Godzilla vs. Kong

The MonsterVerse continues, its most recent entry as of publishing. The previous films in the series have all built up to this point, having established both Godzilla and Kong in their own separate but connected films. Now it's time for the showdown, Godzilla vs. Kong. It's not the most creative name, but it follows the pattern of many of the Toho films so who can really blame them. This one is directed by Adam Wingard, and Millie Bobby Brown returns to her major role from the previous films in the series. Alongside her, we've got starring roles for Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, and Brian Tyree Henry

There's really nothing to write about as far as production or behind the scenes stuff goes: the movie was planned out in advance and was produced. It's about a giant lizard creature fighting a giant monkey creature. Let's check it out.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- We see Kong waking up in his jungle paradise. He seems peaceful and happy, and a small girl named Jua comes to him with an offering: a cute little Kong doll. He greets her before launching a tree into the barrier surrounding him, revealing the idyllic setting to be an illusion.

- Dr. Ilene Andrews reveals that Kong is being kept here against his will to keep him safe from Godzilla, as both are Alpha Titans and There Can Be Only One. Sorry, wrong series. That'll be the next blog.

- In Florida, Godzilla attacks the headquarters of the company Apex Cybernetics. This is strange considering that Godzilla's whole deal seems to be living in relative harmony with humankind.

- Conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes is tracked down by Madison from the previous film as someone who clearly has some insight into what's making Godzilla so pissed off at Apex. He works there (as a mole, essentially), so has some reach.

- A scientist convinces Ilene to let him use Kong to prove his Hollow Earth theory correct once and for all, shipping him to Antarctica to use a wormhole into the Hollow Earth with Kong as a key/guide/protector.

- On the journey, Ilene is proven correct when Godzilla attacks Kong and there's an awesome fight sequence that ends in a stalemate when depth charges are dropped on them while they fight in the ocean.

- After arriving in Antarctica, the Hollow Earth theory is proven right for the 2nd time in this series and Kong and his human friends journey to the center of the Earth where they are attacked by horrible creatures. Kong does, in fact, protect them and does battle with many strange beasts.

- Inside Apex Cybernetics, Madison and Bernie discover the secret Apex is hiding: a giant robot modeled after Godzilla: a MechaGodzilla designed to kill Godzilla (and potentially Kong and any other Titans).

- Kong finds an ancient axe weapon apparently used by his species in their battles, and the Apex executive on the mission to the Hollow Earth takes a sample of the energy as a much needed power source for their MechaGodzilla project. She threatens Kong's friend in the process and makes an enemy of Kong just as more creatures invade.

- As the humans try to escape the situation, Godzilla launches his Atomic Breath into the portal where Kong is located as a challenge. The Apex executive orders her people to shoot at Kong to try to escape. This goes exceptionally poorly, as Kong simply crushes them inside their vehicle before heading to Hong Kong to fight Godzilla with his newfound axe.

- The battle in Hong Kong has two primary rounds, the first ending with a Kong victory before Godzilla rallies and nearly kills Kong. MechaGodzilla appears before Godzilla can finish Kong off for good, now powered by the power source found in the Hollow Earth which is sufficient to bring it to 100% for the first time in its existence.

- With Godzilla being beaten badly by MechaGodzilla, Kong's human allies decide to help him (and Godzilla, and themselves) by reviving him. The plan ultimately works, allowing Kong to join the fight against MechaGodzilla.

- With Kong and Godzilla teaming up, MechaGodzilla is eventually defeated. The two remaining Alphas make peace, Kong going to rule the Hollow Earth while Godzilla remains on the surface world. End film.

Kaiju Notes 

- Kong is bigger than he was in his previous appearance, apparently being sized up to match size with Godzilla. THIS IS STUPID AND UNNECESSARY. It's too late now, but Kong being smaller than Godzilla just makes his scrappy underdog-ness more appealing. We all knew he wasn't really going to win anyway, so it would be more impressive if he got the small victories he did while remaining much smaller than his opponent. It's so lame to try to make them the same size when Kong's unique advantage should be intelligence and ingenuity, not bigger muscles. They do utilize some of the same elements I would in making Kong able to stand against Godzilla: the ability to make/use weapons and opposable thumbs, for instance, but making him the same size as Godzilla makes his ultimate defeat more disappointing because he was never fighting from a point of any real disadvantage,

- Kong's characterization is kind of funny as hell. He is very loyal and friendly to his friends. He does not give a fuck about anyone else. When he kills the Apex woman, he looks inside the vehicle for his friends and upon finding none of them just crushes the entire thing like he was throwing away rotten fruit. It's brutal, but effective. Godzilla doesn't have much human interaction in this film, but comparing his King of the Monsters personality to Kong's in this film makes Godzilla seem like a fluffy bunny who loves snuggling by contrast. And he is definitively not friendly.

