Up next in my in-depth reviews and looks at the individual Godzilla movies is one of the highest-grossing films in the entire series, King Kong vs. Godzilla. Now, you all know by now that I am doing these in an order, from worst to best. That said, you might be asking yourself why this film, while one of the highest-grossing, is the third worst in my opinion. Well, I’ll get into it more as this goes on and you’ll understand my stance. As usual, I will mix in facts about the movie with my opinions as I want people to understand as much about the movie as possible.

King Kong vs. Godzilla is a 1962 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd, it is the third film in both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises and the first Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. It is also the first time each character appeared on film in colour and widescreen. The film stars Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yū Fujiki, Ichirō Arishima, and Mie Hama, with Shoichi Hirose as King Kong and Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla. In the film, Godzilla is reawakened by an American submarine and a pharmaceutical company captures King Kong for promotional uses, which culminate in a battle with Godzilla on Mount Fuji.

At the time, Godzilla and King Kong were the two biggest monsters in the world. Obviously, Kong was a big hit in the US and Godzilla in his native Japan. The idea of a film featuring both of them was a monumental moment in cinematic history. Sure, we had meet-ups with some of the classic monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein, but this was something on a whole other level. Especially since the project began with a story outline devised by King Kong stop motion animator Willis O’Brien around 1960, in which Kong battles a giant Frankenstein Monster. O’Brien then decided to give the outline to producer John Beck for development. Behind O’Brien’s back and without his knowledge, Beck gave the project to Toho to produce the film, replacing the giant Frankenstein Monster with Godzilla and scrapping O’Brien’s original story.

Right away we have a bit of controversy with this film, as you can see. Godzilla films are no stranger to controversy, but this was perhaps the first time that such a blatant thing was done in the series. It’s crazy to me how John Beck did O’Brien dirty like that and gave the whole film over to Toho, but that’s neither here nor there. Where my problems begins is around the 27-minute mark, when Godzilla makes his first appearance in the film.

Godzilla breaks free from the iceberg that he was buried in during the climax of Godzilla Raids Again. Continuity, I have absolutely no issue with that. The iceberg is adrift in the ocean, however, so why in the very next scene is Godzilla stomping on a military base? Where was the base even located and how the hell did the Big G go from adrift in the ocean to suddenly being on dry land with a mountain range? This is a huge flaw in the film for me as it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

From there, we finally get to see Kong for the first time and god does he look terrible. I’m sorry but the costume used for this version is just horrendous. He looks nothing like Kong did in any previous films and you can tell that the actor in the suit was having a hard time moving, especially when Kong beats his chest and his hands stay open instead of closing. We see Kong appear when a giant octopus comes into the village and the two behemoths battle, the first clash between monsters in the film. I actually love how they used footage of an actual octopus in spots during this scene.

The costumes in this film do not hold up to the test of time. Sure, this was the very first time a Godzilla film was done in color and things are very dated by today’s standards, but I can’t see how these costumes would have been good even in the 60’s. A pharmaceutical company drugs Kong after the fight with the octopus creature and they transport him to Japan, wanting to use him in promotional materials. Why do humans have to be so stupid and greedy in movies like this? Like, seriously, how dumb do you have to be to think that a giant gorilla the size of a skyscraper isn’t going to give you problems?

That said, watching the one bumbling idiot of a boss almost blow Kong up on his raft was funny. His overacting is glorious as well when the navy stops him from bringing Kong into Japan. Another problem I have is there are a lot of jumps in this movie where you go from focusing on Kong to Godzilla to the human’s plight and it’s kind of a jumbled mess. For me, there’s really no consistency in the film at all. I get it, you want to give each monster story some time and bring them together, but there had to be better ways to go about doing it than this.

It takes most of the movie to finally give us the showdown between Godzilla and Kong, and when the movie is 97 minutes long that is kind of significant. They hadn’t even met at the 50-minute mark in the movie and this just feels wrong to me. Like I said before, I get it, you have to tell the story about how each monster gets to Japan but come on, that could have been done in a much simpler way and given the two monsters more time on screen together.

Godzilla rampages through Japan, destroying Sendai and Kong breaks free from the boat, coming ashore at Chiba. The inevitable seems poised to finally happen when a radio says that Godzilla is heading towards Kong. After an hour of storytelling, Godzilla and Kong finally meet and square off. This is where I have another problem with the film. Kong walks upright on two feet the entire movie, no gorilla does that. It’s like Toho didn’t even do any research on how their actor should portray a giant ape. Right away Kong is outmatched as Godzilla has his atomic breath and Kong doesn’t have any powers at all, which leads Kong to run away from the fight. Their first interaction on screen and it lasts all of three minutes. What the actual hell Toho?

