Kong: Skull Island

Monster movie with entertaining CGI Dir: Jordan Vogt-roberts 1hr 58mins (12A)

This is the seventh official King Kong remake or sequel since the great 1933 original, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph, but it’s undoubtedly the first that also presents itself as an “audacious B-movie riff on Apocalypse Now”. It is set in the dying days of the Vietnam war, when a group of Vietnam veterans, led by a former British Special Air Service captain (Tom Hiddleston), set out to map a mysterious newly discovered island – an easy target for a US invasion, led by choppers swooping in to a soundtrack of blaring music in the style of Francis Ford Coppola’s war movie. However, there’s an inhabitant who takes exception to the new arrivals.

Kong himself looks terrific, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. But what a pity director Jordan VogtRoberts chooses to reveal him at the start of this film instead of stoking our anticipation. His second blunder is the miscasting of Hiddleston. For all his efforts, the British actor merely resembles a “posh, faintly camp sommelier”. No change there though, said Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out: the human cast always seems “bland” in Kong movies. Even the gifted Brie Larson struggles to make much impact as a feisty photojournalist.

This “old-fashioned matinee fare” is unlikely to sweep the board at the Oscars, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. Yet if you don’t take it too seriously, there’s plenty to enjoy here, including some truly eye-popping action sequences.