- MechaGodzilla is... mecha. It's a design that is very 21st century, making the robot a lattice-work of mechanical parts rather than the sleek but boxy designs of robots in the mid-20th century. It's not a bad design and likely more accurate to what a real life MechaGodzilla would look like, but it lacks the character of the older MechaG designs and looks a bit overdone. MechaGodzilla's characterization, however, helps set the tone. MechaGodzilla is a monster among monsters, being almost completely brutal and lacking the boastfulness of either of the organic kaiju. It focuses on murder first and foremost and is a delight to watch (even if you want it to lose).  MechaGodzilla acts almost exactly how some audiences want every fighter in fiction to: completely focused on the win and wasting minimal time with anything other than doing bigger and more damage. Exactly how a robot should fight, I think.

Okay, so full disclosure: I spent a long time trying to figure out what to say about this one. I just... couldn't think of much. Unlike the previous and absolutely awesome Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this one lacks any real metaphor or ideas behind it besides the clash of titans. This isn't an inherently bad thing, but I can  only say that so many times before I run out of ways to say it.

The fights are pretty badass in this one. The first confrontation between Godzilla and Kong, on the battleship in the middle of ocean, is my personal favorite because it's the perfect combination of spectacular and spectacle. It also does a fine job in beginning to establish the two creatures' strengths and weaknesses: Godzilla's advantage at the sea but Kong's resourcefulness. As a setup to a longer confrontation later in the movie, it's an excellent start. The bad news is: as touched on above, the movie doesn't really deliver on that. Besides their first battle, every other match between the two ultimately narrows down to who hits harder or can take a larger beating. The battles are still entertaining, but they don't really deliver on the potential of either the two kaiju involved or the promise of the first encounter.

One last thing I do want to touch on is a similar point to the one made in the most recent post: Godzilla is actually kind of a cuddly bunny. Kong gives absolutely no fucks about anyone who's not explicitly his friend and murders several people (and creatures) with zero hesitation. MechaGodzilla does as well, though it is at least an unfeeling robot whereas Kong is shown to have very deep emotions. Godzilla, on the other hand, kills nothing at all in this entire movie. He does attack Kong first, this can't be denied, and it's not as though he doesn't try to drown him in their first conflict, but he genuinely seems way more chill and passive outside of wanting Kong and everyone else to stay of his way as the Alpha Titan. Though Kong does nearly die/is left dying in their final battle, Godzilla still doesn't finish him off when he easily could. He asserts dominance and then walks away. It's just extremely funny to me that the most inhuman of all the kaiju (Kong is an ape and MechaGodzilla was made by humans) seems to be the most human, if genteelness and mercy are considered human traits.

Godzilla vs. Kong is an entertaining time, but lacks meat on the its bones. It has a lot to show, but very little to say. If you are looking for a show, you could certainly do a lot worse than this one. The fights are entertaining, Kong is an endearing main character, and Godzilla stays looking like a boss. But if you need a film with something on its mind besides seeing big monkee and big leezard, this isn't the one. It does, however, deliver exactly what it says on the tin: Godzilla fights Kong.

Next (and final): Monster Hunter!

Also, as a bonus Christmas spirit addition: check out this shirt that I really received as a pre-Christmas gift!

King Kong (1933)

It simply didn't feel right to make an entire blog (and year) devoted to giant monster movies without including a King Kong movie. And rather than slog through the 3 hour epic that is Peter Jackson's rendition, which I've seen before and didn't care about at all, I figured why not start with the first. Having never seen it before, it's completing yet another piece of the "movie history" puzzle while allowing me to indulge in the true spirit of 2022: Kaiju.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Director Carl Denham needs a leading lady for his new, mysterious film. Finding young Ann Darrow, he casts her and they head off to his shooting location on a boat across the world.

- Eventually revealed to be headed toward Skull Island, the home of the legend Kong, nobody truly understands what awaits them there.

- Upon arrival, the crew finds the natives of the island conducting a ritual to deliver one of the women as the bride of Kong. This is interrupted by the leader wishing to trade several of the island's women for the "golden" Ann.

