Has anyone seen this yet? I've seen some reviews that make it sound decent, and it is set in the Legendary Godzilla universe apparently (it is part of the setup for King Kong versus Godzilla in 2020 apparently).
I saw this last night. There is a lot (too much) going on in the film, but let's get the good stuff out there first:
The effects are top notch. This Kong is the most realistic yet, but still not quite on par with the sort of ape CGI we get in the Planet of the Apes films. For a meganormous gorilla who is Kong, it works. There are other gigantormous creatures in this film like a giant spider, giant water buffaloes, bats and other creatures. The most dangerous of those is another lizard-like creature which evidently killed off all the other giant gorillas. Kong is pissed off because of that.
This film is set in the 1970s, which is strange, but it works well. So the best things about this are how they set it up and the special effects themselves. Other than that, the rest of ths film is mostly drama and filler, sad to say.
Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson are supposed to be the leads in this, and that is largely a fail. Tom's character James and Brie's character Mason do not have much chemistry in the movie, and the fact that they try to make them happen in the film is a wasted effort. There is WAAAAAAAAY to much talking and drama between the human characters in the film. The whole style of it seems to not get the King Kong story. There are the natives who do not speak, and there is a giant wall, but they are mere props like somebody just saw them in the original movie and threw them in there.
Those who are wanting to see the loose "Beauty and the Beast" dynamic which has been the hallmark of ALL King Kong films is completely missing. About 2/3 the way, Mason is thrown into the water and is sinking to the bottom, and Kong reaches in the water to save her, but there is absolutely nothing special about it. No "bond". This Kong would have saved anybody.
All in all, it was a bit too long, but watchable. Re-watchable? Probably not.