7 Key Mistakes Upcoming Movie Reboots Must Avoid

Peter Jackson’s King Kong was a fun trip back to Skull Island and despite many flaws remains a solid modern monster movie. One of the aspects many people lauded was the way in which the viewer is invited to empathise with Kong, a huge beast taken from his home by force and backed into a corner where there was only ever one way out.

This point is hammered home when delivered with all of the thespian aplomb you would expect from the star of Be Kind Rewind when he says, to no one in particular:

“…It was beauty killed the beast.”

While this is all well and good, does it have to be like that this time around?

The success of Pacific Rim illustrates that sometimes people just want to watch big creatures punch each other for an hour and a half without worrying if one of them is suffering an existential crisis. Kong loses a lot of his ferocious monster cred whenever they show a close up of his sad eyes so, to really do him justice, this must be avoided at all costs.

Thankfully, it looks like they’ve gotten the memo. With a trailer showcasing lanky Norse God turned beefy heartthrob Tom Hiddleston scowling over a rifle, a bearded John C Reilly throwing out zingers and plenty of explosions it looks like audiences may be spared the philosophical angle in favour of a good old action adventure.

Here’s hoping they stick the landing with this one or else, as with most of the previous twelve official King Kong films, it will end up as a forgettable footnote.