Not horrible, but adds nothing to the King Kong mythology

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2018)

With almost no plot - island is hidden by a "perpetual storm"!?! - not sure why this version of King Kong is set in 1973? At least it's not a direct re-make, but rather a sort of re-imagining. It has a good soundtrack - Stooges, Sabbath, Creedence, Bowie - and a few pretty good action/fight scenes. It's spends 30min introducing most of the characters and seeding a plot, but it seems pointless, since you hardly learn anyone's name. And as for the plot - not sure how it took three people to write this screenplay!
There seem to be a lot of shots that were made just for the trailer - zooming into Kong's eyes; Kong in front of giant sun/moon (how can you see either setting, if there's a perpetual storm?); 12 helicopters flying into the storm/sun; Kong slow-mo chest thumping. Kong's obviously not the bad guy, but he's not the star either - probably with less than 30min screen time, as he fights giant lizards. I'm not sure if Packard (Jackson) or Conrad (Hiddleston) is either, since no-one's the hero or has that much to do. Larson is OK, Goodman's wasted, but Marlow (Reilly) saves the day with some almost-humour. At least some of it was filmed in Queensland, although you can tell the bits that were filmed in Hawaii, as it looks like 'Jurassic Park'!
Of the three King Kong films I've seen (1933, 2005, 2017), this is probably my least favourite - they seem to be on a slowly-deteriorating scale. Also, what's up with Jackson's right eye near the end? It seems about 75% bigger than his left eye in a few shots! Anyway, predictable ending, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hard to get too attached to Kong when we have such well-developed CGI characters in the current 'Planet of the Apes' series.