- Upon being refused, the native people of Skull Island kidnap Ann from the ship and allow Kong to take her as his apparent bride.

- Hoping to recover Ann, the entire crew of the ship outside of Carl and her love interest Jack die while being attacked by the giant creatures of Skull Island.

- Beating several more creatures which want Ann for themselves, Kong protects Ann until Jack manages to finally abscond with her.

- Carl decides to capture Kong with a gas bomb, taking him to exhibit in New York City.

- You know this story. It goes very poorly.

Kaiju Notes

- King Kong is an interesting example of a kaiju looking both really good and really bad. He is, clearly, an effect of some kind. But it's actually a pretty good, expressive effect. Significantly better than Toho's King Kong, and 25 years before they used their suit in one of their own movies.

- The other beasts of Skull Island, including badass dinosaurs, giant arachnids, and angry lizard creatures, suffer from the same problem as Kong. They look pretty good in some shots while being terrible in others, but it's also 1933 so I'm not sure what one can expect. The deaths of several men while in the grasp of horrible creatures is good enough for me to confirm the effects work is not 21st century standard but hella good nonetheless.

- Kong absolutely destroys the jaw of a T-Rex when it attacks Ann. While a bit less mobile than suitmation, the fight is pretty brutal and effective, really showing off the pretty advanced effects at play here.

Kong is perhaps the most explicitly ferocious beast we've yet come across on this journey. Besides literally smashing the jaw of a dinosaur and other kills, Kong also specifically targets humans when they get in his way. After Ann escapes, he rampages through the Skull Island village while literally grabbing humans and eating them and/or tearing them in half alongside smashing their puny bodies. At one point he steps on someone in an attempt to kill them and when they keep moving he steps on them again but this time focused on their head. Kong is a real fucking monster. Even Godzilla, who has previously targeted unarmed humans on purpose, has never looked at any particular one and tried to kill them twice. His lack of ripping them in half may be due to his short arms, however.

The portrayal of the natives of Skull Island is horrendously racist, which isn't terribly surprising for a movies from the 1930's. But I was pleasantly surprised that the actors were not in brown and/or blackface to portray them. There is also an Asian man on the ship who is played by an Asian actor, which was immediately a big relief for me. This is obviously a tremendously low standard and we're not giving it bonus points for being slightly less racist than other films of its time, but it's at least worth acknowledging.

The ending, where Kong escapes, grabs Ann, and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building is surprisingly brief. They steal Kong from Skull Island at about the 80% mark of the movie, and it's a quick 15 minutes from landing in New York City to Kong falling from the skyscraper. This is primarily a good thing, despite being the most well-known part of the movie, because the time on Skull Island is the best part of the movie and it's not close. Not necessarily watching Kong rip apart the native people, though yes that too, but the encounters with dinosaurs and other pissed off giant animals is pretty rad. In a movie about giant monsters doing giant monster things, the movie spends a significant portion of its runtime focused on the giant monsters. Weird concept for some of the movies we've seen, but turns out it pays off.

One would think this movie is really about something, but that's part of the joy: it's really not. Commonly listed as a horror movie, King Kong holds up relatively well as both a horror movie and the effects required, despite being nearly a hundred years old at this point. It is a testament to the appeal of practical effects. Some of the fight sequences with the still motion effects took literal weeks to complete, but it looks infinitely better than "more advanced" effects from the late 90's or early 2000's because it's a real object interacting with other real objects. Even Kong's often goofy expressions are more appealing because of the undeniable substance of the model used.

The transition from here to Gojira seems a bit obvious to me. King Kong is not particularly large, comparatively, but the idea of a giant beast rampaging in (and out of) a city who is eventually brought down isn't a hard line to draw. While Toho added quite a bit more metaphor to their first kaiju film, it's important to note that Gojira was also one of the first tokusatsu movies as well as kaiju. Meaning "special effects," Gojira essentially created two entire genres after being inspired by King Kong. While the subject of a giant monster is clear, the focus on special effects is also a line which can be drawn directly from King Kong, but also unique because the Japanese method of bringing the effects to life was equally innovative and substantial. While the suits they use are not always stellar (looking at you, Toho King Kong), they also create a sense of actual weight that King Kong couldn't fully replicate: the swings and punches being models hitting models rather than people in suits smashing into other people in suits.

