King Kong
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 14, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
What a movie! This is how the medium seduced us originally. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
One of the wonders of the holiday season. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Here is the jaw-dropping, eye-popping, heart-stopping movie epic we've been waiting for all year. Read full review
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
Break out the popcorn and prepare to be blown away. King Kong is the most pulse- pounding and heart-stirring romantic adventure since "Titanic." Read full review
100
EmpireDan Jolin
Unlike its newly trim director, Kong does boast some flab around the middle but by the final reel there’s little doubt that what could have been Jackson’s folly is a triumph, the kind of romantic action spectacle that makes the big screen silver and provides box-office gold. Puts the prime in primate. Read full review
100
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The rapport between Ms. Watts and Mr. Serkis is extraordinary, even though it is mediated by fur, latex, optical illusions and complicated effects. Mr. Serkis, who also played Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, is redefining screen acting for the digital age, while Ms. Watts incarnates the glamour and emotional directness of classical Hollywood. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A magnificent entertainment. It is like the flowering of all the possibilities in the original classic film. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
But overall, Jackson goes for the magic by sidestepping every error of judgment and failure of imagination that brought the ponderous 1976 remake thudding to Earth before Kong ever did. He delivers three solid hours of breathless, enchanting entertainment. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Not only does it recapture -- and enhance -- the subtle emotional core that has made the film so beloved for the past three-quarters of a century, it delivers the most eye-boggling, hair-raising movie thrill ride since 1993's "Jurassic Park." Read full review
100
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Jackson's big monkey picture show is certainly the best popular entertainment of the year. The film is a wondrous blend of then and now: It honors its mythic predecessor of 1933 while using sophisticated movie technology to seamlessly manipulate the fantastic. Read full review
90
NewsweekDevin Gordon
A surprisingly tender, even heartbreaking, film. Like the original, it's a tragic tale of beauty and the beast. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The gorilla is great, the girl terrific, sets are out of this world, creatures icky as hell, and the director clearly does not believe in the word "enough." Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Almost too much of a good thing, Peter Jackson's remake of the film that made him want to make movies is a super-sized version of a yarn that was big to begin with, a stupendous adventure that maximizes, and sometimes oversells, its dazzling wares. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
King Kong is an homage not just to the original but to the history of movies themselves. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
A spectacular three-hankie tragic love story--sometimes dumb and often clunky and always pretty cornball, but just about irresistible. Read full review
90
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Here is a movie that celebrates the heyday of adventure cinema even as it embraces technology's bleeding edge. And I'm willing to forgive a lot when giant gorillas and tyrannosaurs are involved. Must be the art snob in me. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
After a start heavy on exposition, the film strings one action setpiece after another, each realized with the breathless excitement of an adventure pulp cover. It's as if Jackson set out to bring to life every fantasy of the last moment before earth gave way to space as the site of the final frontier. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A sweet-natured romantic fable, albeit one that packs in carnivorous cockroaches, rampaging brontosaurs, and the ever-Freudian Empire State Building among its requisite emotional baggage. And, too, it's a corker of an action/monster movie. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The new Kong is just different enough to be terrific screen company. His relationship with his leading lady, played with heart and panache by Naomi Watts, doesn't feel like an old story retold. It feels like a brand new story. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The best of the trio of human performers is Naomi Watts. She also has the most difficult job - not only is the role physical, but it requires her to play off something that isn't there. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Jackson is a visionary filmmaker who is not only a technical wizard but also a master storyteller. With Jackson at the helm, you would expect dazzling special effects and epic action sequences, but what is most surprising is how heartfelt the romance feels. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The $200 million result is an irresistibly entertaining, if grandiose, saga of doomed love and directorial hubris. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The scenes between Kong and Ann are much more than a goof: They're the soul of the movie. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
When it comes to what's great about King Kong, it's not the harum-scarum. It's the girl. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Kong is brilliant in many, many places. But it overwhelms its own best qualities with its sheer, punishing size. It is, literally, too much of a good thing. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Jackson is far more interested in the relationship between the girl and the ape than he is in the power of special effects for their own sake. As big as King Kong is, its sense of intimacy is what really sticks with you. This is an epic Big Little Book of a picture. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It clocks in at over three hours, but Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic is gripping. The film rethinks the characters, turning the original's stark Jungian fantasy into a soulless but skillful set of kinetic and emotional effects. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
I say this as someone for whom the very idea of a Kong remake is sacrilege, Jackson's straitened conception yields up a pretty damn good popcorn movie. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's not so much a remake as it is a loving re-creation of the 1933 original on extra-strength steroids, with a side order of Botox. You've seen it all before but most assuredly never like this. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
King Kong makes clear that Jackson has no contemporary peer when it comes to outsized, transporting fantasies that enchant in an era when special effects have become white noise. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Like Kong himself, it's imposing, sometimes endearing, and very rough around the edges.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The verdict? King Kong may be a great movie event in a "Jaws/Titanic" sense of blockbuster impact and cultural talking point, but it is not a great movie. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
This Kong is high-powered entertainment, but Jackson pushes too hard and loses momentum over the more than three hours of the movie. The story was always a goofy fable--that was its charm--and a well-told fable knows when to stop. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
For King Kong is an accountant's movie at heart. Given the excessive length and bombastic F/X, there's too much action and precious little poetry. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
King Kong isn't terrible, but it's something that none of Jackson's previous movies ever was -- it's enervating. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
Our response to the ape's doom, once touched by authentic tragedy, is now marked by relief that this wretchedly excessive movie is finally over. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
King Kong, a labor of love that's visually stunning and moving in its best moments, is also bloated, shallow, clunky, full of illogical scenes and at least an hour too long. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Jackson is merely indulging himself here, too, doing a thing not because he should but because he can. And maybe that's a good reason but not good enough. The girl still cries, the ape still dies and all you're left with is a ringing in your ears. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
On its own terms, the film is overlong, repetitive and lacks impact. Even if this were the first gorilla-in-love movie ever made, audiences would come away vaguely dissatisfied, suspecting there was an intriguing idea buried somewhere in here, but it didn't quite come off. Read full review
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