The Mummy: 10 Monster Films It Must Improve Upon

Clocking in at over three hours, this second remake is the first $200 million Kong directed by an Oscar winner, with Oscar nominee Naomi Watts ensuring that the heroine isn’t the screaming bimbo from the 1976 version. Is it a better movie? Not really.

Kong: Skull Island proved that you can make a really fun monster movie if you cut straight to the chase, but this version runs 84 minutes longer than the 1933 original. It’s as clunky as the original was graceful, largely because co-writer/director Peter Jackson insists on fleshing out ciphers to give them “depth.”

After spending too long with these characters (and discovering that all Adrien Brody’s Jack Driscoll really wants is to be respected as a playwright – ugh), the film finally lumbers to the island, but the wow factor is sadly diminished when the King arrives. Willis O’Brien’s Kong might’ve only been a puppet, but this digital version is no improvement – where’s the awe and wonder in watching an animated monster stomp more animated monsters?