Kong has always been a titan of the movie scene but which King Kong movie reigns supreme as the true king of the monster movies?
Few movie monsters instil fear in moviegoers in the way that Kong does. Nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World, he made his debut on the silver screen 90 years ago when King Kong made its presence felt in movie theaters back in 1933. A stop-motion animation masterpiece, it was a huge step forward as to what movies were capable of at the time, and terrified audiences around the world.
Since then, the movie legend has been at the center of multiple remakes, starred in his own animated shows, led video games, and been incorporated into Legendary’s MonsterVerse alongside his old frenemy Godzilla.
But it won’t stop there, in fact, as Kong’s movie legacy is set to continue. Following the major success of Godzilla vs. Kong back in 2021, a sequel titled Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is arriving in theaters in 2024, and it will bring the two Titans back to the big screen to potentially face another new threat.
But Kong’s history on the big-screen has always been an extensive one. To celebrate his continued success, let’s look back on the king’s incredible portfolio of films and rank each of them from worst to best.
Which one is the king of Kongs?
10. The Mighty Kong
If you thought you had seen it all from the King Kong franchise, allow me to present to you the forgotten relic from the late ’90s that even I – a lifelong King Kong fan – only discovered in recent years: The Mighty Kong; an animated kid-friendly musical adaptation of the classic King Kong story. Yes, that actually exists.
The 1998 film received a limited release in movie theaters before Warner Home Video released it on VHS that summer. To say it hasn’t aged well would be an understatement, because it wasn’t great for its time either, but I suppose when the era it was born in was known for that kind of thing, you blend in with the crowd. The late ’90s was renowned for producing movies in the “so bad it’s good” category and this is pretty much the same as that.
Incredibly dramatic and ridiculously cheesy, The Mighty Kong is not the best adaptation of the source material. That said, if you can get over that (and the fact that Kong doesn’t appear until around halfway into the movie), you’ll probably enjoy yourself – albeit for the wrong reasons.
In its defense, the movie will make you feel incredibly nostalgic for the animated offerings of the ’90s, and it’s worth watching for that reason alone.
9. King Kong Escapes
Kicking off our list is King Kong Escapes, a movie released back when Toho was licensed to use the iconic character in various silver screen showdowns. It arrived in movie theaters back in 1967 and was Toho’s second movie starring Kong, essentially serving as a standalone sequel to King Kong vs. Godzilla. Time has not forgotten the 1962 clash of the titans because of how iconic it was, but King Kong Escapes hasn’t been quite as lucky, as it’s often overlooked.
It’s an unusual but fun movie that sees an evil supervillain named Dr. Who (no, not that one), who is actually inspired by the James Bond villains of the time, attempt to manipulate Kong into digging at the North Pole for the radioactive Element X. The reason of course being that he created a robot named Mechani-Kong to do it for him but it short-circuited. Naturally, there’s a battle between Kong and Mechani-Kong, and somewhere in-between the former falls in love with one of the film’s main characters Lt. Susan Watson.
King Kong Escapes was very much designed as a kaiju movie about Kong battling an evil robot version of himself. On that front, it’s a major success, so the rest of the story doesn’t need to hold up. Nevertheless, it’s a fun entry in Kong’s iconic movie showdowns, even if it doesn’t offer as much as some of the others.
8. Son of Kong
Less than a year after King Kong, RKO Pictures released Son of Kong. It was a one-hour-long adventure that took Carl Denham back to Skull Island where he came face-to-face with – yes, you guessed it! – the son of Kong.
Son of Kong is a strange entry in the King Kong franchise. The producers knew they wouldn’t match the heights of the game-changing original, so decided to rush out a sequel that did something a little different. It’s impressive that they managed to get this released so quickly, but maybe this is a case of striking when the iron is too hot.
