I kind of liked the 1976 remake of “King Kong”, a film which received a mixed reception from critics and moviegoers. Its sequel, “King Kong Lives” is almost universally despised and the movie was a massive flop and while it isn’t good, I think people are way too harsh on this movie.

After falling off the World Trade Centre in 1976, King Kong somehow managed to survive and is being kept on life support by a university. Kong needs an artificial heart and a blood transfusion and the doctors know just the donor when a female Kong is found and captured. After surgery, King Kong escapes in search of the female Kong while the army are in pursuit.

The King Kong in the 1976 movie didn’t look too great but considering this movie came out a decade later, the special effects are in no way an improvement on the ’76 movie and in fact, I’d say the gorilla costumes look worse. Linda Hamilton (“The Terminator”, “Dante’s Peak”) plays the surgeon that operated on King Kong and Brian Kerwin (“Jack”) plays the guy that captured the female Kong. The two characters inevitably fall for each other and I didn’t care for either one of them.

The special effects are weak, the story feels rather forced (it lacks the charm of the plot of the original version and the ’76 remake) and also the acting is rather poor. In defence of “King Kong Lives”, I enjoyed the scenes in which King Kong did battle with the army and also that it is very difficult to make a sequel to a movie such as “King Kong”. Most people really seem to hate this movie and I don’t really get why it is so disliked as I think it’s actually better than Toho’s movies featuring King Kong. It isn’t good and isn’t in anyway necessary but those that can’t get enough of the giant ape, you might get a few kicks out of this.