ORIGINS: HOW KONG BECAME THE KING OF THE MONSTER MOVIE

Who’s got a thing for towers in New York and grabs women whenever he feels like it? That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite movie monkey, King Kong (you weren’t thinking of anyone else, were you?). This week sees the release of Kong: Skull Island, the latest iteration of one of the most enduring monsters in American cinema. So, what better time to look back over the archetypal ape’s career on the big screen, starting over 80 years ago when RKO commissioned a strange film about an out of work actress, restless natives, dinosaurs, and a gargantuan gorilla.

THE APE WHO WOULD BE KING

What more can be said about Kong’s debut in 1933’s King Kong that hasn’t been already? It remains one of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history and thanks to the film’s action-packed and fast-paced paced nature, it still stands up to fresh viewings today. Although the script veers mostly between hokey and clunky with a fair dose of casual racism (actually the most dated aspect of the film), King Kong is, of course, most notable for its pioneering special effects that blended live action actors with stop-motion prehistoric creatures. Also, a significant part of the film’s appeal can be attributed to the relationship that forms between Fay Wray’s Ann Darrow and Kong, which transforms from terror into tenderness, that gave the giant ape a surprising amount of depth and casts Kong as an unlikely anti-hero worth rooting for.

King Kong was a ‘monster’ hit at the box office on release and won over critics with its spectacle and novelty. Thanks to Kong’s huge success, a sequel, Son of Kong, was hastily put into production and released later the same year. Due to its rushed nature, Son of Kong falls some way short of its predecessor as Carl Denham returns to Skull Island to search for treasure to pay off multiple lawsuits after bringing Kong to New York. There he discovers ‘Little Kong’, a much smaller and albino version of his father, who helps Denham with his quest. Son of Kong is a curiosity at best and is proof that Hollywood cashing in on a hit film’s reputation for a quick buck is hardly a new phenomenon. Although the sequel was moderately successful and a few other big gorilla movies tried to ape (sorry) the original’s appeal, Kong himself became dormant for the next 3 decades.

MONKEY: A JOURNEY TO THE EAST

It was perhaps inevitable that Japan’s Toho Studios would eventually arrange a playdate between the world’s most famous city stompers, Godzilla and Kong. 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla tells the tale of pharmaceuticals CEO who wants to boost the ratings of the TV shows his company is sponsoring and what better way is there to achieve that than capturing a giant monkey for publicity purposes. Of course, this simple plan goes awry when Godzilla is inadvertently awakened and the icons decide to settle their differences by flattening a large part of Japan with Kong eventually crowned the winner.

Like most of Toho’s output, King Kong vs. Godzilla qualifies as big, dumb, cheap fun. However, there is a degree of desecration in seeing these magnificent beasts who had such esteemed cinematic debuts being used for such purposes. A Kong only sequel, King Kong Escapes, came from the studio 5 years later where the big ape was forced to battle a mechanical version of himself in a very forgettable outing for Toho and Kong himself.

DAMN DIRTY APE

King Kong returned to US soil in 1976’s remake of the same name. This Dino De Laurentiis produced creature feature had a formidable production budget for the time which paid off handsomely with the film winning an Oscar for sterling effects work (something its progenitor never achieved, thanks to award not existing in 1933). It starred Jeff Bridges as a paleontologist stowing away on an expedition to Skull Island that picks up the hot AF Jessica Lange (in her first film role) along the way. Once at the island, Kong is discovered; Kong is brought back to New York; Kong goes on a rampage; Kong is killed (you know the drill).

The film is in some ways an admirable attempt to update the story into modern times (for instance, helicopters bring down Kong down rather than bi-planes) but it’s little seen these days despite being a box office success 40 years ago. This is probably due to the film climaxing on top of the World Trade Center rather than the Empire State Building and Kong’s perverse fondling of Ms. Lange, which can make for uncomfortable viewing. Its lack of modern resonance can also be attributed to the film’s leaden pace and relative lack of action with Kong only getting into one monster mash with a giant snake.

Again, a sequel, King Kong Lives, was commissioned ten years later following on directly from the 1976 version with Kong requiring a blood transfusion to heal his wounds, so another expedition is mounted to find Kong’s female mate, Lady Kong, in Borneo. This wasn’t actually the first female Kong to grace the screen since a British comedy, Queen Kong, tried the same trick around the same time as the 1976 remake but was inevitably suppressed by legal action from De Laurentiis. Both movies are largely forgotten and with good reason.

TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS

Letting a recently Oscar-minted director loose on his life-long passion project with almost unlimited funds was always going to produce mixed results and so it proved in Peter Jackson’s indulgent 2005 remake of King Kong. Reverting back to the depression-era setting, the LOTR’s director set about fleshing out every aspect of the original which resulted in an exhausting running time of over 3 hours. The film is so drawn out that you could watch the original in its entirety before Kong even appears in Jackson’s version as he wastes an extraordinary amount of screentime on characterizing incidental cast members and perfunctory set pieces. Jackson then really took the piss by releasing an even longer Director’s Cut that all but confirmed his transition from master filmmaker to fan service procrastinator.

That said, there are plenty moments within this version’s obese running time that genuinely do live up Kong’s reputation as the 8th Wonder of the World. Andy Serkis’ mo-cap performance as Kong is nuanced and impeccably representative of primate behavior and once Kong gets loose around the Big Apple, the film finally feels like it’s hitting its marks regularly that climaxes with an emotionally impactful demise for Kong. Before this more judicious third act, however, the film veers between the ridiculous and sublime on a scene by scene basis and its pacing is bogged down even further by an over-use of slow motion. It is a Kong-sized shame more self-restraint was not employed by Peter Jackson since his King Kong had all the ingredients to become the definitive version of the story.

THE RETURN OF THE KING

After the respectable success of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla rehash in 2014, Legendary Pictures are now endeavoring to create a “MonsterVerse” that will now incorporate a new version of Kong in this year’s Kong: Skull Island. While the film’s announcement was greeted with a murmur of interest, its trailer incited a new found excitement for the project with a plethora of monsters and a healthy sense of humor. The buzz has been steadily growing for what seems to be a genuine reinvention of the aging ape that will hopefully be realized in the film’s release this week.

Obviously, the long game is to have the two monsters face off once again in a potentially lucrative money spinner in 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong, so long as Skull Island and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters deliver in the meantime. If so, in this age of Shared Cinematic Universes, Kong could reclaim his crown to be King once more.