Essentially, King Kong is the grandparent of every movie this blog is about so it seemed only fitting to include it on the list. I can see the argument that it is not actually a Kaiju movie, but I'm unconvinced. More on that subject later. Regardless of whether it is or is not a kaiju flick, it's undeniable that the genre essentially started here, and I can see why: it's pretty damn good. I prefer the original Gojira, for my tastes, but King Kong is definitely a movie worth seeing for yourself if for no other reason than the historic place it holds in cinema history.

Next: Daimajin!

King Kong Escapes

Today we watch the 1967 classic (?) King Kong Escapes, another kiaju movie co-produced by Toho and Rankin/Bass that once again allows the innovators over at Toho to take a crack at a King Kong movie. As can be expected by now, Ishirō Honda directs and Haruo Nakajima is the main (monster) character: King Kong. Like the previous movie we talked about, Hiroshi Sekita plays the antagonist monsters versus the King Kong that escapes.

I am actually really excited to see this movie because I have owned it for years now but am only watching it for the first time now. Part of the intent of this entire Kaiju '22 project was to finally watch all of the giant monsters movies I owned by hadn't seen (and rewatch the ones I had). This is a known personality flaw of mine, in that I own at least 20 movies I have never seen. I am working on it! Let's talk about King Kong Escapes now instead of my inadequacies.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A submarine crew unexpectedly makes an emergency stop on Mondo Island, apparently the place to find the one and only King Kong. The nurse onboard finds this unlikely, as Kong is but a myth.

- Elsewhere, a mad scientist named Dr. Who has built Mechani-Kong under the orders and financial help of a country with plans for world domination by using the robot to mine Element X.

- Despite the promises that the robot is as good as the real deal King Kong, its first mining endeavor goes poorly when the robots circuits are shorted by the powerful radiation given off by Element X.

- On Mondo Island, the nurse is chased by dinosaur-like Gorosaurus before being saved by King Kong. After the fight, he admires her before reluctantly letting her go. Gorosaurus revives and they continue their epic duel. He also saves the escaping submarine crew from a sea serpent.

- Kong does follow the crew to their submarine and begin to shake it, but the nurse he is infatuated with persuades him to let them go.

- The mad Dr. Who decides that in order to continue his mission to provide his benefactors with the world supply of Element X he needs the real King Kong. The gas King Kong and kidnap him. The submarine crew gets involved in the situation and ends up being taken by Dr. Who's minions as well.

- A strobe light is apparently the secret to controlling King Kong, and Dr. Who is ready to make Kong do his bidding/digging.

- After some initial success, King Kong begins to resist Dr. Who's demands. He is imprisoned again as we shift to the submarine crew and their adventures against the mad scientist.

- As things progress, King Kong escapes. Mechani-Kong is sent to capture him. 

- After making nice with the representative of the country funding Dr. Who's endeavors, she allows them to escape from Who's clutches just in time for a showdown between King and Mechani-Kong in Tokyo.

- King Kong wins, which is not surprising because Mechani-Kong has been established as kind of trash since his first appearance.

- After defeating his robot double, King Kong also destroys Dr. Who's ship as he tries to escape, ending the menace of Dr. Who once and for all.

- King Kong swims away, apparently having "had enough of what we call civilization." End.

Kaiju Notes

- The King Kong suit remains quite bad, though I think they have improved it since it's last appearance. The eyes are still awful and the snout and chest are rubbery.

- Gorosaurus, on the other hand, actually looks pretty good. It's not a complex look by any means, but it's a convincing facsimile of a dinosaur creature and doesn't share the rubbery-ness of Kong. Also I like his little dino tongue and dino claws.

- Mechani-Kong is awesome. What a look, what a boy. His little belt of bombs is great, as well as his always chipper (yet somehow blank) expression.

- Kong throwing a giant rock onto the sea serpent while it chases the submarine crew is one of my favorite shots of all of these movies so far. Somehow I entirely saw it coming because it was telegraphed (like everything in these films) but was also surprised when giant rock met serpent skull. Hilarious.

- King Kong's electricity powers don't come into play here, and he and Mechani-Kong have a traditional punch fight.

- Mechani-Kong's only real ability in a fight appears to be the strobe light on his head which allows him to disorient/control King. It is quickly shot by the humans and destroyed, mattering for all of 60 seconds.

- The fight between the two apes is underwhelming, to say the least. They essentially just climb a tower before King knocks Mechani-Kong off and he explodes into robot bits. The murder of Dr. Who is more exciting, honestly.

