Finally an Original Kong Movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 March 2017)

After all the remakes of the 1933 film, someone finally came along and made an original film about the king of giant apes. This Kong is even larger than before, but still intimidating and fierce as ever. He wants to defend his home and survive as the final survivor of his species.
As usual with government agencies in action films with giant monsters, they want to take a new species captive and study the specimen. Send out the ragtag group of explorers who are dispatched to track down the giant ape who knocks down their helicopter and traps the survivors of the crash on the titular island. Now it's up to the group of survivors to brave the elements of Skull Island and elude the massive Kong.
Leading the ragtag bunch are Samuel L. Jackson as military lieutenant Packard and Tom Hiddleston as tracking expert, James Conrad. Hiddleston portrays a disillusioned former military expert in his field who is willing to take on the job of finding Kong in order to make money. However as the film goes on, Conrad soon realizes what Kong's capture or demise will mean and switches sides to help keep the gargantuan ape safe from Packard's dark plots. In the role of Packard, Sam Jackson is the film's weaker link as he is more of a caricature of himself but wearing military camos. None of the actor's lines really stick out except for uttering a former line of his from another film classic that Jackson was involved in.
The supporting cast is impeccable from Brie Larson as level-headed antiwar photographer Mason Weaver who butts heads with Hiddleston's Conrad, "24: Legacy"'s Corey Hawkins as nerdy consultant Houston Brooks, Jing Tian (from "The Great Wall") as a scientist in the search party (sadly she isn't fleshed out much), John Goodman as Randall, the government man who got the group to the island and as the film's comic relief is John C. Reilly as a stranded WWII pilot who warns the group of what their actions might cause.
The film's visuals are quite astounding particularly with the massive height of the titular ape. After having only a 25 foot tall Kong in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of the 1933 "King Kong", Universal decided to go with an impressive height of 100 feet for this Kong. Actor Tobey Kebbel (who also has a role on-camera as a solider eventually killed by the giant ape)brings the giant ape to life via motion-capture and does an impressive feat. Lots of explosions are imminent throughout the film as helicopters are swatted away and blow up and explosives are set off. Still better handled than most Michael Bay action sequences of late.
Go see this film if you want an original Kong film and try to hit the IMAX if you can (I didn't go for IMAX to save time).