Kong: Skull Island

Jordan Vogt-Roberts turned down the King Kong script Legendary already had, set in 1917, and pitched instead a monster film framed by Apocalypse Now at the close of the Vietnam War. Showing Kong in the opening scene was equally deliberate; the director said this was not the film that strings you along and hides the creature. There is a cost. With the mystery spent immediately, the middle act is not mounting dread but a sequence of creature encounters arriving in turn, and anyone expecting a slow build will find a flat line instead. The technical fact that changes expectations most: Kong was hand animated key frame by key frame, not motion captured. Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell supplied reference only, and the director dropped the motion capture test after seeing it beside the animated version. That is why Kong moves heavily and poses rather than flowing like a person. If you want an Andy Serkis style performance, this is a different craft altogether. The design looks back to 1933: upright rather than a knuckle walking silverback, fur pushed brown instead of black, and the whites of the eyes deliberately visible when he roars. Not for: viewers who want a bond with the humans across the hundred and eighteen minutes.