Peter Jackson’s King Kong is the only Kong film you need

If there’s one movie franchise that I’d happily walk on a bed of nails to avoid watching anything from, it’s the MonsterVerse. So often do they prove to be narratively uninspiring and far too focused on spectacle over sustenance that my attempts to sit through them have, so far, proven unsuccessful. 2014’s Godzilla felt as though director Gareth Edwards had forgotten it was a Godzilla film, with the giant monster not having nearly enough screentime to satisfy me. Its sequel, the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters, had a plot that felt so nonsensical that not even the acting of Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga could save it. And yet, while I have very little interest in trying to jump back into those movies — let alone the TV spinoff Monarch: Legacy of Monsters — I do remain a fan of one particular monster, the indomitable King Kong, and of one iteration in particular.

Peter Jackson, famously known for directing The Lord of the Rings movies, scored big with his take on the gigantic ape back when it debuted in theatres 20 years ago on Dec. 14, 2005. Jackson’s take was the second remake of the 1933 film, King Kong (and the seventh movie to feature Kong). It stars Naomi Watts as Ann Darrows, a small-time actress whose scheming director Carl Denham (Jack Black) leads her and the rest of his cast to the dangerous Skull Island. Fresh off his award-winning motion-capture performance as Gollum, Andy Serkis portrays Kong, the giant ape who falls in love with Darrows. It was an undeniable commercial success at the time, earning over $556.9 million worldwide on a budget of $207 million. Critics praised Jackson’s use of special effects to bring Kong to life as both a terrifying entity and an emotive, empathetic creature, as well as a still-painfully relevant story about how ambition and greed can make monsters of us all.

King Kong proved to be a monumental experience for me as well. Watts’ take on Ann Darrows was far from the hysterical, screaming waif portrayed by trailblazing scream queen Fay Wray in the original film. Yet, despite my love for this film, attempts to broaden my horizons into Kong’s other adventures only pushed me further back into the furry arms of Jackson’s King Kong. The reason remains the same as before: you don’t need to watch several movies before (or after) to understand what’s going on.

Kong and his other kaiju buddies have been kicking around for nearly a century now, with each of them having several movies, spin-offs, comics, etc, to dive into. The latest, 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is the 13th King Kong film in the overall Kong franchise and the fifth in Legendary Picture’s ongoing cinematic universe. New Empire follows the lovable lug after the defeat of Mechagodzilla in the previous movie, 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong. A sequel, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, is set to release sometime in 2027, where we’ll no doubt be seeing even more creatures added to the MonsterVerse.

Legendary has never been secretive about the goal of the MonsterVerse. The plan was always to build a web of interconnected movies akin to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. This may have seemed like a good idea when the franchise launched in 2014 (the same year Marvel delivered both Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier), but in the decade since, audiences have grown wary of any movie that requires a bunch of research to understand. If you watch one film without the other, you’re bound to miss something significant. You’ll understand the basic plot and enjoy the spectacle, but the meaning behind decisions and whole arcs won’t hit as hard. Getting into the MonsterVerse today is a lot like giving yourself homework. If you want a standalone Godzilla story, there’s always Toho’s excellent recent films, but Kong fans are out of luck.

Jackson’s King Kong is also an epic spectacle on the level you might expect from the director behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The voyage to Skull Island is ethereal in its presentation, feeling like the set-up of a romance movie between Ann and heart-throb screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), which makes the inevitable twist of them arriving only to be captured by the islanders feel like such a delightful sucker punch. There’s still plenty of fights and action, but it doesn’t become the heart of the film. That role belongs to Kong and Ann, whose Beauty and the Beast situation feels 10 times more compelling than Kong beating up Godzilla for the 50th time. By comparison, the humans in MonsterVerse movies mostly exist to sell cars and fill space in between kaiju battles.

Image: Universal Pictures

Better yet, King Kong doesn’t have to concern itself with trying to weave a story around the idea of setting up another sequel. The narrative arc of King Kong was self-contained enough that, while a sequel was planned (before being cancelled), it ended on a poignant, bleak note for both Ann and Kong that doesn’t require a follow-up. What would be the use of continuing the story when the tragedy of the ending was the entire point?

As a Star Wars fan, I’ve had plenty of experience with the innate need for more and more content to keep the franchise wheels turning. There are times when sequels or prequels are necessary, needed even, to bring more depth to characters, or simply because there’s much more story to be told. However, as Jackson’s King Kong shows, there’s just as much value to knowing when a story can, and should, end. Two decades later, I just wish Kong’s owners would free him from his MonsterVerse shackles for another standalone film.