Film

King Kong

Name: King Kong
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Action
Released: 2005
Cast: Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Andy Serkis, Colin Hanks

Other titles called King Kong: the 1933 film, the 1976 film.

Treasure hunt

Peter Jackson's lavish, three-hour remake trades the original's lean pulp for maximalist spectacle: Depression-era New York, a doomed film shoot, and Skull Island rendered as a nightmare theme park. Andy Serkis's motion-capture Kong carries real pathos amid the dinosaur stampedes. It's for people who want old-fashioned adventure blown up to blockbuster scale, patient enough to sit through an hour of setup before the carnage.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like big, sincere spectacle that takes its time, and you don't mind a romance sitting right beside the monsters rather than apart from them.

Skip it if you find sprawling, sentimental filmmaking hard going, since the running time of just over three hours asks a lot of patience before the story reaches its bigger set pieces.

What it asks of you: Settle in for over three hours, with a leisurely first stretch in 1933 New York before the boat sails, and give the sentiment room to breathe.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Jurassic Park1993

Spielberg's blueprint for awe-and-terror creature spectacle, with practical effects that still hold up better than most CGI made twenty years later.

But You've seen it a dozen times already and know every beat by heart.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001

Same director, same appetite for sweeping scale and practical craft, but here married to a story with room to breathe across three films.

But It's a fantasy epic with no jungle, no ape, and a very different emotional register.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring poster

Jaws1975

The original lesson in delayed monster reveals and tension-built dread, tighter and meaner than Kong ever gets.

But Small-town thriller scale rather than epic adventure — no exotic island, no romance.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from King Kong

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mighty Joe Young1949

Direct creative lineage: same effects pioneer, same premise of a wild creature undone by human spectacle, but played as tenderness rather than horror.

A gentler, earlier take on the exact same idea — a giant ape captured and brought to civilization, animated by Willis O'Brien, the same stop-motion artist behind the 1933 original Kong effects.

But Slower, softer, and more sentimental — there's no rampage, no Skull Island, just a quieter tragedy.

Titanic1997

Another three-hour period spectacle built on a doomed romance and a disaster you know is coming, staged with the same go-big-or-go-home confidence.

But No monsters at all, and the romance is front and centre rather than a subplot.

The Mummy1999

Pure pulp adventure energy — 1930s setting, swashbuckling stakes, a supernatural menace, and a real sense of fun that Kong occasionally reaches for.

But Lighter and campier throughout; it never asks you to feel anything for the monster.

Godzilla2014

A modern giant-monster spectacle that takes its creature seriously, building dread and scale the way Kong does with its own beast.

But Human characters are thin and the pacing is slower than the marketing promised.

Pacific Rim2013

If it's the scale and spectacle of giant things smashing into each other you loved, this delivers it with unapologetic, joyful excess.

But No emotional core to match Kong's — it's spectacle first, character a distant second.

Congo1995

A gloriously pulpy jungle expedition film with gorillas, greed, and danger — the cheesier cousin of Kong's Skull Island setup.

But It's schlockier and campier by design; don't expect anything like Kong's emotional weight.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park1997

Creatures loose in a world that isn't built for them, with a finale that briefly drags a dinosaur into a city — the closest Spielberg gets to Kong territory.

But Widely considered a lesser sequel, and the human drama is thinner than the original.

Grizzly Man2005

Strips Kong's fantasy down to its bare moral question — what happens when a human insists a wild thing can be known, loved, controlled — and answers it without any special effects at all.

Werner Herzog's documentary about a man who lived among wild grizzlies convinced he'd tamed their nature, using real footage that turns unbearably poignant.

But No spectacle, no rescue, no romance — just a true story that ends exactly as badly as you fear.

Okja2017

Same engine as Kong — a huge, gentle creature exploited by commercial ambition and torn from the one person who loves it — but restaged as contemporary satire instead of period spectacle.

Bong Joon-ho's giant-creature dramedy about a girl and her genetically engineered super-pig, swinging from whimsical adventure to corporate satire to real heartbreak.

But Tonally all over the place by design — comedy, horror and tragedy collide in ways some viewers find jarring.