It feels like there could have been a bigger movie here, as Son of Kong ends up feeling like a short or a TV special due to its brief runtime. Nevertheless, it does offer up 69 minutes of pure nostalgic entertainment with some of the same stunning stop-motion effects that its predecessor gave us. It also benefits from its significantly more comedic tone, and Kong’s son is an enjoyable addition to the lore.
Its greatest attribute, however, might just lie in the character development that Denham receives, making him a much more well-rounded character than he appeared in the original.
7. King Kong vs. Godzilla
We’re going to be talking a lot about how King Kong changed the face of cinema on this list, but we mustn’t overlook how revolutionary 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla was. One of the many films in Toho’s legendary Godzilla series, this one stands out because it saw the gargantuan radioactive lizard battle America’s most famous movie monster in a battle that nobody ever thought they would see.
A tale quite literally summed up by “Clash of the Titans“, it’s exactly what it claims to be. Godzilla awakens from a lengthy slumber and chooses chaos. Kong is the mysterious king of an island, who is then kidnapped and dropped off to fight Godzilla in the hopes that the two will destroy each other. And destroy each other is exactly what they do, squaring off in one of the most iconic scenes in movie history.
Sure, it’s going to look dated by today’s standards, and the faces of the suits aren’t the most convincing in the world, but it’s still easy to see why the movie is held in such high regard. King Kong vs. Godzilla lives up to its promise and is outrageously entertaining in all the right ways.
6. King Kong Lives
A decade after the first King Kong remake, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group decided to bring the iconic ape back from the dead for a sequel. It was a decision few people saw coming, but it wasn’t nearly as surprising as the story; which saw Kong revived after 10 years in a coma to be given an artificial heart. With a new lease on life he forgets all about Dwan and falls in love with a female ape nicknamed Lady Kong.
Divisive as Kong ’76 was, it was a huge success with groundbreaking special effects. King Kong Lives, on the other hand, felt like a regression in that department, with a completely different Kong suit being used to bring the Eighth Wonder of the World to life. It’s also rather cheesy and feels like it could be a sequel to any King Kong movie given its lack of ties to the 1976 film.
That being said, it’s a rare all-but-forgotten nostalgic piece of history that might make you smile once or twice. As someone who grew up watching it, I can definitely appreciate it for what it is: Silly and senseless entertainment designed you make you feel something. Heck, it might even make you cry. I certainly did.
One other thing: Its score is absolutely beautiful.
5. Godzilla vs. Kong
Well if this wasn’t a surprise, then I don’t know what was? Expectations for Godzilla vs. Kong should have been high. After all, it was based on one of the most iconic movies of all time, and Kong: Skull Island was an excellent monster movie, but the MonsterVerse took a bit of a tumble with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, so we didn’t really know what to expect from this one.
What we got was big, dumb fun. The biggest, most dumb fun of all. Unlike its predecessor, nothing in this movie took itself too seriously, because there was a giant ape battling a giant prehistoric lizard, and there was another dimension that held the secrets to the origins of all monsters, and it somehow managed to incorporate freakin’ Mechagodzilla into all of that as well.
You rooted for both of the titular beasts, who got plenty of time to battle because the movie wasn’t overwhelmed by the human story like some of the MonsterVerse’s previous entries.
This would have been a perfect and fitting finale for the MonsterVerse, but its overperformance and positive reception during the pandemic reminded everyone that sometimes we just need outlandish escapism from our movies. As a result, a sequel is nearly upon us.
4. Kong: Skull Island
Legendary’s MonsterVerse promised to introduce King Kong in a way that no other Kong movie has done yet; by not remaking the 1933 original. This time, we were taking a trip to Skull Island in the 1970s to meet a titan much larger than the iconic story would have us believe. And this was to set the stage for his showdown with the equally gigantic Godzilla in the future.
But Kong: Skull Island wasn’t just going through the motions in a bid to introduce Kong for his future battle, it sought to add backstory to the MonsterVerse and added a great deal to the story of Kong as well. The movie wasted little time in throwing us into a wild adventure unlike anything we had ever seen the mammoth ape get caught up in before. He was the king of Skull Island, yes, but he had to regularly fight for that throne, and with Skullcrawlers and giant spiders to contend with, that title was always on the line.
Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson could probably have had a little bit more to do, but they are quite the dynamic duo that don’t back down from their mission to protect Kong. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson camps it up for a wonderfully larger-than-life performance that entertains almost as much as Kong himself.
You want an action adventure that doesn’t stop? Kong: Skull Island is the movie for you!
3. King Kong (1976)
The first remake of King Kong came out in 1976 and it reimagined the movie icon’s story in a more modern way. While the basic outline of the story is the same, Kong is discovered by oil company Petrox, who set out to Skull Island in search of rare, money-making oil. The woman he falls in love with is named Dwan, a star-that-never-was, and she’s portrayed by the legendary Jessica Lange in her first ever role.
It’s something of a divisive picture that feels a little more dated now than its predecessor, but there’s a nostalgic charm in King Kong ’76 that makes it a very enjoyable movie. It tries something different, and even though all of it doesn’t hold up, it was a triumph for its time, with the special effects used by Rick Baker to bring Kong to life being nothing short of revolutionary.
The movie is also notable for Dwan’s growing affection for Kong. She’s still terrified of him, but she grows quite fond of him before the end of the movie, and this is something that later King Kong stories would adapt as well, marking a striking change from Fay Wray’s terrified Ann Darrow.
King Kong ’76 is definitely a product of its time, but it’s an entertaining one at that – one that has fun with the effects of that time – and we don’t talk about it enough.
2. King Kong (2005)
If there was ever a director destined to recapture the grandeur of the original King Kong in the modern day, Peter Jackson was the man for the job. The Lord of the Rings filmmaker stepped up to bring Kong back to the big screen in a cinematic spectacle with the best special effects the king of Skull Island had ever seen, and it was nothing short of stunning.
With a star-studded cast featuring Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, and Jack Black, the 2005 King Kong essentially retold the original story (with Jackson also choosing to keep the story set in the 1930s) but made use of the technology available today to make that happen. Instead of changing the iconic story, it gave us an idea of what the original could have looked like if it had been made in a modern era. And the result is amazing.
The score is beautiful, the visuals are jaw-dropping, and the technology used to bring Kong to life (via motion capture provided by Andy Serkis) puts the film in a league of its own in the CGI department. It’s a mind-blowing adventure that makes full use of its expensive budget, complementing an already perfect story.
As the years have went on, there have been some criticisms of the movie, such as how Kong was essentially just a giant silverback gorilla and its incredibly long runtime of three hours, but there is no denying that this was the larger-than-life return to screen Kong deserved, made with love by a fan of the original film. And that’s what makes it surprisingly timeless for a modern movie.
1. King Kong (1933)
Every so often a movie that changes the face of cinema itself comes along, one that pushes boundaries and breaks down barriers. But that is just a small example of what King Kong accomplished. Monster movies weren’t anything new in 1933, but what this little-movie-that-could did for cinema can’t be summed up in just a few short words.
It was a terrifying marvel that expertly used stop-motion animation (and a giant gorilla head with moving eyes) to create one of the most iconic movie characters of all time. Technology that was considered revolutionary at the time, the irony is that King Kong still holds up extremely well today. It isn’t just down to the film being in black-and-white either, though that does make it feel much more thrilling that its modern day counterparts.
The script was incredible too, because its oddly poignant story about a giant ape falling in love with a beautiful woman, becoming an attraction in New York City against its will and scaling the Empire State Building, elevated it far beyond your typical monster movie.
King Kong was a triumph in all categories; a tragic piece of theater that changed the game for cinema. Many have tried to recreate that effect (even its own remakes) but few have ever reached the heights of this one. They sure don’t make ’em like this anymore.
Which King Kong movie did you enjoy the most? Are you excited for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?