First thing: some minor direction notes. With Ebirah, Horror of the Deep being directed by someone who is not Ishirō Honda I paid some attention to the shots made to show the sheer scale of the monsters versus the humans in the film. With Honda back at the helm these are less frequent but there was at least one shot of this, which seems like perhaps a new technique he might have picked up either over time or from the previous director. I am a fan. It really does help to make the kaiju seem like both parts of the world and disconnected from it, too large to notice us and too powerful to care if they do. The death of Dr. Who is also bloodier than we are used to, the only scene before this I can remember showing anymore than a spot of blood being the ripped apart rabbit in Frankenstein Conquers the World. Adding to some of the added realism/gruesomeness, Gorosaurus foams at the mouth as King Kong breaks his jaw by pulling it apart. While the effect itself appears to just be suds from dishwashing soap put into a rubber suit, it is the closest we've gotten thus far to demonstrating how much damage these monsters really do to each other.

I have many questions about Dr. Who. Firstly, after kidnapping King Kong and starting his mind control mining operation he admits that real Kong is way better than Mechani-Kong, so one has to question why he made so many high promises if he knew this? In his very first scene he insists that Mechani-Kong is a as good or better than King, but is quick to change his mind once that plan immediately falls apart. And once King Kong escapes from his lair, why does he bother sending Mechani-Kong to stop him, considering that every comparison between the two has revealed that King Kong is way better in every way. If not for the nurse King is interested in protecting, Mechani-Kong would have been destroyed almost immediately. And given all of this information, some of which Dr. Who had to have known before the films start, why wasn't this the original plan? It's probably way cheaper to kidnap a living ape than build an advanced robot version. The commander of the submarine, who is familiar with the mad scientist, says at one point that Dr. Who would "steal Niagara Falls for a drink of water" so apparently this is a known trait of his. He does wear a cape, so it can't be said he doesn't have a touch of the dramatic.

Overall, this film is underwhelming. The human element of this story is the most interesting bit, but that's not a good thing. The showdown at the end is defined by a struggle by both Kongs for the human nurse, and even the decisive moment of Mechani-Kong falling off the tower is decided by the mysterious country representative pulling some wires which causes Mechani-Kong to no longer function properly. She dies for her trouble in a manner much more interesting than the giant robot. It's a strange choice that these movies often make, giving the human facets more attention in a movie presumably about giant monsters punching each other. I understand this is probably a budgetary restraint, but it doesn't make the movie more interesting to watch to know what held it back from being what the creators probably wanted. That can make an interesting conversation about particular films and even movie-making in general, but if it doesn't translate onto the screen it is ultimately a miss. Just like this movie!

Next: Son of Godzilla!

King Kong vs. Godzilla

It's time for our first proper versus movie! It's even in the title. While I don't always do this, let's talk about the background of this one. It was originally supposed to be an American movie about King Kong fighting Frankenstein (or Prometheus as he was going to be called) but no one wanted to make it in the US. Those producers are all fools. But eventually it became what it is now: the most famous Japanese kaiju against the most famous American kaiju. Directed by Ishirō Honda with Godzilla primarily played by Haruo Nakajima and King Kong played by Shoichi Hirose, that pedigree of director and cast definitely tells us that this is as much a Toho production as anything else we've seen thus far.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- The human element of the story centers around a pharmaceutical company run by a buffoon, hoping to use the "Demon God" of (fictional) Faro Island to advertise.

- In the meantime, Godzilla wakes up from his burial under snow and ice and is attacked immediately by the military.

- A giant squidlike creature attacks the native people of Faro Island and King Kong saves them. They sing his praises and he goes back to sleep before he can turn his attention to the humans.

- News of King Kong is published and it's a big deal for our pharmaceutical company. Immediately, talk begins of whether King Kong or Godzilla is stronger.

- The eventually meet and Godzilla appears to win the first match after setting Kong on fire, both simply walking away. It's a pretty dreadful showdown consisting of a couple of Atomic Breath volleys and King Kong throwing (and missing) with a few rocks.

- Attempting to kill Godzilla twice fails despite the G-Man falling for both traps. He's just darn tough.

- In an allusion to the original King Kong, Kong kidnaps a woman and climbs to the top of the Diet Building in Tokyo.

- Using gas from Faro Island and the music which lulls him to sleep, King Kong is knocked unconscious and captured once more by humans.

