Does King Kong (2005) Still Hold Up Today?

Before the Monsterverse but after the 1931 original, there was Peter Jackson’s reimagining of the giant ape’s story. Taking place during the height of The Great Depression, stage actress Anne Darrow (played by Naomi Watts) is laid off after her theater closes. Meanwhile, filmmaker Carl Denham’s (played by Jack Black) latest project does not go over well. The film studio plans on shelving his film and selling his footage as stock footage. Angered, Denham plans on illegally making his film. Needing a new lead actress, he and Miss Darrow cross paths as he talks her into his project. Escaping the police via ship, Denham and his crew plan on shooting the film while exploring an undiscovered island: Skull Island. But little do they know the life-changing horrors that lie in wait for them as they learn too late that some places are better left off undiscovered.  

What I love about Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films is his attention to detail. And this is witnessed when we see Skull Island. The island is not just a movie set, it’s a completely functional ecosystem and sanctuary for exotic flora and fauna. But don’t go thinking it’s some peaceful paradise. Once you step foot on Skull Island, you can forget what life you had back home. From the poisonous plants, to the giant insects that crawl from each crevice in Skull Island’s underbelly, nowhere is safe. But if you thought that was bad enough, you’d be dead wrong (no pun intended). Since Skull Island is the last wonder of the world, there live some creatures long thought to be extinct such as dinosaurs. Yes, that’s right folks. These dinosaurs have reached the pinnacle of their evolution. For example, the T-Rex has evolved into the larger, more terrifying Vastatosaurus Rex (V-Rex) which have a long, brutal rivalry with the Kong species.

The crew that travels to Skull Island is easily an allegory for white colonization. And Peter Jackson takes ample time to introduce and make them seem multi-dimensional and affable until the right time. Take Carl Denham for example. We meet him as a down on his luck filmmaker who wishes to keep his dream alive by whatever means necessary. However, he’s also power-hungry and greedy. He places his own vanity project over the safety of his crew. This is on full display when he gives an inversed version of Samwise Gamgee’s speech from The Two Towers. And to no one’s surprise, when his film falls through, he insists on bringing Kong back to The States via chloroform so he can profit off a live show. So why does Jackson do this? Why does he want us to root for the bad guys? I think it’s because villains in the real world aren’t your stereotypical mustache-twirling, irredeemable bad guys. They’re people just like you and me. And I think it’s very important to show them as such so we get a better understanding of what drives them.  

So, there is one major issue I have with Jackson’s King Kong: the portrayal of the Skull Island natives. Knowing Skull Island’s hypothetical location is off of Malaysia, the natives would be based on the Polynesians or Malay. However, they’re portrayed to be savages, complete with deranged red eyes, deformed facial features and practicing human sacrifice. Hell, they feel more like Uruk-Hai rejects from The Two Towers than natives of a lost civilization! Oh, but it gets worse than that. You see, the extras hired for the scene were actually Malay, but had their skin painted black to portray the natives. Problematic? I think so. Throughout the film, I was asking myself “is it racist to use 1930s filmmaking techniques to tell a story from the 1930s?” Yes. It’d be like if we still used yellowface today. And before you try to defend the film for “pointing out how these methods and views were racist”, Jackson’s movie makes no such attempt. The natives appear, terrorize our protagonists, kidnap and attempt to sacrifice Anne and disappear for the remainder of the run time.

I remember seeing advertisements all over when this film came out. The TV ads showing a giant ape fighting two V-Rexes or slugging it out with bi-planes on top of the Empire State Building was nothing short of exhilarating. But that was part of the movie’s problem: it was advertised as a fun action adventure. The reality? A three hour long drama with action scenes sprinkled in. Peter Jackson wanted to recapture the magic of his LOTR trilogy and since those movies were three hours long, he decided it couldn’t hurt to have King Kong match that length. While the film wasn’t exactly a slog to sit through, those who showed up for the action alone were left waiting for about an hour and a half for any of it. This is only exacerbated with scenes that serve little to no purpose other than to drag out the film’s run time such as seeing Anne and Kong ice skating in New York.  

King Kong (2005) made a whopping $557 million on a budget of a staggering $207 million. Additionally, it won three Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects along with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director. In 2013, Jackson revealed that he planned to produce a prequel with Adam Wingard attached to direct. According to Wingard, the prequel would take place in WWI. However, these plans fell through when the rights of King Kong transferred from Universal to Warner Brothers. Eventually, Warner Brothers decided to reboot the franchise with Kong: Skull Island set in the Monsterverse. Was this the right call? I think so. Despite the massive commercial and critical success that was King Kong (2005), I think a prequel would’ve garnered a similar reception to War of the Rohirrim. In other words, it would’ve been an interesting addition to the world of King Kong, but wouldn’t have really been necessary.

With all of this said, does Peter Jackson’s King Kong still hold up today? Quite frankly, yes! Despite some troubling portrayal of the Skull Island natives, the world building and nuanced storytelling on white colonialism is more than enough to stand the test of time. I think what really prevented this film from being truly great was its pacing and false advertising. Although I understand the reasons for this false advertising, it was also part of the reason why some were disappointed when they found out it wasn’t what they were expecting. Despite the Monsterverse’s version of Kong being the fan favorite, it’s still worth it to give Peter Jackson’s rendition a watch. You might just find a new perspective and appreciation for King Kong.