The fourth major attempt to tell the King's origin story. It's certainly the most action-packed. But, it's a movie of massive contradictions. At times genuinely amusing and even a bit witty, and at others, full of cliched and downright silly tropes. There are some terrifically composed shots and scenes - but, also many WTF? angles and visuals (Really? Do we need a super-tight closeup of a soldier's face drinking out of a canteen? Is this a TV show or a 'Major Motion Picture'?). The SFX are very good with a decent use of proportion. The cast is better than the material, even if it continues to show Hollywood's bankruptcy in having yet another Best Actress winner (Brie Larson) use her "talents" to play 'the girl' in a blockbuster (hey, at least it's a big paycheck, right?). I know, I know, it's just a "big dumb B movie". But, for a reported budget of $200M (plus marketing), I expect a little more than out of it than a 60s Toho tyke-fest.
But, in the end it's a fairly forgettable affair without much heart (sorry, a two-minute scene of Brie touching Kong's face doesn't amount to much empathy after we've seen a bunch of soldiers and primitive creatures stomped, eaten and torn limb from limb for 100 minutes). On that score, I'll take Peter Jackson's flick, Jack Black and all. But, hey, it's better than the '76 Dino Kong.
Mild SPOILER:Has there ever been another case where the End Credits gave away a Spoiler? As the end credits roll we see a credit that Toho owns the rights to Godzilla, Ghidrah, Mothra etc. And, that's BEFORE they actually show them in the After Credits tag scene!