Pro King Kong: What’s a king to a god? A giant nuclear gorilla

Why King Kong will take the definitive win over Godzilla in the upcoming film “Godzilla vs. Kong”

By: Chase Willet

The question of who would win between Godzilla, a radioactive beam shooting lizard, and King Kong, essentially a large gorilla, seems obvious at first. However, the ape may be more likely to come out on top than one would think.

Godzilla has been shown to be an effective fighter against large monsters, or kaiju, within the last few years with his self-titled movie in 2014 and “King of Monsters” in 2019. He has killed or otherwise beaten multiple kaiju with his atomic breath and was last seen taking out King Ghidorah. Godzilla’s ranged atomic breath attacks and experience seem to put him as the obvious candidate to win… but Kong has some tricks up his sleeve as well.

As we can see by the “Godzilla vs. Kong” trailer, Kong has an axe made out of one of Godzilla’s tail spikes that he retrieves from the hollow earth. This axe is shown to be able to absorb Godzilla’s atomic breath and even seems to be able to output this energy as well. If this is true, the weapon works both offensively and defensively for Kong. 

The axe represents one of Kong’s other strengths. His ability to use tools effectively and his upper body strength. These factors make Kong a great warrior when it comes to close combat and just as Godzilla received experience, Kong has also been training.

While Godzilla was mostly dormant for many years, it is shown that Kong has been boxing large monsters on Skull Island for years. He decimates the skull crawlers and many other inhabitants of the island. While these monsters aren’t comparable to larger titans, it is important to note that Kong is only a young teenager at the time of the vietnam war and had not reached his maximum potential.

Godzilla may be able to keep Kong at a distance for some time, but if Kong is able to land a decisive blow with his axe, the fight will most definitely become close combat where Kong’s longer, more muscular arms will help him to bring the titan to his knees.

It is clear from this trailer that Kong has now reached his full strength. He is made much larger in this movie and matches Godzilla’s height almost perfectly, being the size of a large skyscraper. Through the intervention of humans and footage from the trailers, it can be inferred that nuclear power was at play in his growth in size. 

This factor is detrimental to Godzilla as Kong receives amplified strength from nuclear bombs like in his fight with King Gidorah. If both combatants are radioactive, Godzilla may not be able to be saved by a nuclear powerup leading to Kong’s victory. Either way, the world awaits to see which titan prevails.

Pro Godzilla: Godzilla is still king

Why Godzilla has the upper hand against the ape

By: Hayden Brown

In a pop culture saturated with action flicks, it takes a big name to leave an impact. In the early 2000s, the solution was the “versus” movie, which pitted two popular franchise characters up against one another to see who would win in a vicious battle to the death. 

Starting with “Freddy vs Jason” (2003) and “AVP: Alien vs Predator” (2004) in the early 2000s and extending all the way to the 2010s with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), the craze was everywhere. To subvert audience expectations, studios sided with the underdog to make for a much more surprising story. The Springwood Slasher should have no problem wiping the floor with the Crystal Lake Killer, but Jason took the victory. Even the Dark Knight was able to take down the Man of Steel with the aid of kryptonite weaponry.

So if I’m arguing for Godzilla, then why am I making a point that the underdogs tend to win? Taking into consideration how forumleic the “versus” movie has become, wouldn’t it make sense to flip the trope on its head rather than follow through with it again? Maybe the fight between our radioactive lizard and our enormous ape isn’t as fair as the filmmakers would have us believe. 

“Godzilla v Kong” (2021) will officially be the fourth movie in Legendary’s extensive MonsterVerse and the third of which to feature Godzilla himself, who made his feature debut in 2014 as the star. 

His arc in the films has been simple: to dominate any Titan that comes his way. We’ve seen him annihilate King Ghidorah, MUTO and Rodan in fierce combat and be crowned “King of the Monsters” while Kong has yet to face a Titan himself. The chances of Kong taking down the toughest Titan there is in his first match are unbelievably slim.

Godzilla’s atomic breath and nuclear regeneration will remain his greatest assets in the fight against Kong. Kong finds his strength in close combat and remains entirely vulnerable to ranged attacks. If Godzilla can keep Kong at a distance and weaken him with his atomic breath, I think Godzilla can take down the ape with ease.

Godzilla may also be hiding a few tricks up his sleeves for the final showdown. From his spiral heat ray in his fight with Mechagodzilla II from the original films, to his atomic rays and body manipulation in “Shin Godzilla” (2016), Godzilla may be able to pull out a new trick and catch the monkey off guard. Taking on a new form and adapting during the fight with Kong may throw off the ape’s primal instincts and leave him powerless to Godzilla’s new skin.

Even though there are endless possibilities for how these two Titans will fare in their first fight on the big screen since 1963, one thing is for certain: there can only be one King of the Monsters. 

COMMON GROUND

• King Kong thrives in short-range battles

• Godzilla has the range advantage

• Nuclear factors will play a large role in the fight