Kong: Skull Island (2017)

After the mixed response to the 1976 King Kong remake, setting ones Kong film in the 1970's seemed a bit of an odd choice, but here it paid off. Kong: Skull Island is the second film in Legendary Entertainments 'MonsterVerse' after the 2014 Godzilla, the film is an enjoyable revisionist take on the giant gorilla story. In 1973 a group of solders returning home from the Vietnam War and commanded Samuel L. Jackson accompany a group of scientists lead by John Goodman, a photojournalist (Brie Larson), and an expert tracker (Tom Hiddleston), on an expedition to the mysterious and uncharted Skull Island. On the island the team encounters Kong and various other giant animals and gets scattered into smaller groups, they also run into John C. Reilly, a downed fighter pilot who has been stuck on the island since World War II. The film melds its genera's well, and makes strong homage to Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness in plot, settings, and character names, Hiddleston's master hunter is called Conrad. This movie was a bit of surprise, an enjoyable watch that was both smarter and funnier then I was expecting. Stay tune at the end for the rather self aware post credits scene. ***