What’s A King to a God? (Godzilla vs Kong.)

WARNING: this review contains spoilers

AJ Rotkis, Staff Writer

With they hype for this movie at its peak when the first trailer came out, many fans have been anticipating which of the giant monsters would come out on top. The movie has a definite winner, even if neither one of them die, but some people are upset over how it happened.

The movie opens with Kong on his home of Skull Island, he is doing his normal daily routine until he throws a tree at the sky, which turns out isn’t a sky, it’s a holding facility for him. The storm around Skull Island has grown so massive it engulfed the entire island and killed all of the native people except one, a deaf girl named Jia, who has a connection with Kong. It then cuts to show Bernie, a superstitious character, trying to uncover secrets about the corporation Apex Cybernetics. His search is cut off when Godzilla seemingly attacks the facility for no reason, but we soon find out that he was looking for something, when he destroys a vault that has a piece of technology emitting an eerie noise.

The main purpose of the film is revealed after this attack when Apex CEO, Walter Simmons, and chief scientist Ren Serizawa visit Dr Nathaniel Lind about his studies on the hollow earth. They show him that his theory about the earth being completely hollow and having a full ecosystem is true, and that there is a power source that could help humanity for years to come is down there. He is recruited to go on a mission to find this power and bring it back, but he can’t do it alone.

It is believed that Kong might know the way to the hollow earth, so they chain him to a boat to go to the entrance sight of the hollow earth in Antarctica. This trip is cut short when Godzilla attacks, sensing Kong’s presence, and they get into a brawl. This fight is one sided at first, as Kong is still chained to the boat, but when released by Dr Lind, he is able to jump on the different boats that are with them. He comes face to face with Godzilla on an aircraft carrier, and throws the first punch. After this they fall into the water and it’s a pretty easy win for Godzilla, as he leaves Kong gasping for air, and when he realizes he won he swims off.

On the other side of the planet, Bernie teams up with two teenagers, Madison and Josh, to sneak into the remains of the Apex Facility. They travel to sublevel 33 and are then transported across the world through some sort of super fast travel technology. The need for the power source is realized, when they are transported to what Bernie calls a sacrifice pit, in which Apex uses skullcrawlers to test out their new creation: MechaGodzilla. This creation is the reason Godzilla attacked –  because the humans are trying to replace him.

They then decide to fly Kong to Antarctica, and when he realizes where they are he runs into the hollow earth, with the humans not far behind. Not long after they get there they are attacked by a flying creature, who Kong defeats, then they arrive at the area of the power source. With Kong’s new axe, made from the spine of an ancestor of Godzilla, he realizes he needs to put it into the ground. When he does this it lights the surrounding area and the humans are able to get a piece of the power source and transport it to Apex. As they are trying to leave, Godzilla drills a hole into the hollow earth using his atomic breath and challenges Kong again. This fight is in Hong Kong, and is more even this time. After a short fight Kong brings his axe, which is charged by Godzilla’s atomic breath, down onto the head of Godzilla, and it seems that this fight is over and that Kong won. This is not the case as Godzilla gets up and continues his mission to try and find where MechaGodzilla is. Kong jumps onto Godzilla, and it seems like Godzilla is especially mad as he holds nothing back in fighting Kong, almost killing him and forcing him to submit.

The fight between MechaGodzilla and Godzilla happens in the aftermath of Kong and Godzilla’s final fight. This fight is one sided as the Mecha was made to be superior to Godzilla, and Godzilla was already tired from his fight with Kong. The humans have to jumpstart Kong’s heart as he is dying from his fight with Godzilla, and when they do he joins the fight just as MechaGodzilla is about to kill Godzilla. The two titans team up to defeat the robotic monster, and Godzilla uses his atomic breath to charge up Kong’s axe. Kong uses this charge to cut off MechaGodzilla’s arms and then jumps on it to rip his head off, roaring in victory. When Godzilla seems to want to have another fight with Kong, he realizes he would’ve died if not for the giant ape, and in a sign of silent respect swims off into the ocean, and Kong goes back to the hollow earth.