrawlers. The film is not connected to the original King Kong story and Kong himself is not intended to be a giant gorilla, but rather the last of some primordial species. As such, while his head is certainly gorilla-like, his body and posture is more like a very hairy Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with simian hands and feet. Despite this odd hybrid status, the titular kaiju looks very good and the CGI for both him and his adversaries is outstanding, as is the scenery (real and otherwise) seen at the beginning of the film. Unfortunately, the story is not as good as the visuals, relying on too many improbabilities, contrivances, and coincidences to be taken seriously. An entertaining, but not memorable film with little 'watch it again' appeal.