So yeah, after a brief three-minute exchange, Kong and Godzilla go on to terrorize Japan in separate ways. Eventually, the military drugs Kong again and when I say eventually, it happened around the 80-minute mark. So we’ve gone nearly the entire movie now with only a three-minute interaction and I have to ask how someone thought that was a good idea. We finally get the real showdown between Godzilla and Kong, on the base of Mt Fuji, at the 85-minute mark which leaves a whopping 12 minutes of fighting for the monsters. The fight mixes actors in costumes, hand puppets, toys and claymation making for a disjointed fight sequence between Godzilla and Kong.

Kong is seriously outmatched in this second fight and stumbles, knocking himself out. Yes, you read that right. Godzilla then buries him under some rocks and thinks he’s won until Kong gets struck by lightning. This moment is significant because it gives Kong a power-up in which he gets a shocking grasp, or as I call it lightning fingers. This power-up makes it a more even fight between the two but by this time, I’ve just become bored with the movie truthfully. In most Godzilla films, you expect a good chunk of the movie depicting the monsters fighting and you just don’t get that here. It made what was supposed to be a fun film just bad in my opinion.

The ending of the film sees Kong and Godzilla both fall into the ocean and this is where a massive debate formed. People around the world are divided about who won this fight as we only see Kong swimming away to end the film. Some believe Kong won, some say Godzilla. Since King Kong was seen as the bigger draw and Godzilla was still considered a ‘villain’ at this point in the series, the decision was made to not only give King Kong top billing but also to present him as the winner of the climactic fight.

While the ending of the film does look somewhat ambiguous, Toho confirmed that King Kong was indeed the winner in their 1962–63 English-language film program Toho Films Vol. 8, which states in the film’s plot synopsis, “A spectacular duel is arranged on the summit of Mt. Fuji and King Kong is victorious. But after he has won…” While producer Tomoyuki Tanaka stated in his 1983 and 1984 books, The Complete History of Toho Special Effects Movies, and Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction that he believed the battle ended in a draw, Toho still maintained that Kong was the victor on their global website back in the late 2010s.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 40/100, based on 4 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

The reviews tended to evaluate the film as an exploitation or kiddie film. Some of the more positive reviews were from James Powers of The Hollywood Reporter who wrote

“A funny monster picture? That’s what Universal has in “King Kong Versus Godzilla. Audiences who patronize this kind of picture will eat it up. It should be a big success via the multiple booking, exploitation route.”

The review from Box Office stated

“Exploitation-minded exhibitors should have a field day with this Japanese import. While the story is preposterous and loaded with stilted dialogue…the special effects are unusual and merit considerable praise”.

John Cutts of Films and Filming wrote

“Sublime stuff. Richly comic, briskly paced, oddly touching, and thoroughly irresistible. Outrageous of course, and deplorably acted and atrociously dubbed to boot. But what matters most is the sheer invention of its exemplary trick work.”

The review from Variety stated

“To the list of this century’s great preliminary bouts—Dempsey-Firpo, Sullivan-Paar, Nixon-Kennedy, Paterson-Liston, Steve Reeves-Gordon Scott—add the main event “King Kong Versus Godzilla”. From the mysterious East comes the monstrosity to end all monstrosities, the epic clash between the 30-year-old, breast-beating, Hollywood-born-and-bred gorilla with the overactive pituitary and the seven-year-old, pea-brained, flame-throated, tail-wagging cross between a Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex who fights out of Tokyo, Japan. Onward and upward with the arts”.

Eugene Archer of The New York Times said

“King Kong Versus Godzilla should be explicit enough title for anyone. Viewers who attend the ridiculous melodrama unveiled at neighborhood theaters should know exactly what to expect and get what they deserve. The one real surprise of this cheap reprise of earlier Hollywood and Japanese horror films is the ineptitude of its fakery. When the pair of prehistoric monsters finally get together for their battle royal, the effect is nothing more than a couple of dressed-up stuntmen throwing cardboard rocks at each other.”

There are a lot of mixed reviews out there for the film and then there is the fact that overall, King Kong vs Godzilla is estimated to have grossed $8,700,000 worldwide. That’s with all of the rereleases and even the original run of the film. For me, I am just disappointed with this movie. It doesn’t stand the test of time and frankly, I find it one of the weaker entries in the entire series. Between the lack of shared screen time between the titular monsters and the off-pacing of the movie, I just cannot give it high marks. I want to, I really do, but I just cannot do it.

Thanks for joining me on this ride folks. I’ll be back soon with the next film on the list, Godzilla Raids Again.