It almost works

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2017)

Kong takes itself far too seriously, with the attempt at one liners not really working.
Samuel Jackson, in my humble opinion, was not the right actor for his character - a grizzled, Vietnam vet, air force colonel out for revenge. Instead he comes across as a middle aged, out of condition, tourist on a fishing or hunting expedition. He just lacks the edge that is required.
The CGI is fantastic, but again, the extremely serious take on what I think should be more of a light hearted romp, detract from the film.
Unrealistically, more helicopters fly of the one small merchant ship than could off a modern day aircraft carrier.
Then when the helicopters attack Kong, they don't circle overhead and shoot at him, but fly low and slow so he can grab them.
The ending reinforces the serious take by flipping to handy cam mode with the end titles, to show the return of one of the veterans, aka Saving Private Ryan.
Don't get me wrong, this is an entertaining film, and the cgi fight sequences are amazing.
With the right actors and a lighter script, it could have been IMHO, a fantastic film.