By Dante Spado
Spoilers for Godzilla vs. Kong.
The day of reckoning finally arrived. The big lizard fought the big monkey, and it was everything I wanted it to be. But who won? And did Alex (my Kong-supporting roommate) and I (a staunch Godzilla enthusiast) kill each other?
Thankfully, we did not. But we spent the entire day harassing each other and egging one another on about our favorite fighter. I wrote about this before in a previous blog, but Alex and I have a rivalry because he plays Donkey Kong in Smash and I play King K Rool. It’s like the little leagues of Kong and Zilla. We’ve been waiting for this movie for months, and I can honestly say it delivered.
The movie pulls no punches. There’s a ton of fight scenes between the two monsters. Anytime Kong was winning I would boo, and Alex would do the same for Godzilla. We harassed each other and picked on the titan each of us is loyal to the whole time, and it was a lot of fun.
I may be a bit biased, but I think Godzilla was the winner. He definitely won the boat fight and Kong certainly won at one point in Hong Kong, but moments later Godzilla had Kong pinned under him and roared in his face. Kong then went still, and some of his human companions realized he was dying until they shocked him back to life with some magic energy, kind of like a titan-sized defibrillator.
I totally realize that to please everyone Kong and Godzilla both had to win. I also understand why it was easier to frame Kong as the good guy. Monkeys look more loveable than lizards. Eventually, it was revealed Godzilla was attacking cities because a group of humans was trying to replace him with a robot version, known as Mechagodzilla. Godzilla was upset about it because he saw himself as the protector of the people and they spat in his face. In the end, the pair teamed up and destroyed Mechagodillza together and then went their separate ways. It was a solid ending, and I can’t complain about it.
Obviously, I realize it’s a movie, so it’s hard to really nitpick the reality of the situation, but realistically, Godzilla should have easily beat Kong. They gave Kong so much help just to keep him in the fight. He had fighter jets and aircraft carriers to help him out, but Godzilla still would beat him up. It wasn’t until he got his magical axe that he really even stood a chance. I think you strip those elements away and Godzilla easily wins. I mean the director of the movie said himself that he had to pull back on putting Kong through the wringer because he “felt bad for him.”
I think the fact that people wanted to make a Mechagodzilla to protect them and not a Mechakong also speaks volumes. Sure, Kong is strong. But he isn’t radioactive-dinosaur strong.
This movie easily could have been a flop, but its three predecessor movies have all been pretty solid. It pleases Kong fans and Zilla fans alike, and I certainly hope to see the two team up again.