Kong is king in ropey romp

Fortunately, Kong himself remains a true cinematic colossus; standing at 104 feet, this is the biggest Kong committed to screen and Toby Kebbell follows his Planet of the Apes turn with another outstanding motion-capture performance that imbues Kong with even more humanity than Peter Jackson’s digital team managed 12 years ago.

Short, sharp shocks and peril-packed encounters are also supplied by the myriad of additional beasties conjured up by VogtRoberts and Co, with giant squids, spiders and Skullcrawlers lighting up the screen.

Subtle and not-so-subtle visual and audio tributes are made to Vietnam-based flicks – the film is set in 1975, just as the conflict is coming to an end – peaking with buzzing helicopters targeting Kong as the sun prepares to set and a fiery showdown.

Kudos to Vogt-Roberts too for ending things with a bang; it may lack the iconography of Kong’s previous famous climaxes, but lets just say the awesome ape shows everyone who is boss come the finale.

Universe building is also kept to a bare minimum as the production and writing team go down the early Marvel movies’ route of filming an intriguing post-credits sequence.

I would call it just about even between Kong and Godzilla based on their most recent adventures, but the latter has one more chance to show off his jaw-dropping credentials in 2019’s King of Monsters.

A year later he’ll have one hell of a fight on his hands to prove worthy of that moniker.