Monster showdown as King Kong rises again
KONG: SKULL ISLAND, 12A, 118MINS
Mankind tumbles several links down the food chain in Kong: Skull Island, a rollicking 1970s-set action adventure directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts.
Unfolding predominately on a Pacific island, the picture unleashes a menagerie of hulking beasts.
Bill Randa (John Goodman) spearheads a secretive government organisation called Monarch, which specialises “in the hunt for massive unidentified terrestrial organisms”.
He leads an exploratory geological survey to a Pacific island, which is encircled by an electrical storm, and sequesters Preston Packard (Jackson) from Da Nang airbase to fly the mission.
Packard corrals his best pilots and loads aircraft with sonic bombs to map the island’s topography.
Passengers include tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), geologist Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) and biologist San Lin (Tian Jing).
The sonic weapons rouse a giant ape and the best-laid plans of men of science are smashed to smithereens.
Crash-landed on the island, the survivors encounter a crazed US airman called Hank Marlow (John C Reilly), who has been living wild for 28 years since his aircraft was downed.
The end credits teases the head-on collision of monster franchises in next year’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and the full-blown rumble Godzilla Vs Kong.