KONG: SKULL ISLAND

PG-13, 120 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Libson.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has said in interviews that he pitched “Kong: Skull Island” to Warner Bros. as “King Kong” meets “Apocalypse Now.” Working with an 84-year-old cinematic character, Vogt-Roberts has injected new life into the property by borrowing heavily from a Francis Ford Coppola New Hollywood classic that’s now 38 years-old. The result shows its influence — it could have easily been titled “Apocalypse Kong” — but it’s surprisingly fun and fresh. It’s only March, but with the one-two punch of “Logan” and now “Kong,” have blockbusters become great again? “Kong: Skull Island” takes place in 1973, when a motley crew of scientists, cartographers, a photojournalist and a tracker get a military escort to an unknown island from a group of soldiers on their way out of Vietnam. The plan is to check things out before the Russians do, naturally. Kong is isn’t the only game in town on this island, as they discover from kooky, long-lost American pilot Marlow, (John C. Reilly) shot down in 1944, who survived thanks to the native tribe. Kong is the protector against what he calls the “skullcrushers,” serpentine dragon-monsters that come up from the earth’s hollow core. The film is as overflowing with characters as it is with prehistoric monsters, which keeps things moving at a rapid clip. When their helicopters are initially swatted out of the air by the mountain-sized primate, everyone scatters into different groups — there are the soldiers, lead by Col. Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), who goes dark, fast. Denied a satisfactory culmination to Vietnam, he swears revenge on Kong. The other group is led by the peaceniks, if you will, a British tracker named Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), who preach co-existence over obliteration.

One of the weaknesses of most Batman films is that they’re unwilling to question the nature of Batman himself, to interrogate the vigilante who patrols Gotham City single-handedly and anonymously. On paper, what Batman represents isn’t all that great — Bruce Wayne is a privileged one-percenter, an individualist who happily bypasses government programs to work alone and decide what’s best and who’s bad or not. Which is why “The LEGO Batman Movie” is quite possibly the best Batman movie ever made, if not a close runner up to “Batman Returns.” Liberated from the constraints of “dark,” “edgy” or even “campy,” “LEGO Batman” is able to poke fun at the costumed gentleman hero, and really dig into the elements of Batman that make the character who he is, for better or for worse. Who’da thunk you’d get all that from the sequel to an adaptation of building blocks. “LEGO Batman” is very much in the vein of “The LEGO Movie,” from which this was spun off. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

LIFE

1/2 R, 103 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook. What is it, exactly, that’s alive in “Life,” a grim and fairly effective cross between “The Martian” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”? The “it,” nicknamed Calvin, is a squishy, microscopic life form discovered in a soil sample taken from the surface of Mars. If Matt Damon had discovered Calvin in the first 20 minutes of “The Martian,” “The Martian” would’ve had a running time of 21 minutes. Described at one point as all muscle, all brain and all-seeing, the rapidly growing Calvin escapes the confines of his petri dish (this is one kid desperate to see the world). He requires food, water and oxygen, just like the crew members of the International Space Station charged with bringing the samples back to Earth, along with the special guest star. If you’ve seen director Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” “Life” will be mighty familiar. It’s an ensemble picture, with a progressively smaller ensemble. The time is now, or now-ish. Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds are aboard the ISS, as is Rebecca Ferguson, who plays a Centers for Disease Control quarantine specialist. Ariyon Bakare is the scientist who makes the discovery, and then makes the mistake of trying to wake Calvin up when he’s napping. There’s a Russian commander (Olga Dihovichnaya) and a Japanese crew member (Hiroyuki Sanada), the latter about to become a father. Once the lil’ Martian traveler in “Life” establishes himself as A) a freakishly fast-developing adversary and B) a real stinker, the zero-gravity blood globules float freely and, like in “Alien,” we have a slithery antagonist slithering amok in the space station, snacking on the fly. “Life” is proficiently made, often nerve-wracking, and derivative enough to undercut its own modest achievements. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribun

LOGAN

1/2 R, 137 minutes. Niantic, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Forget Batman vs. Superman or Captain America vs. Iron Man. In James Mangold’s moving tribute to X-Men’s Wolverine, “Logan,” it’s all Logan vs. Logan. He strips away the spandex, the posse and the chaos, distilling the story down to the essence of the man, Logan, also known as Wolverine, also known as James Howlett. What’s left is the agony and the ecstasy of mutanthood, which star Hugh Jackman expresses as physical and mental torture. Logan’s greatest opponent is, and always has been, himself. In this near-distant future of 2029, Logan shuns his mutant abilities. He drives a limo, racked with a hacking cough and a craving for liquor. He seems to be disintegrating before our eyes; he’s grizzled and mangy and those adamantium claws don’t unfurl like they used to. He mostly uses them for fending off hubcap bandits anyway. He toils alongside Caliban (Stephen Merchant) at a secretive Mexican camp to care for Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), whom they’re keeping drugged up to keep his apocalyptic seizures at bay. It’s not much of a life, or a legacy. But this film almost isn’t just about Logan, it’s also about Laura, a character who first began popping up in comic books in 2004. Played by newcomer Dafne Keen in her first film role, Laura boasts similar talents and characteristics to Logan, and the two share a feral rage when provoked. She’s smuggled out of a Mexican genetic engineering facility, and Logan’s been entrusted with delivering her to safety in North Dakota. And so begins a long, strange, dark and violent trip for Logan, Laura and Charles. Mangold pulls no razor-sharp punches in “Logan” — the film is horrifyingly, grotesquely violent, as Logan and Laura fight to evade the clutches of bounty hunter Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) and Dr. Rice (Richard E. Grant), who wants to contain mutants and develop their bodies into weapons. In Laura, Logan finds a part of himself worth fighting for, and do they ever. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

POWER RANGERS

1/2 PG-13, 124 minutes. Niantic, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Back in the ‘90s, you probably knew them as “Mighty Morphin,” and these days they take the pre-fix “Saban’s,” but we all know them best as simply the “Power Rangers.” Executive producer Haim Saban discovered the “Super Sentai” series on Japanese