More Than I Expected

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2017)

I had it firm in my mind this was going to be a cartoonish fiasco similar to Peter Berg's sci-fi bomb 'Battleship' released in 2012 which was designed for teenage gamers and pretty much nobody else.
'Kong' has far more sophistication than that. Instead of a comic book we get a well designed production more on the level of the graphic novel.
Attention to period detail (1973) is nearly 100 percent, from wrist watches, military uniforms and weapons, tactical gear, radios, tape recorders, record players, cameras, aircraft, automobiles, scientific equipment, most of it checks out as authentic.
The only thing I spotted as incorrect was a brief view of an animated color computer graphic that wouldn't have been possible for at least another twenty years, but that's all.
The CGI goes without saying. The use of it to make the most disgusting creatures come to life is as good as it can get. Kong battles away with these many monsters with great dramatic flair.
One is an eighty foot tall spider that really gave me the creeps. Anachriods are not my thing, and the movie didn't help me with that at all.
As the story progresses, the military/science team meet up with a mute indigenous people who have lived on the island for thousands of years. Again, attention to detail is immaculate.
You would have no problem believing this was an actual race completely cut off from the rest of the civilized world had you ever met them.
However, there were a couple of unbelievable and ridiculous scenarios that threatened my suspension of dis-belief.
First, there is no such thing as an island with it's own savage storm system that keeps it hidden and nearly impenetrable. If you have a scientific mind at all, you'll find this idea laughable.
Second, the military blundering that occurs when the helicopter pilots first encounter the giant ape, which gets everybody stranded in the first place, is overwhelmingly dumb and hard to swallow.
Instead of retreating, all the pilots simply fly mindlessly straight at Kong who bats them all out of the sky one by one. Duh.
But it is an action movie, and that's what you get, regardless of the lack of logic or reason here and there.
Great fun for all ages.
Your teenage boys will love it. Your teenage girls will probably not.
Oh, and Samuel Jackson doesn't drop a single F-bomb through the whole movie.
I found that refreshing.