Kong: Skull Island (2017)

This was definitely a movie that I would not have seen if it hadn't been nominated for an Academy Award, but in the end, it was very engrossing.  And the CGI technology, which is the category that it was nominated in, was spectacular.  Again, as I have said about other nominees this year, while this movie was not my pick in this category, I really enjoyed it, much to my surprise.
The story line for monster movies is not really the point of course, but in this it is acceptable.  The movie introduces Kong after less than half an hour, then keeps him (and lots of other big, scary creatures) front and center throughout the film’s  running time. There’s even a moment where another character tells a story about Kong battling creatures and the movie cuts to images of Kong battling the creatures, in case you weren’t getting your fill of monster-on-monster action.  This is not subtle in its rendering of the problems on Skull Island, and does have the subtext of a bunch of guys come in and screw things up unknowingly because they have zero understanding of the terrain, and wow, when have we ever done that?  Pretty much consistently.  The revealing of Kong as hero is well done, and it is well worth seeing.