- Hoping the two will kill each other, King Kong is airdropped to fight Godzilla on Mount Fuji.

- After falling underwater and continuing/finishing their fight, Kong is the only one to surface and swims off, heading back home.

Kaiju Notes

- For the first time so far in this journey, I had a companion watching along with me. When Godzilla first emerges she said it "looks like Godzilla is coming back from McDonald's, holding ice creams." BRUH THEY WERE HIS CLAWS

- Godzila's first appearance in color: his atomic breath still makes his spines glow but this time it's blue. As discussed in Gojira, I love this effect. The blue is a cool choice, but the Atomic Breath itself is a bit underwhelming, it still lacks substance.

- Godzilla retains a lot of the mobility from Raids Again, but the suit seems to be different. A different (less threatening) face/head at the least. The tail is also incredibly mobile now.

- The King Kong suit is hilarious because it sucks. Gorilla costumes have been being made for generations and somehow the best Gorilla suit that existed for this movie made Kong look awful. The face looks like it's made of wood.

- Both Kaiju do a lot of taunting and less fighting than I would like. It's like they have to gesture before they attack each other and it's distracting.

- King Kong is apparently empowered by electricity (the opposite of Godzilla) and in the final sequence gains electric hands and it's hilarious.

This movie actually brings up a question for me which I've pondered before: Gojira is considered the first kaiju movie but King Kong probably belongs on the list too, so should I have started there? Gojira is considered the first "kaiju" movie, but did kaiju movies begin to exist when there was a name for them or can we retroactively place movies into the kaiju category? I'm unsure. While this blog is largely focused on Godzilla movies (as the most famous kaiju and an excellent excuse to watch them all), it's also about the history of kaiju flicks. Either way, this is Kong's first crossing into the Godzilla series so let's talk about it on it's own terms before making any determinations on the future of this project.

One quick note on the music: the opening song of the movie reminds me of the classic One Winged Angel. Which is to say it's fucking awesome.

King Kong vs. Godzilla is the first movie we've seen so far which is explicitly funny. It actually seems to have very little going on for it besides being a spectacle with a humorous underlining. The jokes don't really land for me, but this is not uncommon when it comes to Japanese style humor: it often isn't for me. There is one joke of note that I enjoyed when the explorers were trying to get in good with the natives of Faro Island: giving a child a cigarette to get in good with him before his mom snatches it away and keeps it for herself.

When Godzilla awakens in this movie he is immediately attacked. Taking place in the same timeline as all of the other movies we've seen so far, the Japanese military is becoming more proactive than they initially were with giant monsters. Plans are made to kill Godzilla in a damn gas chamber, and when that fails they go for deterrence using 1 millions volts of electricity. The downside of this plan, which initially works, is that Kong grows stronger as he is shocked, which only makes the fighting more dangerous for everyone involved and nearby. There could be a message in here about the consequences of being too focused on a singular problem and creating an equal one instead, but it's not a strong theme of this script. The electrical powers of King Kong eventually grow to the point where a thunderstorm near the end of the movie gives him electric fists which he uses to finally equalize the fight between him and G.

Quite honestly, this movie has very little going on besides good old fashioned giant monsters fighting. Kong shoves a tree down Godzilla's throat at one point and Godzilla does a jump kick. This is more professional wrestling than allegory of the horrors of war or whatever, and sometimes isn't that just what you need? There are, however, a few things to note in conclusion. When the the monsters fall into the water King Kong is the only one seen swimming away, heavily implying he was the victor after losing two previous battle (before having electric hands). This makes it, to my knowledge so far, the only time Godzilla has truly lost a battle in any movie, but especially one with his name in it. Obviously many of the movies revolve around him losing initial skirmishes but rallying and taking down his foe, but this works almost exactly the opposite: Godzilla soundly defeats King Kong on two separate occasions before Kong is aided by a lightning strike. Worse still, Godzilla seems to lose this battle after being taken underwater. While not really expanded upon until later, Godzilla should have an advantage in the water. He's amphibious and takes refuge in the ocean, so taking a fight with Godzilla underwater usually means you get your ass kicked. But this is an early movie in the series so the rules haven't been established quite yet.

Ultimately, King Kong vs. Godzilla is dumb as hell and I like it a lot because it knows what it is and embraces it fully. While I might prefer my kaiju movies with a little more heart, sometimes you just want to see big leezard fite big monkee and the final third of this one gives you exactly that.

Next: Mothra vs. Godzilla!