Forgotten Sequels: King Kong Lives (1986)

 After 10 years, is there any reason to go back to the Ape?  This is King Kong Lives, a 1986 Sequel to the infamous Dino De Laurentis Remake.  Why did it take so long?  I don't know.  The idea of doing a second King Kong Film has always been a tricky one.  We got one with Son of Kong in the same year as the classic original Film and it's...odd.  The poor little guy shows up way too late, acts goofy and then dies.  The next time we got one, it was King Kong Escapes, the follow-up to King Kong vs. Godzilla by Toho.  It features a Doctor Who- a mad Scientist- and a robot Kong!  What do we get this time?  Kong has survived the bullet wounds and massive fall.  10 years later, he's back when a lady Kong- not called Queen Kong due to that already being taken.  If you want returning Leads, well, screw you!  Instead, we get Linda Hamilton between Terminator Films and recurring TV Actor Brian Kerwin.  We get the Director of such Classics as Shaft in Africa, Sheena (Queen of the Jungle) and...the last King Kong Film.  This time, they didn't heavily-promote a giant, 'life-sized' Kong robot that didn't work.  Nope- it's just a bloke in a suit.  To find out why you may not care to remember this, read on...

So I lied a bit earlier.

The original Film's Cast does appear...in reused footage from the 1976 Film to recap it.
I bet they didn't pay them for this...

10 years later, Kong is alive...somehow.  It's important to note what won't kill him at this point for later.

For some reason, they were keeping him alive for all of this time.  I guess Science.

In Borneo, a man finds another Kong, only it is a Lady Kong.  He captures it with relative ease.

As for why it is not Skull Island, there's a throwaway line about them being 'adjacent' or something.

In America, the Scientists pay him for the Lady Kong, since they need a blood transfusion to do the operation.

Fun Fact: the Actor in the middle got a residual check of, no joke, 13 cents for this Film.  He stuck it to his copy of the Poster on the wall.

They do the transplant with minimal drama and now have to decide how to handle 2 Kongs.

They keep one in a Facility a mile away until a full habitat is built.  So, I guess Wyoming?

Naturally, King Kong escapes after some vague amount of time, attacks the Facility and rescues his Lady (Kong).

'It sure was easier carrying the last girl,' Kong must think!

Linda Hamilton and the Hunter team up to try and keep the Kongs safe from the Military.

While there, they hook up.

Unfortunately, the Military finds them all, gasses Lady Kong and takes her.  Said gas is strong enough to knock out a 50-foot Ape but, as people point out, it seems to not affect the Soldiers!

Kong escapes via a river and regains his strength- stopping to kill some rednecks along the way.

He somehow surprise-attacks the Base and rescues Lady Kong, but at what cost?

Lady Kong gives birth in a Barn during the final battle and a baby is born.

Kong dies, but his family lives on...to thankfully not make another Sequel.  The End.

A pretty silly and faux-serious Film.  The Film seems to have high ambitions.  It wants you to feel for the Kongs.  It wants you to hope for them to succeed.  Oddly, it wants you to hate the Military, at least in this Story's context.  I guess I'm just too used to Michael Bay's Recruitment/Transformer Films.  One can make some parallels between this Film's bad guy General and the one played by Samuel L. Jackson in Skull Island.  Jackson is better and feels more 'unwound' in that one, but it is still a comparison all the same.  The big problem here is the Effects.  While the Kong suits look fine, they never make you believe that you're watching anything other than 2 people in Suits.  Hell, the top-billed Actors in the Credits are the people in said Suits!  It should be noted that Lady Kong's facial work is a bit...iffy at times (see above).  Carlo Rambaldi is back doing the Suit Work here and it's not bad...but also not great.  All of the shots that are supposed to imply scale rarely work.  I'm never 'drawn in' by the Effects.  There are also some silly ones, like the bit I'm highlighting below.  In it, Kong is shown eating Alligators, but the one time we see one properly in his hand, it is clearly a baby Alligator.  Oy vey!  If the Effects work, this could be a decent Film.  As it is, it is a Film that is treated 100% seriously and tries...but fails.  It was nominated for Worst Effects in the Razzies, but only in that Category.  That kind of says it all- bad Effects sink this one.

Next time, another '80s Film with a weird combination of Genres in play.  Will an older Space Mummy Film be more fulfilling?  Stay tuned...