Unlike my list of the worst to best Godzilla movies, I am choosing to give just a brief review of each Kong movie. This list will be chronological order opposed to worst-to-best or best-to-worst. Kong: Skull Island comes will be released Friday, March 10 in theaters.
King Kong: Not just the best of the Kong movies, but also ranked as one of the greatest movies of all-time. It will blow your mind to realize that this movie was made in the 1930's! The special effects are incredible for its day, matching the ambition of such an extravagant project. Skull Island is a place of terror and excitement as the sailors and film crew battle it out with vicious dinosaurs to rescue the lovely Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from the clutches of King Kong. Many memorable moments in this film, including the appearance of Kong, Kong's epic battle with a tyrannosaurus rex, and his battle with a squad of fighter planes atop the Empire State Building. Best Kong film, thus far, and a movie for the ages indeed.
Son of Kong: Not a very memorable movie, but not bad. Film maker Carl Denham decides to return to Skull Island, for some reason, and stumbles across Kong's son. The Son of Kong is a much friendlier creature that spends the entirety of the film protecting the humans he has befriended. Not a lot of memorable scenes in this movie; a lot fewer dinosaurs. One of the most disappointing parts is that Kong dies, once again, and then Skull Island gets totally submerged underwater...Kong drowns to death rescuing Hilda, if I am not mistaken. I need to see this one again to make sure I've got my facts straight.
King Kong vs Godzilla: Possibly my favorite of the Kong films as it co-features the Japanese icon, Godzilla. I have not posted my top ten, yet, of the Godzilla movies, but for those people following thus far, you will notice this title has not appeared in the rankings from 11-31. So it's a top 10 Godzilla movie in my book. A pharmaceutical company goes on an expedition to bring back a miracle berry and stumbles across King Kong in the process. He is sedated and brought back to Japan, where Godzilla has already begun his rampage across the country side. The two monsters are pitted against one another in a final showdown in which the military hoped both creatures would be killed. Neither one died in this encounter...whoops.
King Kong Escapes: A very interesting title that was probably prematurely made. A band of explorers stumble across King Kong on an island, like always, and a mad scientist seeks to enslave Kong after finding that his mechanical version of King Kong is not sufficient for working in the mines. The first appearance of Gorosaur, for the Toho universe, is in this film as he is pitted against Kong in a similar manner as Kong vs the T. Rex of the first movie. The final battle of the film puts Kong against his mechanical adversary Mechani-Kong. Ultimately, Kong is the hero of this film. It appeared Toho wanted to capitalize on the success of King Kong v Godzilla, but this movie failed to meet the high expectations set by its predecessor.
King Kong (1976): A movie that had all of the potential in the world, but fell flat on its face. Clearly a film trying to capitalize on the sexual revolution and the sex-sells movement as practically every shot in the movie is meant to stir the imaginations of teenage boys. On a positive note, the Kong suit in this film was stellar; giving Kong a Sasquatch type of look. The special effects, though, are ho-hum, the battle on top of the World Trade Center could have been better, and, what's this?, NO DINOSAURS? Kong's epic duel in this movie is against a giant snake. A movie that did not meet the expectations of fans.
King Kong Lives: The sequel to the remake of Kong '76. Less memorable, but at least made good on Kong's epic fall off of the World Trade Center. Where the traditional story with Kong is that he dies after falling off of the giant building, this movie starts with the premise that Kong survived his fall and he is given an enormous pace-maker to preserve his life. The crew travels back to Skull Island and discover Kong's mate! Kong's mate is brought to America and the two wreak havoc together. Really, I don't remember much about this film and don't care to see it again. Kong dies, again, but his pregnant mate gives birth to a baby Kong at the end of the movie. As cheesy as Kong Escapes is, I think this would be the worst of the Kong films.
King Kong (2005): A great movie in its own right. It would be as good as the original minus its flaws. My apologies for not doing a great film justice, but since it is just as good as the original Kong in about every department, I'm going to focus on why I prefer the original. First of all, the movie is directed by Peter Jackson and for some reason he decided to make the movie 3 hours long! Way too long for a Kong film. There is a chase scene involving a whole bunch of long necked and predatory dinosaurs that lasts too long and becomes a little ridiculous after a while. The Kong vs T. Rex (actually known as V. Rex in this movie) is overblown. Instead of Kong facing off with one massive T. Rex, he battles it out with a whole pack of V. Rexes. Towards the end of the battle, Kong faces off with one last V. Rex. After killing an entire pack, I kinda felt like, "Really? This V. Rex finds it worth it to eat the one tiny morsel (Ann Darrow) instead of looking elsewhere for sustenance? Kong just killed 5 generations of your family right before your eyes!" But, the visuals are stunning, the acting is great, the movie all around is awesome and captures the feel of the original. I just can't justify blocking off 3 hours to watch this one movie when I could watch the original twice in the same span of time.
Kong: Skull Island: I am highly anticipating this movie. One suspicion of mine was already confirmed and I can't wait to watch Kong duke it out with a new batch of military and Skull Crawlers. I am very excited to see that this is just a warm-up for the epic Godzilla vs King Kong rematch!
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