Yeah. That was an unconventional encounter.

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2017)

So here we have it, part two of the franchise reinvention of the beloved iconic creatures of cinema lore. After the 2014 redux of Godzilla was something of a tonal misstep, it's unsurprising to find this version of the King Kong legacy going all out blockbuster popcorner, and with that it succeeds - kinda.
Plot is wafer thin, bunch of humans from various professions rock up at the uncharted Skull Island, each with differing levels of interest as to what might be there. Of which they quickly find out is a whole heap of trouble - big trouble!
It's clear that the makers, fronted by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, are trying to blend crowd pleasing mayhem with thoughtful observations of not only the period the pic is set (1973), but also of man's inherent propensity for stupidity. On the surface, the battles and creature feature carnage in general, are wholly entertaining, but it's sometimes just too ridiculous for its own good. Even worse is that it's shallow, with no real substance of note, particularly where the characters are concerned, rendering a very admirable cast as one note players in the gorilla maze.
However, irritants aside, the pic is great fun, with enough excitement and quip based dialogue to make the time spent on Skull Island worthwhile. Be it man versus beasties and the alien terrain they traverse, a popcorn muncher it be. There's some sly humour within (Nixon going down), and the nods towards Coppola and Cameron et al are pleasing as punch. You may have to lower expectation levels to not let the problems it has drag you down, and for sure it's not hard to understand why a lot of folk hate it, but it's not a disaster, far from it.
One does hope, though, that the next instalment in this series goes up another couple of notches, for Kong, Zilla and the other monster gods deserve it. 7/10